Leader-employee ties vitalise firms like a honeybee pollinates plants

WE ALL know how true this statement was during our school and college years. Yet somehow when we transition to positions of leadership in the workplace, we rely on command and control relationships to get the job done.

There is nothing wrong with that. That’s what an average “1x” leader does on a daily basis. But that’s not what organisations require in this day and age. 

According to CEB (Corporate Executive Board, a best-practice insight and technology company), organisations need a new type of high performer – an “enterprise contributor”. An enterprise contributor is like a bee, pollinating the business with ideas, knowledge and experience to drive performance, managing matrix and collaborative organisation, and making valuable connections to help get work done faster and more effectively. 

High enterprise contribution can increase both profits and revenues at an organisation by as much as 12 per cent, according to CEB.

So-called “10x” leaders know how to create this atmosphere of collaboration. It’s second nature to them. They seek to rely on positive relationships, the “R” in the SHARP model*. These 10x leaders connect with people by cultivating authenticity, positivity and kindness in creating genuine alliances that benefit everyone. They build this positive relationship on two pillars: psychological safety and authenticity.

Psychological safety means that team members can say or report anything including bad news to the boss without the fear of being chastised or punished. Not surprisingly, organisations and teams become more effective. 

Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmonson’s Edmondson’s research on how great teams work focused on hospital errors, revealing a rather interesting fact. Most effective teams made more errors than less effective teams but they made significantly fewer errors. But more important, less effective teams tended to conceal their errors, and so to the outside observer they appeared to be making fewer errors, when in fact they were making more. Because of psychological safety, real issues get reported and resolved in effective teams. 

The other important factor that creates positive relationships with your team is the intimacy of friendship. Having friendships at work means bringing deep emotional caring and authenticity to the office. 

I remember one instance during my investigation into why one of our line managers consistently outperformed his peers on employee engagement and customer-satisfaction scores. This line manager had about 100 staff reporting to him. It turned out that he was his employees’ best friend. He knew the names of each and every one of his staff members. 

He did this by doing daily rounds. He genuinely cared for his employees’ welfare. But most important, he built a friendship bond with his staff. 

If you are one of those managers who choose posturing to establish authority, lose it and seek to build a friendship bond instead. It works. 

Don’t build a Death Star based on fear that depletes employees’ energy. Rather build a hive with high-authenticity and high-positivity relationships. These honeybees energise employees. They feel engaged and always switched on. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

 

Suvit Chansrichawla is next-generation HR consultant under the brand Serendipity & Co, partner of the Curve Group in Thailand.

*SHARP model developed by ex-Harvard professor Tal Ben Shahar and his colleague Angus Ridgway, ex-McKinsey head of leadership development