CEO beCause Global Consulting connects: individuals & enterprises to core purpose; across silos in organizations; with external stakeholders.
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Being successful at business has hinged on mutuality since our ancestors started to exchange and barter goods and services for things of reciprocal value. What must a leader do to create positive business exchanges? Increasingly, it demands effectively engaging stakeholders by creating and managing relationships. Flourishing businesses have evolved from transactional to relational, recognizing that interdependence among a broad spectrum of players is essential for sustainable progress with shareholder and stakeholder satisfaction.
We understand better than ever the values of team-building, consensus-building and other relational activities. Yet some leaders’ assumptions and biases about the capacities, or even the validity, of some of their stakeholders — internal and external — weakens what their company can achieve. They may still believe that status comes from fiercely protecting command and control territorial power. Yet the more inclusive your style of leadership, the more you’ll benefit. Building on the adage “two heads are better than one,” more heads are even better.
Relational engagement leadership that encourages stronger interactions among a larger number of collaborative partners increases the productivity, profitability and sustainability of your enterprise. Forward-thinking leaders understand this but often fail to execute required activities. One of the biggest pitfalls is underestimating how much energy must be expended for individuals and teams to buy into organizational change initiatives because adoption is iterative. Some senior executives believe that, after sharing their call to action, it will cascade down through all levels in a shorter time period than it will take.
As ideas and insights can come from the most unexpected sources, it’s also important to invite active participation in the ideation process. When stakeholders, regardless of rank or responsibilities, feel respected, your company will benefit from their individual and collective engagement. If people feel listened to and valued during a consultative process, they’re more likely to follow the final direction even if it isn’t exactly what they want. Conversely, even if you initiate a policy that they’re aligned with, they’re less likely to embrace it if they weren’t included in the decision-making. It’s amazing how much we all yearn to be seen, heard and validated.
Neuroscience shows that relationships are vital and that an ability to cooperate is the secret of humanity’s success. Engagement leaders connect others in the co-creation of business initiatives as that’s vital for any strategic action plan to be properly executed. Marketing executives know that stronger interactions between employees and customers have an outsized effect on company performance. So, you must foster relationships with many different types of people. Thought leaders from Confucius to Oprah teach the centrality of human relationships. Jean-Paul Sartre said “hell is other people,” but an engagement leader finds “heaven” in them!
Some folks in the C-suite come up with the “perfect” strategy and then watch it wither away because of a lack of a sense of ownership by the people who actually have to execute it. Companies need structures and processes for engagement to flourish. Management guru Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Engagement culture that appreciates and rewards connectedness gives you a distinct advantage. As diverse stakeholder boundaries now are expanding exponentially, to thrive it’s imperative to create and strengthen relationships even among those who may initially mistrust each other, or simply have never worked together.
Have you experienced the challenge of trying to urge someone at the top to recognize that the time has come to permit others to step up to the plate by opening up what they’ve always held close to the vest? Perhaps they appreciate that the reality of the moment, sometimes dire, necessitates broader input but still may feel too threatened to accept initiatives that don’t originate with them. Yet people in the formal hierarchal leadership aren’t always the drivers. Individuals at all levels of the organization may emerge with or develop the skills to be engagement leaders. So don’t worry about your “standing” in the structure of your organization, as you can become an engagement leader in your sphere of influence with vertical and horizontal impact. Only you can decide if it’s a battle worth fighting or a toxic environment you have to leave.
Whether you stay where you are or move somewhere else, to become an engagement leader you must identify and nurture others who, as change agents and bridge builders, can collaborate across boundaries influencing and negotiating with a broad range of people. Most important, you/they will learn from mistakes and apply them to improve efforts tackling complex issues, despite systemic problems. It’s a big world but it’s an inextricably interconnected one: Viruses and climate change, for example, don’t recognize national borders. Engagement leadership: strategies for a connected world. This is your chance to shine in a dark world that desperately needs light.
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