Leadership Development
Developing trusted and relationally competent leaders
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Driving engagement for increased performance and top talent retention
C-Suite are highly accomplished, intelligent, experienced, skilled, and respected individuals in functional areas. It is not unusual for leaders of such high calibre to encounter friction within their team. Alignment in vision is a challenge when there are different agendas and objectives.
When egos clash, and leaders behave in a territorial manner, they can become guarded, affecting their ability and willingness to communicate with one another. This closed behavior breeds mistrust.
For the organisation to move forward, these unhealthy C-Suite dynamics need to be addressed. Companies today cannot afford to have leaders who have strong self-interest and a C-Suite team that is not collaborating synergistically.
The Straits Times recently featured an article identifying self-awareness as a key trait lacking in CEOs who were recently forced to relinquish their leadership positions (Elon Musk who stepped down as Chairman of Tesla and Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber).
“There is a strong positive correlation between self-awareness of leaders, their authentic behaviours and, consequently, their leadership effectiveness”, Straits Times says.
The Straits Times highlights self-awareness as the “meta-skill of the 21st century”, according to leadership coach Dr Tasha Ulrich. “The qualities most critical for success in today's world—things like emotional intelligence, empathy, influence, persuasion, communication and collaboration—all stem from self-awareness. It is what makes us great team players, superior leaders and great relationship builders”.
To become cohesive and trusted team, C-Suite leaders need self-awareness, emotional intelligence and relational competencies.
A study featured at Harvard Business Review found that according to leaders around the world, the highest ranking traits of effective leaders are attributes that create a safe and trusting environment. To successfully drive engagement, lead and manage change, and have effective C-Suite teams, leaders need people skills—relational competencies.
Our Perspective
What Relational Leadership can do for your organisation
Leadership is a key contributing factor to engagement. Leaders need to take the initiative in building engagement. This is important because organisations with high engagement tend to be more profitable and are able to retain their top talent better.
3 things a leader cannot fail to do in building engagement:
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Ensure that employees feel respected and valued
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Create an atmosphere of trust
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Achieve alignment in expectations and objectives
According to Gallup, managers account for up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. When employees are disengaged and turnover among top performers is high, it has to do with leadership.
Leaders need relational traits such as humility and the ability to motivate and inspire, in order to drive engagement and retain key talent.
A disrupted economy puts an organisation’s leadership to the test. It’s not an exaggeration to say that leaders make or break the change initiative.
Harvard Business Review goes so far as to say that “Transformation journeys run out of steam when companies neglect leadership development.” Organisations need the stability good leadership brings, especially in this time of inevitable and rapid change.
Leaders must be able to to recognise and respond to the thoughts and emotions of their employees in order to gain their trust and lead them effectively through change.
During transformation projects, the focus tends to be on updating business processes, operational efficiency, and smooth integration of new technologies. However, the key to success of organisational change is people, and focus needs to shift to the people aspect of the transformation.
Employees experience anxiety, uncertainty, and discomfort in times of change. That is why organisational resistance to change is a major barrier to transformation efforts. Leaders need to engage and align people to get buy-in, but this is hindered by low trust and safety. Without trust and safety, staff are risk-averse, unwilling to try new things.
Leaders must be able to to recognise and respond to the thoughts and emotions of their employees in order to gain their trust and lead them effectively through change.
Leadership needs to be cohesive and stable to enable a high performing organisation. To steward an organisation well, the top echelons need to be trusted, nimble, inclusive, consultative, able to communicate a clear vision, and influence and manage multiple stakeholders.
The C-Suite must model the type of leadership a company desires. If they are not leading effectively, the organisation will stagnate or even decline over time.