Modern day leaders in our uncertain and volatile times will be more empathic and supportive. This video delves into why and how to move your style from overly Process leadership to becoming a Relational Leader.
Video Transcript:
That’s a good one.
How do you go from task and process leadership to relationship leadership? So how do you make that leap, which is quite a leap?
It’s really breaking from the tradition of the last few hundred years of being a top down, control and directive, task leadership and process leadership; to I think what’s being really asked of leaders in our modern era, which is the move to relational leadership. So it’s purpose-driven. It’s people driven. It’s genuine caring for people both at work and outside of work. It’s caring about community building as well.
So one tip that we give leaders when we do leadership development work is that it’s all about building rituals.
And one example of that, we have many really depending on your culture, but one simple example is to build into your team meetings, an emotional check-in.
So what do I mean by that? I mean that, in meetings mostly we’re following agendas. We’re talking about results and metrics. They’re all very left brain rational. So on the other side, to be more balanced and to build this trust-building capability, it’s simply stopping. It can be at the beginning of the project in the middle, at the end, or when things are going haywire… and just going around the room one by one and asking people, how are you feeling at the moment?
Just being totally honest. And the key, we find here as consultants is you have to banish all fixing or saving or problem solving. That can come if and when needed afterwards, but very often just being able to admit and have validated how you are actually feeling as a member of a team, builds trust and bonding and belonging. And actually psychological safety in the team because people feel respected by sharing how they really are and what they’re really going through.
So, do you do that as a leader and what do you think about that idea? Let me know.