To be the Best, Invest in Relationships AND Results

Guest post from S. Chris Edmonds, greatleadershipbydan
If you had a rare diagnosis of an aggressive disease, wouldn’t you want to be treated by the best of the best doctors? If your goal was to coach an Olympic gold medal hockey team, wouldn’t you want only the best of the best players on your roster, with both precise skills and impeccable character?
  To be the best of anything is pretty impressive. To be ranked in that rarefied air means one has invested and IS investing time, energy, and passion into that avenue.
  Speaker, author, and business expert Tamara McCleary
is ranked as the number one woman in Marketing Technology. It’s not just her expertise in AI, blockchain, social media, and the Internet of things that makes her such an effective influencer. It is her dedication to creating and maintaining relationships, online and in real life, every day, that boosts her influence.

Tamara has written in the past that “engagement is key.” She builds real relationships with her followers and who she follows. She monitors reliable data to track how well she is engaging every day with her online community.
  She invests the time, energy, and passion because she legitimately cares about others. Members of her online and offline communities matter to her, deeply. She’s constantly checking to see whether her plans, decisions, and actions build relationships effectively NOW – and she refines those actions if they don’t.
  Let’s apply Tamara’s practices – and positive results – to influencing others in the workplace.
  First, invest the time. Pay attention to more than just results. Connect with people at all levels in your organization every day. Learn their names and their passions. Learn what gets in their way of cooperative teamwork and top performance. Act to reduce those frustrations.
  Second, get the data. Don’t just monitor performance metrics – monitor data that indicates how happy employees are working in your organization. You have some reliable data, like turnover, exit interviews, service levels, and more. You may need to measure other satisfaction metrics, like the degree of trust, the frequency of proactive problem solving, etc.
  Third, evaluate the progress of employee engagement, service, and results. As you embrace proactive relationship management, pay close attention to my “big three” – engagement, service, and results. If you’re not seeing upticks in these after four weeks, do what Tamara does. Refine your approaches, then monitor the impact. Keep those practices that help.
  I post the effective approaches of great bosses daily on my social media platforms. These quotes generate frequent shares as well as frequent comments. And, a number of those comments are not complimentary of respondent’s current bosses! People boldly state, “My boss doesn’t do this – I wish he did!” and “I’ve never had a boss that did this! I don’t believe great bosses actually exist!”
  To be an effective, inspiring leader today requires a variety of approaches – no one “size” fits every colleague or team member. Don’t miss the opportunity boost employee engagement, service, and results by focusing on positive relationships daily.
  S. Chris Edmonds is a sought-after speaker, author, and executive consultant.
After a 15-year career leading successful teams, Chris founded his consulting company, The Purposeful Culture Group, in 1990.