The four intentions behind effective relational leadership
What is relational leadership all about? My short answer is relational leadership is everything that creates a human relation between leader and employee.
If our objective is to ensure our employees realise their full potential and thereby contribute optimally to achieving the company’s targets, it is of ultimate importance that the relations contribute to a culture that supports and promotes development.
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR AFFECTS CULTURE
As leader, your behaviour not only plays a role in your human relationships with your employees. It also plays a critical role in the company culture. Culture is important to employee engagement. And employee engagement has a significant effect on results. But which culture is the right culture?
A recent study at Google showed that a critical difference between teams with a high performance level versus teams with a low performance level is the feeling of “psychological safety”. Psychological safety can be defined as a cultural norm that says it is okay that you are part of the team, no matter what your flaws and shortcomings may be. The feeling of being 100% accepted will enable you to spend your energy on developing your potential and creating results rather than hiding your weaknesses. Intuitively, it also makes sense that, if a team is to be able to realise its full potential, all strengths and weaknesses need to be brought out into the open.
A team or organisation with a high degree of psychological safety is able to use the team’s resources more efficiently, as they can assign the right person to a task without having to consider politics, hierarchy, norms, etc. These teams are also typically better at listening to each other and handling disagreements in a constructive and developing way.
Read the full article here (originally published in "Ledelse i udvikling, 4" under the name "De fire intentioner bag effektive relationsledelse"):
Want to know more?
