Quality of workplace interactions can have a significant impact on employee and organisational performance, writes Mark Busine
In the four decades leading up to 2010, perhaps the most significant change in the corporate landscape was the transition from an economic society based on physical and tangible assets, such as plants and equipment, to one based on intangible assets, including customer relationships, brand, ideas and innovation. It is now estimated that intangible assets account for more than 80 per cent of an organisation’s value, and knowledge workers more than 40 per cent of the workforce.
In recent years, McKinsey and Co. has explored the relationship between workplace interactions and the productivity of knowledge workers, believing that the key to improving knowledge worker productivity lies in organisations’ ability to identify and address the barriers workers face in their daily interactions.
“The ability to effectively manage interactions is at the heart of successful leadership”
While these barriers are important, this view overlooks a significant reality: leaders spend a significant portion of their time engaged in interactions, and the quality of these interactions, including informal discussions, has a significant impact on the performance and productivity of both the individuals and the organisation.
If organisations were able to quantify the financial impact of poor conversations, they would quickly conclude that improving the quality of workplace interactions must be a priority for both the organisation and individual leaders. Indeed, one might conclude that the ability to effectively manage interactions is at the heart of successful leadership.
Common interaction traps
There are seven common interaction traps that inhibit leader, team and organisational effectiveness.
- Going straight to fixing the problem: Leaders, who are often been rewarded and promoted for getting things done and fixing problems, can jump too quickly to presenting the solution. In doing so, they fail to understand the context of a situation and miss opportunities to include all parties.
- (Mistakenly) believing one size fits all: Over time, people develop a preferred style and/or approach to interactions. In their comfort level with how they prefer to do things, they can be oblivious to the impact their approach has in certain situations and on certain individuals.
- Avoiding the tough issues: Many leaders struggle to address the tough issues, in particular, performance issues. They lack the skills and insight to diffuse uncomfortable situations and/or tackle sensitive topics, meaning issues can go unresolved, leading to even greater tension and more serious problems.
- Inconsistently applying skills: Leaders often adopt a different approach when confronted with different situations and contexts. Consequently, they may readily apply skills to some interactions while not applying them to others – an inconsistency that can breed confusion and feed a perception that the leader is ineffective.
- Influencing through the facts only: Too often, leaders rely on logic and rationale to position an argument or point of view when they would be better served by a “softer” approach that will allow them to build strong networks and appeal to the unique needs and circumstances of individual stakeholders.
- Spotting opportunities for change but forgetting to engage others: Leaders often recognise opportunities for improvement in areas such as products and processes but struggle to include and engage others in the change process. They don’t proactively encourage their team members and peers to develop ideas; they oversimplify the issues surrounding change and show little appreciation for the impact change can have on people.
- Coaching in the moment: When they need to coach direct reports, leaders often struggle to provide coaching in a timely fashion. Furthermore, the conclusions leaders reach about their team members’ development needs can often be superficial, causing them to miss opportunities to fully investigate and understand the underlying performance gaps.
Improving leadership interactions
In the field of electronics, a circuit breaker’s core function is to interrupt an otherwise damaging electrical flow. When leaders have and apply the skills they need for effective conversations with their team members, peers and other key stakeholders, the skills act as a sort of circuit breaker to prevent damage to critical relationships. We refer to these critical skills as the interaction essentials (see sidebox), because they are the foundational behaviours that make leaders effective.
These interaction essentials also include interaction guidelines that form a five-stage process (open, clarify, develop, agree and close) leaders follow to ensure that interactions achieve their intended outcomes. These skills may sound like common sense, but our research has shown that leaders often lack them. The good news is that these skills are developable. With the right training, practise and continual application, any leader can acquire these skills and become adept at conducting effective and successful conversations that serve to strengthen relationships and drive engagement and results.
5 essentials to help improve leadership interactions
- Maintain or enhance self-esteem
- Listen and respond with empathy
- Ask for help and encourage involvement
- Share thoughts, feelings and rationale (to build trust)
- Provide support without removing responsibility (to build ownership)
Image source: iStock
