High performing teams and business success starts with relationships

A CEO isn’t an island; no one individual can achieve success for their business on their own. They need to create a high performing executive team. So how do you, as a leader, make sure you’re getting that support and high performance from your team?

Great relationships lead to better conversations

Fundamentally, it is about the development of strong, honest and effective business relationships built on trust. Think about the relationship pyramid (below). If you think about the people you work with who you really know, really trust… and with whom you have strong, deep, meaningful relationships  you tend to have MUCH better conversations with them (than you do with those you don’t know that well)… you can quickly get to the nub of an issue, be really honest about your opinions and feelings on a broad range of topics. Disagree without offence. Those conversations quickly lead to better ideas, better decisions and ultimately higher performance… results.

BUT how do you build the trust?

Thinking about how to build and nurture those relationships should be the first thing on a new CEO’s agenda when building their executive team. To achieve that aim there are a range of critical leadership skills and attributes required, but in my view, it comes down to three key areas: self-awareness; active listening; and delivering on your commitments.

1. Self-awareness

   Firstly, knowing yourself. Your strengths. Your weaknesses. Your skills and abilities. Where you need help… what triggers you. Having the confidence to admit you are not an expert in everything.

   Secondly, the ability to recognise your own emotions and how they impact on others is key. That means carefully managing your emotional responses, particularly under stress; having real empathy with others in your team and working hard to understand their challenges, their feelings and earning their trust and connection; reading the room… flex your style to build rapport with others, each of whom may well need something different from you depending upon their personal circumstances (time in role, experience, personal strengths and style), putting them at ease and giving them the confidence to express themselves.

2. Deep listening

   Listening sounds obvious but its harder to do well than it sounds. When you are busy, focussed on delivering and under pressure from the board, taking time to truly hear your colleagues is not always easy. Start by ensuring you are fully present in conversations. Empty your mind of other topics just for a few minutes, quieten your own inner voice, internal judgements and your “answer” to the question at hand. Having a genuine interest in the topic helps to make others feel heard and valued, while paraphrasing or summarising what you have been told, helps to show comprehension and validation. If you ask open ended questions, you are more likely to encourage deeper conversation and understanding.

3. Do what you say you will do/deliver on your commitments

   The most effective way to build trust and strong relationships is to deliver on your commitments. This means not making promises that you cannot or won’t fulfil. It means having the difficult conversations up front – explaining why something can’t be achieved. Once you commit to doing something then it’s vitally important that you hold yourself to account and take ownership. Do what you say you will do. This builds respect and trust.

Great relationships make for a great business

There are of course additional leadership skills to these that will combine to help build relationships, not least patience and persistence, collaboration, inclusivity, compassion, and the ability to lean into and resolve conflicts. But as a CEO you must recognise that not only does your success and that of the business depend on you and the team first building effective relationships, you have more influence on those relationships than you might realise.

Don’t forget to encourage your team members to lean on each other, remind them of each other’s strengths, ask them to solve problems together and come to you with joint solutions. As the CEO, you can really oil the wheels of these relationships.

What else do you do to build strong working relationships with your peers and colleagues?