Relationships? Who needs them?

‘91% of employees say communication issues drag executives down.. a striking lack of emotional intelligence among business leaders.’      Forbes – Interact/Harris Poll  

This week, we have briefly introduced the fourth facet of what contributes to emotional intelligence – Relationship Management. We can be very self-aware and manage our emotions well. We can even have great empathy for others but if we don’t motivate or persuade, encourage others, effect change, handle discord or collaborate well, then it can all be for not a lot. Unless you’re the last person left standing on earth, you will have to encounter others and have relationships with them. Humans are meant to be social beings and as such, you’ll inevitably have some kind of relations with them. Ensuring that those connections are healthy ones will make all the difference in the world.

When coaching clients, this aspect of emotional intelligence is often the one found to be in the greatest need of development. Most people have good intentions. Once they are aware of what needs work or how others might be interpreting certain situations or behaviours, they are keen to effect change. The reality though is that many think that they have good relationships – that they communicate clearly and well, that they inspire others and are generally good at encouraging others. However, when we properly examine some of those relationships through the coaching process, we learn that things are not what they seem or what the coachees assume.

Recently I spoke at an event on the topic of ‘Harnessing Curiosity to drive your Career’ at the CFA Institute. As an experiment, I said the word ‘green’ and went round the room to ask what people’s interpretation was of the word. Some were literal in the colour (but what shade?), one thought about money, another envisaged the environment and another pictured trees. The point here being that we may think we are on the same page, but we may not be. This is true for so many of my coaching clients, whether they are working on being better leaders, looking for a promotion or managing their teams to greater efficiency and performance. All this requires effective emotional intelligence and relationship management.

‘85-90% of leadership success is linked to social and emotional intelligence’ Korn Ferry

Case Study

Client E has been a leader for a long time and has a great relationship with her team of senior leaders. They like her and respect her work ethic. She communicates well with them and they trust her enough to come to her with issues when they encounter them. Sounds wonderful!

Problem is that this is the perception that E has. However, when we asked her team members, they said that yes, they liked her and admired her work ethic. They trusted her to look after them. However, they did not feel they understood her vision, if she had one at all. They also felt that she didn’t really understand them. Although she was articulate, not many seemed to really comprehend her objectives and as such, there was a lot of confusion and duplication of work. This resulted in her micro managing her team and undermining them, however unintentional. Due to some members of her team ‘getting’ her better whilst others did not, it resulted in some in-fighting and conflict amongst team members which further reduced productivity. E’s workload increased because she had to get her team’s ‘subpar’ work done, thereby not delivering on her own objectives. The irony of it all.

The work we did was extensive but a large part of it was focused on her emotional intelligence. As we are discussing managing relationships today, I’ll break it down below with reference to E.

What is Relationship Management?

• Inspiration – having an explicit and compelling vision that resounds with others bringing about confidence, imagination and drive. Often it’s about leading by example.

In E’s case, she thought she was leading by example by working hard alongside her team. However this only works if you’re setting the right example.

• Influence – being able to persuade and interest others through respect that has been earned

E did have some of their respect but not wholly. As she was unclear with her vision and only had partial respect, she encountered more resistance to her plans than expected.

• Develop Others – showing true interest in others. Listening, encouraging & helping them learn and grow to further themselves

E had every intention of doing this and thought she was by having frequent one-on-one catchups. However, one has to actively listen to understand how to help develop these individuals. It may take time but the outcome has far more solid foundations for the future.

• Change Catalyst – people who incentivize change when needed tend to have earned the respect of those they lead.   They are able to make compelling arguments, have a clear vision, take feedback and act in collaboration with others to ensure no parties are left disenfranchised.

E wanted to enact change for her team but was unable to put forward a compelling enough argument to take everyone forward with her.

• Conflict Management – the ability to manage difficult situations without further inciting unhealthy emotions and behaviours. Conflict, if healthy, is a positive, constructive and necessary part of growth.

However managing that was hard for E because she was too busy doing others’ work and micromanaging their work, as opposed to managing her team. Simple conversations snowballed into emotional outbursts and tantrums.

• Teamwork and Collaboration – leaders should model respect, helpfulness and cooperation in this domain, which in turn inspires effective, exuberant engagement to the mutual effort. It’s also about recognizing others’ talents and contributions and helping them use those for the greater good.

E had all the best of intentions to work with her team and to a certain extent, it worked well. However, through a less effective outcome from the above points, active and enthusiastic engagement from the team was low.

A lot of hard work…

came from E and she finally saw light at the end of the tunnel after much work by her. A lot of her disappointment came from the fact that it looked like she didn’t care for and believe in the team. The opposite was true but it takes objectivity, a large dose of self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and relationship management to ensure that team turns into the high-performing executive function that it can be.

With E, we went through all six points carefully, observed, reviewed and analysed what was working and what wasn’t. It took several iterations and a lot of time & effort to achieve the results that she did. It required a lot of undoing of established thinking and actual habits. However, the endeavour was worth it. Her executive team has gone from strength to strength, and so has she.

Hopefully this very brief introduction to emotional intelligence and the 4 facets that make it up have offered you some food for thought. I cannot stress how important it is to you, your wellbeing and your relationship with others. All you have to do is listen to others talk about how p.issed off they are at work with a boss/colleague/employee/client, or how they’ve had an unhealthy row with someone at home – you’ll find that EQ (or rather a lack of) will feature very highly there.

Good luck! Go forth and be more emotionally intelligent. You’ll have a much happier, more fruitful and productive life!!!

Karen Kwong is a highly experienced executive & business coach who has worked with start-ups and social enterprises through to large established corporates (including FTSE100 companies) across a number of industries including financial services, engineering, retail and media & communications. She also advises boards on their dynamics. Added to this, she spent almost twenty years working at a senior level in fund management. She also has a Masters in Organisational Psychology. For more please see here or contact her at: info@renoc.co.uk

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