Great Leaders Build Off Great Relations

During a 2005 guest lecture at MIT’s Sloan School of Management the following question was asked:  “What should you be learning in business school?”  Jack Welch answered:  “Just concentrate on networking.  Everything else you need to know, you can learn on the job.” 

In this week’s reading, “Great Leaders Build Off Great Relations”  <http://www.cio.com/article/152451>, John Baldoni talks about the importance of building relations and the related skill of collaboration.  He suggests three approaches:

1.  Learn to read people.  Learn to listen for what is said and not said, understand aspirations and commitments.

2.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Yes, the Golden Rule but applicable everywhere.  You establish trust by personal example and one example is helping others reach their goals.

3.  Put yourself out there.  Selfless collaboration calls for blending ideas to create a better whole.  It comes from trust and understanding.

You’ll find some survey data on the importance of relationships at in the Center for Creative Leadership’s October 2007 edition of Leading Effectively <http://www.ccl.org/leadership/enewsletter/2007/OCTdata.aspx.

Have a great week.  .  .  .  .     jim