Using Trust, Empathy, and Respect to Create Powerful Workplace Relationships
By Sherri Malouf, CEO of Strategic Soft Skills Institute
Many companies claim that their culture is great and that they have solid relationships between leaders and followers. Take a spin on Glass Door to see how accurate this assertion is, as many companies are simply lacking essential components.
In my book, Science and the Leader-Follower Relationship, I propose that a way of looking at this critical relationship is through the lens of the The Implicit Social Elements® (ISE).
The ISE are the fundamental building blocks of the relationship between leaders and followers.
The Implicit Social Elements are composed of:
While many companies have highly practical relationships, they likely only use three of the ISE.
In the image above, you can see that the minimum requirements for practical working relationships are reciprocity, status, and self-control. Reciprocity is the transactional side of the relationship, e.g., work for compensation. Status means that workers feel valued and that their work is appreciated. Finally, self-control is required to complete work efficiently on any given day. These three elements support practical working relationships as the work is effectively completed.
The diagram above depicts the components of powerful relationships, and includes the rest of the Implicit Social Elements®. When adding in empathy, trust, respect, and fairness, the quality of the relationship is far superior to the practical workplace relationships. This results in higher productivity, less stress, a more enjoyable work environment, higher retention, and happier people.
Once an organization understands which elements they are lacking, focused training can help the culture shift to creating powerful relationships.
The Implicit Social Elements® are a unique way of looking at a company’s culture. The ISE tool will measure the quality of a leader-follower relationship through the lens of these elements. By selecting a minimum of 200 employees in your organization to complete the 15-minute online survey, you will receive a score for the quality of the relationship and discover which of the ISE correlate with that score.
Once you have the score, the next step is to determine what you want to do about the results. For example, we can have an amazing conversation about the The Implicit Social Elements® and how they impact day-to-day relationships and work. And perhaps a customized Positive Power and Influence® Program (PPIP) makes sense and is the path to enhancing the culture of your organization.
In conclusion, the following course of action paves the way for a shift in organizational culture:
The Leader-Follower Relationship Survey: On-line organization survey that measures the quality of a leader-follower relationship through the lens of The Implicit Social Elements®.
Culture Change Consulting: Expert training on how to embrace the ISE and improve the culture and relationships for an organization.
PPIP and ISE: Positive Power and Influence® Program that is tailored to make shifts in ISE scores within an organization.
Want to try something new? This is a validated tool based on my PhD research and subsequent refinement.
