Interpersonal Mastery—Leading Through Synergy and Service

Leadership from the Inside Out by Kevin Cashman remains one of my top picks for teaching leaders how tob become the best leader they can be...starting within themselves. Over the next week, I will post segments of my in-depth review of this book.

This is the SIXTH of the series about Leadership from the Inside Out (second edition)

Interpersonal Mastery—Leading Through Synergy and Service

SYNERGY

a. Research: Several studies show that the most competent leaders are often not the best leaders because competence at the expense of caring (my word) falls hollow on the ears of others. Cashman states the equation as follows: “Results competencies plus interpersonal competencies equals top leadership performance.”

b. Relationship—a bridge to creating value in an organization.

--Study: In a massive study of over 19,000 people who left organizations. The majority of bosses (85%) claimed they left for more money and opportunity. The majority of people who left (80%) said they left because of poor relationship, development or coaching from a boss!

--Trust: Leaders must give up control for trust. Trusting people to do the right thing remains one of the most difficult activities of even the most competent leader, and yet it is this leader-based trust that gives teams permission to do the right thing.

--Appreciation: Leaders who can appreciate others will develop strong, lasting bonds. In fact, one researcher, John Gottman (quoted often in Blink and other books), predicts marriages that fail found that when a 5:1 ratio of positive appreciative comment to criticism existed that marriages thrived. Further, he found that in a 1:1 ratio of the above criteria (positive to negative comments), marriages ended in failure. Learning to appreciate what people bring to the relationship, team or organization is critical to success.