Why You Want Inspired Work Relationships

Why You Want Inspired Work Relationships

Posted on 11. Aug, 2011 by in 1 Leadership, People & Change

I must admit I use the word “inspired” quite a bit. When I Googled the definition I liked the word that much more:

Of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse.

Imagine applying that definition to your work relationships. It’s like a gold standard. It may be tough to live up to, but why not lean into it?

Now some of you may be thinking, “I just want to come to work and get my work done, and then leave. Relationships are nice, but not a big motivator for me at work.” You wouldn’t be alone in this. A recent study from Training magazine in partnership with The Ken Blanchard Companies found that relationship factors had the lowest influence in employees’ decisions to stay in the job.

The rub is that for employees to contribute their gifts, you know do their best work, they must work along side others. No matter our preference, working with others is a reality for organizational life.

So, I go back to the gold standard. Why not lead in such a way to create an environment that causes inspired relationships? Here are my gold standard ideas.

Create mutually beneficial relationships. Extraordinary quality, as the definition expresses, is created when employees work to help each other accomplish each other’s needs. Enablers like respect, reciprocity, candid conversations, and belief in others’ abilities help us work together fluidly.

Play to strengths. You can express you ideas and show your talents when you can do what you do best. A group of people brought together can feed off the “external creative impulse” and pull out the best aspects of each other.

Get your hands dirty. The Blanchard research found that meaningful work was most important to Senior Leaders, employees’ managers, and employees. Bottom line: when we’re at work we want to do work that personally satisfies and has some affect on the company and/or on others.

Photo courtesy of P0RG

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8 Responses to “Why You Want Inspired Work Relationships”

  1. Billy Kirsch

    11. Aug, 2011

    Hey Shawn, great post and good subject. My experience tells me that when we do work that is meaningful to us we’re personally satisfied. And when we’re personally satisfied it is much easier and more natural to pursue and maintain quality relationships, both at work and home.

    Reply to this comment

    • Shawn Murphy

      11. Aug, 2011

      Billy,
      Always good to hear from you. Indeed, personal satisfaction is contagious to both our personal and professional lives.

      Shawn

      Reply to this comment

  2. Scott Patchin

    11. Aug, 2011

    I agree. I was not familiar with the Blanchard research, but I need to take a look at it.

    Another view is Robert Putnam’s work around social capital. He wrote Bowling Alone. One point he makes is that if you are a smoker and a loner and your goal is to live longer – the statistical choice is to keep smoking and get some friends.

    Strong relationships in our lives – at our workplace make a huge difference in a lot of ways. Nice post!

    Reply to this comment

    • Shawn Murphy

      11. Aug, 2011

      Hi Scott,
      I’ll need to look at Putnam’s work. We’re wired to interact with others and to avoid them certainly has diminishing returns.

      Thank you for your comment, Scott.

      Shawn

      Reply to this comment

  3. Mary Jo Asmus

    11. Aug, 2011

    Nice post, Shawn. I’m quite curious about the content of the Blanchard research and will see if I can find it. It flies in the face of Gallup. And when I consider my clients (most of whom are high potential senior managers), the majority of them want to improve relationships – with their employees, their peers, or their bosses. I know my information is anecdotal, but I do know that when they put energy into improving those relationships, it has great impact on their leadership and their organizations. Perhaps they are already using their strengths and getting their hands dirty – so recognize that improving relationships is the next thing to work on?

    Reply to this comment

    • Shawn Murphy

      11. Aug, 2011

      Mary Jo,
      I, too, was a little surprised by the results. I thought to myself, “It sounds as if people only care about their needs and forget the rest.” One aspect of the research I didn’t go into is Blanchard looked at three factors: job, organizational and relationships. The relationships ranked lowest of the three overall factors influence on a person’s choice to stay. But that lead’s us back to your point – it flies in the face of Gallup. Perhaps its something to do with the sample characteristics.

      From what I’m seeing and hearing relationships have taken a hit. Investing time to repair and strengthen is definitely a great place to invest time as you mention.

      Shawn

      Reply to this comment

  4. Ginger

    11. Aug, 2011

    Shawn – you’ve hit the nail on the head. Work relationships have immeasurable benefits. They impact everything from employee morale to increasing productivity. Relationships allow a workforce to crowdsource unique skills that colleagues have and pool resources, finding value in unexpected places. And the more aligned employees’ responsibilities are to their passion and skills, the better. What’s interesting is that right now, these relationships are largely informal and initiated on the employee end. There’s definitely a need for companies to foster the sorts of environments that encourage cross-departmental functionalities and create tools that employees can rely on to identify and map these relationships. And the org chart isn’t cutting it anymore. You’ve inspired us to do a bit of digging to see if any companies are doing innovative things to spark and foster relationships among their employees.

    Ginger
    @SilkRoadTweets

    Reply to this comment

    • Shawn Murphy

      11. Aug, 2011

      Ginger,
      I like how you’re tying in some of the newer ways in which people come together to solve problems or create something. And if this message sparks action, I will be a happy man.

      Glad you stopped by.
      Shawn

      Reply to this comment

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