Leaders Dealing with External Issues

In the organizational environment… the corporate world… we tend to regard leaders as operating with their team, their division and the company overall.

 These same people – at whatever level – also operate or interact with external clients or business partners. 

 So at what point does the leader stop being a leader? 

 Consider a situation where a difficulty arises in the arrangement: the client or the business partner for whatever reason leads into what might be called a difficult situation. 

 This situation, if it escalates, could lead to a break in the relationship and at least some disruption to the way the relationship has been.    

Does the leader abandon his leadership behaviors because he is not the ‘leader’ for these other, external stakeholders? Of course not. As we often say your leadership behaviors are with you 24/7, regardless of who you’re dealing with.

Because leaders have a deep understanding – or should – of emotional intelligence one of the early responses when a difficulty arises with the client is going to be anchored in their emotional intelligence behaviors.

And through all of this, the leader is going to live his or her values – especially in integrity, trust, support, caring. We know the most effective leaders are also the most effective listeners. 

Again, quite simply, their listening skills must come to the fore when there’s a difficult situation with a client . Doing this, of course the leader is extending the relationship positively that he has with the client or external person as they navigate through this difficult issue. 

Throughout the difficult interaction, the leader lives his or her values, even talks about the future beyond this situation, consults with the client in ways to find a solution - ‘looking for a better way’ - and reflects to the client on “what we have both learned as a result of this.”

 Oh - isn’t this fundamental to The Leadership Challenge? Yup! 

In every interaction we have as individuals we have the opportunity to maintain our leadership behaviors. When leaders leave that interaction, those we have been ‘leading’ in that interaction would have been impacted positively, in a way that they will ‘want more’ they will look forward to the next connection with you as a leader.  

And if the difficult external issue isn’t resolved in the favor of this particular leader, there is a really strong chance that the other person will have built a strong sense of trust, ‘like-ability’, and recognition of genuine integrity of that leader and the result will be that they will want to maintain the relationship.