Contributed by John Keyser

Relationships matter. If someone trusts us, respects us, has confidence in us and wants to work with us, that can go a very long way to ensure our success. And we must realize that we must earn and continue to earn that trusting relationship, every day.

My experience as an executive in the corporate world and now leadership consultant and coach to CEOs and senior executives in businesses and nonprofit institutions, is that too few in senior management realize that relationships with those who choose to do business with us, our external clients, are vitally important, of course – and so are our relationships with the people within our organization.

Our relationships with our people are every bit as important! They both are top priorities! As the renowned management professor and expert Tom Peters said some time back, “Take good care of your people and they will take good care of your clients.”

The business world is so demanding today. When I was growing up, my father got to his office 8:30 and left at 5:30 and did not bring home hours of work each night and each weekend, as most of us do today. We work in a super competitive environment with pressure on fees charged and profit margins. In the past, companies dictated to clients what their fees would be. Those days are long gone.

And today we have to do more with fewer people.

As managers, hopefully as leaders, we have to drive for results. Absolutely. That is certainly true if we are with a publicly owned company and have to meet 90-day financial targets. And if we’re with a privately owned company, the pressure is still there. Certainly, there are the needs to focus on numbers and also our relationships with our clients, or we risk losing them.

What some senior managers fail to realize is that we must also focus on our internal relationships – and not just with our chief executive, operating, financial, technology, marketing, talent management, human resource and other chief officers.

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Contributed by Beate Chelette

There has been lots of talk these days about introverts and extroverts, generated by the bestselling book Quiet: The Power of the Introvert in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Herself an introvert, author Susan Cain writes that introverts are “too often denigrated and frequently overlooked in a society that’s held in thrall to an extrovert Ideal – the belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight.”

The truth is, it’s not an either-or situation. Every person has many different faces, and it is all too easy to forget that. I come across business owners all the time who wish they could create an army of Mini-Mes, a team of people who are all just like them. Yet the real power comes from having people on your team who are different because they can do jobs that you might not have an innate preference for.

Let’s dive into this deeper. Recently I became a Certified Practitioner of the MBTI Step I and Step II Instruments. MBTI is also known as Meyers Briggs psychological type theory. I asked my team to fill out the standard 93 questionnaire designed to measure innate type preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. I reassured my team it isn’t a test – it isn’t – and that there were no right or wrong answers. It’s simply an effective tool to help people build relationships – and teams – and to understand why differences arise at home and in the workplace. Most importantly though, with an understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, team building becomes so much easier and effective.

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Contributed by Dr. Robyn Odegaard

The idea that women are holding themselves back in the corporate rat race has been getting a lot of press since Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s interview with 60-Minutes. While I certainly agree that there is more we as women can do to promote ourselves, we need to do more than acknowledge the problem and say we need to change it. We need to arm women with knowledge and skills so they can become successful early and often. I believe these efforts start with understanding why the problem is so challenging to overcome and what we can really do about it.

There are four underlying issues that hold women back:

• Our “Communication DNA” – Perhaps at the dawn of time when a woman’s best bet for survival was to be fed and protected by someone else it made sense to be cautious about engaging in a disagreement or voicing a dissenting opinion. Are we still being hampered by that history?
• Our “Communication Fingerprint” – Each of us has a unique way we use language, learned first from family members and altered by every new person in our life. How we address or avoid conflict is a product of behaviors learned over the course of our lives. Girls are often not allowed to play the rough and tumble games that teach boys how to assert themselves in a group.
• The “Communication Myth” – Look at almost any LinkedIn profile or resume and you will see everyone believes they are better than average at communication. So clearly any miscommunication “must be the other person’s fault.”
• Girls are taught to be “nice” – A nice girl would never stand up for herself and say something that might sound like she was being confrontational. Sadly, many feel it is better to complain behind someone’s back or say “I told you so” after the decision has been made and failed. Logically, we know this way of thinking only leads to workplace drama and office politics but the drive to be “nice” is too strong.

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Contributed by Marilyn Jacobson, PhD, author of Turning the Pyramid Upside Down: A New Leadership Model

Organizations will get flatter and ultimately the pyramid that has been with us for many generations will be gone. This is inevitable in this highly competitive, global, fast paced marketplace. A highly engaged workforce will be essential to deal with an already formidable and daily increasing number of complexities.

The glass ceiling will be an anomaly. Winning will depend on having available an array of skills and aptitudes, many of which play to women’s strengths. Think of what we have learned from Daniel Pink about left and right brain thinking, and the link between break – through technology and design Steve Jobs taught us. A competitive organization must have people with vastly different skills and attributes that they are eager to exercise. The workplace demands innovation, speed in decision making and timely execution. If this is to happen, newness must preempt numbers, collaboration must take precedence over status. Power, formerly at the top, must be replaced with teamwork. Communication and a culture that promotes idea exchange is likely to generate trust, and regard for each person’s unique contributions.

In my book, I make the case for inverting the pyramid and what it takes to develop a culture that values diversity. Flatter organizations are more interested in creativity, design and implementation than in promotions and bonuses. Genuine collaboration and coordination takes the spotlight away from title and emphasizes instead the realization of mutual goals. Layers of management are costly to maintain and are self defeating.

Flatter organizations foster skill development, encourage and support continuous personal growth. Leaders emerge when they see it is needed and when an individual has the particular information, contacts or skills indicated. Gender is not the deciding factor. Everyone benefits when they are asked rather than told and when it is natural to challenge each other.

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Contributed by Nick Branch, Contact Law

Putting your professional skills to use in a personal sideline can offer great financial rewards, personal satisfaction and learning opportunities. What’s more, with increasing use of the internet and flexible working patterns, it’s becoming more feasible to combine your own business with full time employment. Before you get started however, you’ll need to consider the implications of non-compete clauses in your current employment contract.

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