If you genuinely want to win as a leader, you have to learn how to connect with your team. They’re longing for it. And they’ll give you their best work when they feel connected to you.
There’s a lot of research out there about leadership connecting with their employees. Research shows employees become disengaged when they feel their leaders aren’t connected. They feel a sense of loss or are adrift in their careers.
You can change that by focusing on connecting with your employees.
Connect With Your Team To Win
Henry Ford is noted as saying:
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is a success.
When I hear this Henry Ford quote, I think of connecting with a team. You first come together with your team members. To stay together, you have to connect. When you connect, you can work well together and win. That’s what it takes to succeed.
Connection also forms unity. Mattie Stepanek once said, “Unity is strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
Think about your workplace. Are you connected? Are you unified?
Connection creates unity. Great things can be achieved when you unite your team.
Organizational consultant Simon Sinek has a great view on connecting. Sinek is known for bringing teams together. I think one of his most profound quotes is this:
A team is not a group of people who work together but a group of people who trust each other.
What does this mean for you? People rarely trust those they don’t feel connected with. Think about your personal relationships. A stranger comes to you on the street. Do you trust them? Do you pull back, fearing they may try something? Now, think about a person you have connected with. How do you feel when they approach you on the street? Excited to see an old friend? Do you trust their motives? You probably do.
Connection creates trust.
Do you want your employees to be more productive? Maybe you want them to be more satisfied with their jobs? We could go a step further and say great leaders want their team members to be fulfilled.
Connection is the key to that, according to Anne Mulcahy. She shared:
Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.
What?!? Those things above bring about more profitability? Of course it does… because connection empowers others.
I love what Amit Kalantri said.
If you fulfill the wishes of your employees, the employees will fulfill your visions.
He gets it! He really gets it. You have to connect with your employees to know their wishes. When you help them fulfill their wishes beyond a paycheck, they will help you fulfill your vision.
People will rally behind those they feel care about them. They will walk 5,000 miles and maybe more to help you when you’ve helped them.
That’s connection.
Doug Conant is the former CEO of Campbell Soup Corporation. Throughout his career, Conant wrote handwritten letters to his employees. That was his way of connecting with team members. Conant said:
To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.
Conant knew that connection was the key to winning in the marketplace. He had to make connections, let his team know he cared, and regularly check in. In doing so, he built a great culture that people look back on fondly.
When you connect with your people, you win. When you don’t, you lose. The choice is yours.
