What are the benefits of EDC?
Effective Business Relationships.
Today’s Senior Executive cannot merely be technically competent, but must have the interpersonal skill necessary to meet the multiple, ongoing demands of the job.
The successful, daily functioning of any organization is strongly rooted in the quality of the relationships its leaders cultivate. EDC empowers senior executives to successfully develop the perceptive and interpersonal skills necessary to sustain and nurture business relationships.
Yes, those interpersonal skills sound appealing, but specifically, how are relationships such an integral part of an organization’s success?
Some examples, follow.
Effective relationships within the organization require that leaders:
• Hold themselves to the same standards of respect they require of others
• Clearly define and sustain high performance standards
• Cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses, professionals and the media
• Nurture good will and productivity by consistently regenerating an open communication system that prevents the resentment and interpersonal conflict that inevitably erode good will and productivity
• Manage intense workloads and long hours with regard for long-term effects on the productivity and good will of colleagues and employees (e.g. the ability to consider human limits, stamina, and the need for balance, as well as the ability to define and sustain clear boundaries)
• Understand and guide group dynamics to sustain a smoothly functioning, collaborative atmosphere in the workplace
• Identify and constructively resolve difficult co-worker, employee, and client relations
• Provide focus while allowing autonomy, as you consult, guide, support, recognize and collaborate respectfully with group project teams, committees, departments, etc.
• Foster the growth potential of employees, and wherever appropriate, plan for supervised mentorships that inspire and build on the strengths of both the mentor and the mentoree (e.g. establish becoming a mentor and a mentoree as part of employees’ job descriptions, define qualifications and model each)
• Whenever possible, support the co-definition of employees’ job descriptions (or the co-elaboration of pre-existing job descriptions). Co-definition allows for some employee autonomy (which diminishes resentment, power struggles, etc.), and requires employees to cultivate and exhibit a clear grasp of the needs of the organization, to clarify mutual expectations, to build on strengths and to promote growth in other areas
• Develop and promote definitions of the organization’s “success” in which all employees participate and become stake-holders
• Develop and promote a salient, meaningful vision for the future of the firm – a vision in which all employees participate and become stake-holders, and
• Support satisfying personal and family relationships outside the office
Effective relationships with entities outside the organization require that leaders:
• Recruit new employees using clearly defined parameters, while sustaining a verifiable, positive reputation with recruiters
• Stay competitive by cultivating business relationships which support and motivate you to be up to date on news, new technologies, and trends in specialized fields of expertise, as well as supporting your creative, outside-the-box thinking
• Cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with the media
• Regularly publicize recent work in the media and elsewhere to enhance the organization’s visibility in your target community, while sending a consistent message faithful to the organization’s vision
• Network, market and provide power presentations to target individuals and groups. Relational skills allow leaders to inspire and enroll others in a vision others then experience as an opportunity for themselves. Others also experience interest in and acknowledgement of their strengths and of what they have to offer you and your organization
• Support those who represent your organization as they evolve their own personalized, thirty-second elevator speeches. Whatever the content, the speaker’s sincerity, openness, receptivity and capacity for relatedness are powerful determinants of the listener’s responsiveness. The concise “speech” must genuinely inspire and empower the speaker before • it can even begin to effectively reach anyone else
• Remain mindful of the quality and nature of your impact as a leader on others, by creating your own system of “checks and balances,” without sacrificing the responsibility and authority that define your leadership