TITLE : RELATIONSHIPS 101 PART 2

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in relationship with God and man - Luke 2:52

Great leadership is built on great relationship! No relationship, no leadership. Leadership is almost impossible without strong relationship- people. Relationships are critical to leadership success and must be nurtured. Leaders by themselves achieve very little; the measure of effective leadership lies in the results a leader achieves by inspiring others. In a corporate setting those results come by working with people, either as individuals or as teams.

Building relationships is one of the strongest skills related to leadership effectiveness. Former American President, Theodore Roosevelt says "The most important essential ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people" This speaks of relationship.

I’ve said before that the best leaders surround themselves with great people. A Nigerian proverb says "people make people, people."  In fact, the Law of the Inner Circle says that you can only fly as high as the people around you. That tells you the power of relationship. After all, you can’t soar with eagles if you’re surrounded by turkeys!

Authentic leaders make building real relationships with their people one of their top priorities. They are intentional about it. They will literally schedule time into their day to “relationship build.” They get out their office or work and seek out the people they lead. Leaders know that their success is completely dependent upon the success of the people they lead.
If you don’t have regular, daily conversations with the people you lead it could well be that you’re lacking real relationships with them. When a relationship isn’t present it becomes very hard for a leader to demonstrate that they care for and value the people they lead.

Leaders invest time with their people to ensure their people’s success. If your people get so much as a hint that you don’t care about them as people your opportunity to truly lead them will be lost. It's always too difficult to get the best out of people without a strong relationship. Don't expect core values like loyalty, commitment, dedication from your people if you aren't friends.

A leader’s relationship with their people needs to be “real.” As a leader, you need to know something about the people you lead. You can’t lead someone effectively until you know something about them. You can’t demonstrate that you care about them unless you can first demonstrate that you actually know them…. as a person. Some of the people who read this will think to themselves “I don’t have time for this "relationship crap” and to you I would say this:
If you don’t have the time to build real relationships with your people then maybe, just maybe, you aren't interested in leadership or you don’t have time to lead.

If building relationships are one of the keys to being a REAL Success, I challenge you to evaluate how well you’re doing in the area of building your relationships.