Your organization must be more than a chart. Every successful organization is the product of designing, building, and managing all its relationships. The result will be maximum engagement, increased productivity and rewards.
What do you, as the leader, do to build relationships?
Build a Mission and Strategy
The mission outlines the organization’s purpose and provides the focus for relationships, so people can see the desired results of their collective efforts. Strategy describes the destination and path for the organization, every team and individual. Share both with everyone.
Identify, Build and Manage Relationships
Develop your organization’s relationships with clients, suppliers, and the community, and work with every manager to craft powerful relationships with those they manage. Create productive internal customer and supplier relationships. Most important, leaders must set an example by optimizing relationships across all stakeholders.
Connect Everyone to the Mission and Strategy
Share all aspects of the organization’s strategy and goals. Lead every manager to describe their department’s contribution to the mission, and clarify their strategy. Then, they can craft action plans, and you should work with each team member to realize their own contribution. Create effective conversations with each worker to help them express what they will contribute and accomplish because it’s an essential tool for effective discussions and relationships.
Describe strategic goals and milestones and how well they are accomplished. Especially, share any shortfalls. Help everyone share their roles in the strategy and how they attain them. Give individuals control of their actions and provide support from the organization.
Build Collaboration with Honest Efforts
Help people work out how they will contribute to the team. Encourage honest feedback by demonstrating how to provide and respond to both the positive and negative. Build attitudes that allow people to express emotions and ideas without fear of retaliation, even when questioning the opinions of others. Respond openly and with respect when others question you.
Make Trust the Key Ingredient for All Relationships
Trust is the basis for effective conversations and openness. It allows people to take action. Build trust by soliciting and encouraging inputs on key issues and decisions. When people respond, demonstrate that you value their input by confirming what you have heard. Credit them when their input contributes to success.
Building healthy, strong relationships across the organization creates healthy, strong organizations of positive, effective teams. Everyone wins over the long haul.
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