Use the relational leadership model for well-rounded leadership

Picture the best boss you’ve ever had. Chances are they cared about you, showed that they valued your contributions, and supported the development of both your skill set and overall career goals. 

Those are all relationship-focused qualities. But some leaders allow improving outcomes, profits, and efficiency to overshadow the more intangible, human aspects of leadership. It’s easy to forget that positive workplace relationships are integral to accomplishing productivity and revenue goals. 

Leaders who suspect they might be over-focusing on outcomes at the expense of relationships can implement aspects of the relational leadership model to put workplace connections front and center.

What’s the relational leadership model?

The relational leadership model focuses on relationships between leaders and their employees. Relational leaders see human connections as the invisible glue that holds teams and organizations together. To implement this leadership style properly, you take actions to strengthen your professional ties, support them, and capitalize on them to achieve organizational goals.

Helen Regan and Gwen Brooks developed the relational leadership model when researching female educational leaders. They found that women tend toward a relationship-focused leadership model in educational settings and that this benefits all involved — it helps the group as a whole succeed.

Other researchers, in particular teams led by Susan Komives, then broadened and adapted it for use in various leadership contexts.

The 5 components of relational leadership

To successfully implement and encourage a relationship-focused leadership model in your organization, here are the five components you’ll want to practice.

1. Inclusivity

Relational leaders foster a sense of belonging among team members by creating an atmosphere that values diversity and welcomes different perspectives. These leaders tend to have a democratic leadership style rather than imposing their own views, and they see every group member, no matter how junior, as playing an important role on the team.

2. Empowerment

Relational leaders trust their employees to work independently and ask for help when needed. They delegate in a way that shows confidence in team members’ abilities and refrain from micromanaging.

This approach is worthwhile: researchers have found that this kind of empowering leadership improves individual and team performance, creativity, and organizational behavior. 

Relational leaders also realize that empowerment and autonomy must come in the context of the team’s greater good. Former Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, for example, deliberately created a culture of “freedom and responsibility” where he trusted his staff to make the right calls while also encouraging them to consider how their decision-making affects the company.

3. Purpose

Relational leaders align their leadership approach with their personal sense of purpose, which allows them to guide their team through difficult situations with a sure hand. This strong sense of purpose also unifies the team and creates common ground that increases the efficiency and productivity of group discussions.

4. Ethical behavior

Strong relationships stand on a foundation of trust, and trust only flourishes in a fair environment. That means relational leadership is also ethical leadership.

Relational leaders demonstrate honesty, integrity, and humility in their dealings with stakeholders within and outside the organization. These leaders’ ethical decisions powerfully impact employee well-being, reduce business costs, and enhance performance.

5. Process-orientation

While relational leaders do set performance goals for their teams, they don’t have a “results at any cost” mentality. Instead, they aim to achieve results without sacrificing anyone’s well-being.

This attention to process over outcome makes them more flexible, as they’re likely to notice when something isn’t working. They can then consult with frontline workers about changing strategies.

The advantages of relational leadership

Relational leaders build cohesive employee-focused organizations where staff feel engaged, valued, and part of a supportive community. Here’s how:

• Increased morale and productivity: Employees who feel seen and heard are more happy, motivated, and confident. They’re also likely to stay in their positions for longer. And people who’ve held their positions longer have more time to forge strong friendships with their colleagues, making them even happier and more likely to stay. 
  
  As an added bonus, when people feel supported and appreciated, their productivity soars.

• Better teamwork: Focusing on relationships naturally translates into understanding how to support and motivate teams. And employees who feel supported are less likely to engage in behaviors that undermine teamwork, such as gossip, unproductive competition, and social loafing. 
  
  Plus, relational leaders’ interpersonal skills make them skilled in managing conflict and harnessing it to clarify important issues and strengthen relationships. 

• More improvement: Relational leadership encourages employees to speak out and share their suggestions for improvement. That means leaders receive a higher volume of constructive feedback from the rank-and-file workers best placed to notice problems. 
  
  Identifying problems quickly allows leaders to work on solutions before they become complex and expensive to solve. This quick problem-solving cycle drives continuous improvement.

• Nurtured future leaders: Metrics-focused leaders may focus on long-term prizes of deliverables and increased profits, but relational leaders think about the company’s health in the even longer term. 
  
  The close attention relational leaders pay to people throughout the company allows them to quietly evaluate each one for leadership potential and work closely with potential leaders to develop their skills. This careful succession planning can save companies billions in lost productivity arising from leadership gaps and low-quality CEOs.

How to demonstrate relational leadership: 6 tips

The relational leadership model prioritizes fostering healthy connections so everyone feels empowered to deliver great work. Here’s how you can embrace this leadership approach. 

1. Lead by example

If you genuinely prioritize people and relationships, those around you will prioritize them too. Leading by example means embodying the relational leadership qualities of inclusivity, empowerment, purpose, ethics, and process orientation in your dealings with everyone in the organization.

Leading by example also means developing the communication skills necessary to talk others through your process. When communicating a difficult decision to employees, discuss the ethical and interpersonal concerns you faced and how you resolved them, then listen carefully to your team’s responses.

This reassures your team you know how to handle challenging situations and care about finding solutions they feel good about. In the context of recent layoffs, for example, one study found that managers who practiced active listening increased their direct reports’ sense of autonomy and reduced feelings of job insecurity.

2. Get to know your employees

Different employees need different things from their managers. Getting to know your employees personally and professionally helps you tailor your support to their strengths, circumstances, and needs.

You can acquaint yourself with your employees by making casual conversation, asking open-ended questions, and running team-building activities involving personality tests. And make sure you contribute in an open, vulnerable way by sharing some of your own strengths, weaknesses, and struggles. 

3. Develop a mentoring program 

Mentoring is powerful. It prepares people for leadership, enables deep knowledge transfer, and fast-tracks the mentee’s professional development — all while strengthening your own leadership and communication skills. You won’t have the time and energy to mentor all your direct reports, so consider creating a mentorship program so all team members have equal access.

4. Build a supportive workplace culture

Deliberately cultivate a sense of belonging among your employees by running enjoyable team-building activities. And pay close attention to workplace rituals, as these increase the meaning that people perceive in their work.

Notice and encourage existing rituals (morning coffee runs or communal Friday lunches) and consider implementing one or two new ones (hanging up a bell for employees to ring when they achieve an important goal).

To further strengthen your workplace culture, foster an environment where people learn from failures rather than fear criticism for them. And support inclusivity by openly celebrating diversity in a way that encourages team members to bring their whole selves to work.

5. Create a shared vision

A key strength of the relational leadership style is creating space for people to express diverse points of view. Guide your team through a collaborative group process to synthesize these viewpoints into a common goal. A shared vision helps people align their individual learning and performance with broader organizational and team performance goals.

You don’t have to be in a senior leadership position to create positive change. Lower-level leaders can drive change from below by experimenting within their teams and “translating” visions between frontline employees and senior management.

6. Show empathy, humor, and gratitude

An increasing number of employees want their leaders to be human and vulnerable instead of cold and invincible. Connect with your employees on a human level by showing empathy, using humor to release tension and bring people closer, and expressing gratitude and appreciation. 

Effective leaders cherish relationships

Incorporating the relational leadership model can help you become a more well-rounded, inclusive leader. It’ll also make being a leader more enjoyable. After all, it’s the authentic relationships, camaraderie, and opportunities to support others’ growth that get most leaders out of bed on hard days.

Building relational leadership skills takes self-awareness and humility, but these skills will transform your team into a vibrant, caring group of people you feel honored to lead.