By Adam Bandelli
To become a great leader, certain habits, skills, and behaviors must be practiced on a regular basis. Successful leaders know how to set a vision for their organizations and drive alignment on business-critical goals. They are great at execution and holding people accountable to deliver results. They create cultures of innovation and creativity by empowering people to perform. They inspire and motivate others through their passion, energy, and enthusiasm.
Although all these areas play a critical role in running a profitable business, the most important factor in determining a leader’s success is their ability to build strong relationships. Great leaders understand this at their core, and they practice the five essential skills of relational intelligence.
What is relational intelligence?
Relational intelligence is the ability to successfully connect with people and build strong, long-lasting relationships. It is an essential set of skills that today’s leaders need in their toolkits. It serves as the foundation for creating cultures of excellence that are relationship-oriented and foster great employee engagement.
When put into practice, relational intelligence enables leaders to effectively communicate with employees from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. It helps them understand and appreciate the different interests, values, and beliefs of their people. And it lays the groundwork for a positive and meaningful impact on the development and growth of talent in an organization.
To build positive business relationships with your employees and your customers you must be authentic and intentional in how you connect with others. These are the two underlying factors that are central to developing strong relationships.
The key to building positive business relationships
There are five essential skills that build upon these foundational cornerstones of authenticity and intentionality. They include:
1. Establishing rapport
This skill is the ability to use energy to create an initial positive connection with others. In business, this plays out in recruitment, hiring, and onboarding talent. It also affects the early stages of team formation and alignment.
There are many factors that come into play when establishing rapport:
- Making a good first impression
- Drawing others into the conversation
- Finding common ground
- Utilizing nonverbal behaviors (e.g., eye contact) and body language
- Using humor to lighten the mood
Proficiency in rapport building takes time and practice. When done correctly, it makes others feel valued and important, which is critical to the success of any organization.
2. Being understanding of others
©fizkes- Adobe Stock
You want to be intentional about putting in the time and effort needed to get to know someone on a deep level. This involves using your emotional intelligence, having strong active listening skills, demonstrating curiosity and inquisitiveness, and being empathetic.
Learning about others is an ever-evolving process that does not happen overnight. To effectively understand other people, you must be genuine and authentic in your interactions with them. This creates psychological safety, which is essential for creating a space where employees feel comfortable sharing their stories.
3. Embracing individual differences
This is the ability to acknowledge and accept that everyone comes from different backgrounds and experiences. It’s having a favorable reception towards people who think, act, and behave differently than you do. It’s about appreciating racial and ethnic diversity. It’s understanding the differences in how men and women think and communicate. It’s choosing to embrace people's sexual orientation. It’s understanding that cross-cultural differences and spirituality/religion affect how we interact with the world.
It's also about creating a culture of inclusivity where people can bring their true authentic selves to work. This leads to diversity of thought, which helps companies drive innovation, creativity, and growth.
4. Developing trust
Trust is the most important skill of relational intelligence. To trust others, though, you must first know, understand, and trust yourself. I call this the “mirror test” because you must know how you’re wired before you can build deep relationships with others.
You must also focus on the underlying aspects of trust (the 5 Cs): competence, commitment, consistency, character, and courage. To sustain trust over time, you must continuously nurture your relationships; the concepts of intentional generosity and relational reciprocity become critical.
When trust develops in organizations, it leads to stronger levels of commitment, team effectiveness, and job performance.
5. Cultivating influence
This means having a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of others. It’s about putting people and culture first before driving results. It’s about helping your employees become better versions of themselves.
Cultivating influence is not about manipulation, controlling people, or top-down authority. Dynamic, life-changing relationships with your employees help them develop and grow. When leaders have a positive influence on their workforce, performance levels rise, goals and objectives are attained, and organizations achieve great financial profitability.
Importance of relational intelligence in business relationships
Relationships are at the center of every successful organization. It doesn’t matter if you work for a startup business or a Fortune 100 company. This is why relational intelligence is a skill set all leaders need to develop as we move into a new era of business.
The employees of today care about more than just title, pay, and promotions. They want to know that their work has meaning. They want leaders who will intentionally and authentically invest in their growth and professional development. And they want that human personal connection that we lost during the years of the Covid-19 global pandemic. The employees who are the most passionate, driven, and fulfilled in their work are those that seek to lead a life of contribution and service to something greater than themselves.
Relationally intelligent leaders understand this important principle. And it is these types of leaders who are guiding some of the most engaged, loyal, and committed workforces in today’s market.
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