Leaders Never Fly Solo

Have you noticed that, as responsibilities expand, time spent as a practitioner decreases and time spent working relationships increases?  It is a natural progression.  As you begin your career, and for the first few years, your focus is 90 percent functional and 10 percent relationships.  Each step up the career ladder represents a shift as functional focus decreases and relationship focus increases.  Once you reach the coveted “c-suite” consider your focus reversed.  Your role is now 10 percent functional and 90 percent relationships.Sometimes it happens that, somewhere in the middle, people get stuck.  You might wake up one day, take stock of where you are and how long you have been there and wonder, “Why has my career stalled?”  Take some quality time to reflect on your network.  It is possible that your functional focus continues to capture time at the expense of your relationship focus.  This is an easy trap because, likely, you have progressed in your career as a result of being good at what you do.  Now it’s time to think about how you do it.

If you have ever uttered the phrase “it’s faster and easier if I just do it myself”, you may be suffering from a lack of relationship focus.  If you have avoided a challenging conversation with a colleague because you have an important task to complete, your relationship focus needs work.  If you think you have buy-in but are surprised to hear an opposing point of view from an essential team member, you missed the signals that would be picked up from a focus on the relationship.

This simple principle of relationship focus is best described by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence:  Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.  Goleman identified four basic dimensions of emotional intelligence:

• Self-awareness: the ability to recognize our own feelings,
• Self-management: the ability to manage our feelings and emotional life and avoid being captured and controlled by them,
• Social awareness: the ability to recognize the feelings of others and “walk in their shoes”, and,
• Social skill: the ability to act on and accommodate effectively the feelings of others.

To improve relationship focus in your professional life, decide you want to invest the time, learn and practice the skills and reap the rewards of being part of something bigger than you can do under your own power, no matter how smart, strong and determined you are.

My own leadership journey includes many learnings in developing relationships and relying on the contributions and the leadership of colleagues.  For example, in 2009 Tyco has successfully completed a global and operational “game-changing” sourcing initiative.  Throughout the effort many have contributed and helped meet goals, however some have gone beyond simply accepting the new reality.  Those that have gone beyond are now leading the way.  They capture the vision and expand on it, bringing their own expertise, creating the future, accepting the risk, achieving milestones well beyond original goals.  It is my honor to recognize two such leaders in this post.  Victoria Moschella is Tyco’s Senior Council for Operational Excellence, globally.  Sanjiv Parikh is Tyco’s Director of Finance for Operational Excellence, globally.

Victoria and Sanjiv define success, dedicate countless hours and, in the process, make me, the project manager, look good.  Throughout this year my shift from functional focus to relationship focus shifted a little and relationship focus has increased.  I still have my functional moments, but stopping, listening, considering and shifting to include the investment and expertise of these (and other) partners makes the work stand out as world-class.

The real benefits of the relationship focus are the amazing results:  better work products, tighter alignment and although we work hard, no one carries the burden alone.  We’re all in this together!