Building Productive Relationships…

All of my clients want better, more productive relationships both at work and at home. Few, however, actually productively work to build them. They assume that their relationships at work and at home are cruising along just fine. Why? Because when they ask those closest to them they hear exactly what they want to hear. “We’re good” is all they hear. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence calls this “CEO disease.” Most CEO’s according to Goleman live in an information vaccum. Instead of hearing the truth from their directs they hear only what the team thinks they want to hear. Sound familiar?

How ’bout you? How do you get feedback from your team? From your family? What are your most productive habits to hear the truth? What are the names of your “enablers?” What are the names of your “truth tellers?” When people give you feedback how do you respond? Do you defend, deny and destroy or do you simply say…tell me more?

Great teams, like great families are led by people that understand all leadership development is really self development. They focus first and foremost on the one person they can control. Themselves. These leaders leave the vaccum and get on the hero’s journey instead. They mine for buried conflict. Teams and families respond. Instead of “stickin’ it to the man” they instead, decide to stick with this human. This leader just became real. Real leaders get our commited best. They build productive relationships that in turn build them. You are being built to lead…the question is who are your fellow builders?

Seek feedback…don’t wait for it to come looking for you.