Conversations Matter Greatly

Today’s business world presents leadership challenges, for sure. The steady stream of emails coming at us, the overall busyness we all face, the constant pressure to do more, and for many, the number of meetings we are called to attend.

The result is that our workplaces are becoming more and more impersonal and morale suffers. In fact, a recent extensive survey reveals that 83% of those in the workplace do not feel appropriately appreciated, nor do they feel fully engaged.

This does not have to be. We can change our leadership approach, improve our organizational cultures, and help our people feel excited about their work, their careers, and our companies. This requires that we realize how important our people are, that no one is better than anyone else, that we are all teammates – and that we make the time to connect with our people, as many of them as we can.

Our internal relationships are every bit as important as are our relationships with our clients. As leaders, our people are our internal clients!

The only way to truly develop and maintain quality relationships is through one-on-one conversations, true two-way conversations.

Certainly emails, newsletters, and video conferencing are often appropriate and important. They help distribute information, but they do not help our people know that they are valued, that we care about them, and that they are important members of our teams.

We must speak with our team members and other colleagues, have true conversations!

And we must walk the halls, at least once a day if we can, and stop by and visit with our people, ask them about their work, ask what could help them, let them know that they are important members of our teams, and certainly that we want to know their ideas.

If they are at a different location, then let’s pick up the phone.

I once asked Christine LaSala what she thought were the keys to her breaking the glass ceiling in the insurance industry, one of the very largest industries there is. Chris told me that she succeeded because of the great many conversations she had every day (and also that she tried to be the most prepared person in the room at every meeting she attended).

Al Ritter’s book, The 100/0 Principle: the Secret of Great Relationships, emphasizes that to truly connect with our people, as highly effective leaders do, we must have one-on-one conversations. This is the only way.

Susan Scott’s book, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time, states that conversations are the work of a leader and that the conversation is the relationship.

One CEO I highly respect had feedback that she seemed removed from her people. She knew well that it is her people who are doing the important work of her consulting company. As she herself was traveling a great deal of the time, she knew she had to make adjustments. She committed to make meetings when in the office more efficient and effective. Meetings which typically lasted an hour became 30 minutes or less as agendas were distributed in advance, and at the meetings action steps with target dates were agreed upon, and minutes were out the following day. This freed up time for her to be with her people, asking questions and listening to understand and learn.

In addition, she committed to call her team members and other colleagues while on the road, from airports and hotel rooms. While these could not be long conversations, she knew that a short conversation is better than no conversation.

A leader should check in with each of her/his team members at least once a week.

I am sure it is no surprise that the morale in this company has significantly improved as her people realize she accepted their feedback and demonstrates how very much she values them and wants to learn their ideas. They view her as a teammate, rather than as “a boss”.

The keys to her leadership success and the others mentioned, are their humility, an essential quality of a highly effective leader, prioritizing their internal relationships, and their making the time for one-on-one conversations with their team members and other colleagues.