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Good leadership starts from a place of trust.
Its true that finance professionals need a range of soft people-oriented skills to become good leaders and strong strategic partners to their businessincluding communication, influence and negotiation. But all of them have a common denominator: theyre more effective if you already have a relationship with the people youre trying to lead, and empathy for those around you.
Its easy to go into a situation and be judgmental, Vena Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller said in our 2022 Driving Agile Business Outcomes livestream. Its a totally different skill set to go in and say, theres no blame here but how do we work through something together?
Its no wonder, then, that relationship building and empathy are two skill sets every future finance leader should be building. By creating strong relationships and being empathetic to the others around youincluding the people you leadyou make communication, collaboration, negotiation and those other soft skills easier to put to use. Because when people know you, and know youre taking their perspective into consideration, theyre more likely to trust you and follow your lead.
But how do you learn something like empathy? And where do you start if you want to build business relationships that matter? Weve got some advice from Vena experts and Excelerate speakers, as well as some findings based on our 2022 benchmark report and other research.
From the relationships you build with your team and colleagues to those you nurture with customers and industry experts, your relationships can help you build your expertise and establish your leadership position.
Nobody would be surprised to know that we prefer to say yes to those individuals who we feel a liking or a rapport with, psychologist Robert Cialdini said in his keynote presentation, The Science of Ethical Influence, at Venas Excelerate 2022 Summit. And that liking and rapport comes through an existing relationship.
But the best relationships are reciprocalmeaning you give as much as you get from them. If you hope to earn the help or understanding of colleagues, partners or other stakeholders, you need to bring something of equal value to the equation. Perhaps thats your expertise, mentorship abilities or simply an exceptional customer or team experience.
Whatever the case, understanding what value you can provide starts with understanding what the other person wants, hopes for or needs. And thats achieved through empathy.
In our 2022 benchmark report, The State of Strategic Finance, only 10% of respondents ranked empathy as a priority skill set within their teams. But empathy actually goes a long way. As one CEO put it in Forbes: The reality is that developing a trusting relationship with our colleagues, counterparts and customers, as well as demonstrating empathy for them, shows significant regard not only for their jobs and roles, but also for their well-being.
Empathy is a key skill to have both in business and in finance leadership specifically. If you learn to lead through empathy, youll be able to better engage your team, inspire others and build relationships that last.
Just look at research by global nonprofit Catalyst for proof. Catalyst found that 76% of employees who have highly empathetic senior leaders report often or are always engaged, compared to 32% who experienced low amounts of empathy. And 61% of employees with highly empathetic senior leaders report often or are always being innovative at work, compared to 13% with less empathetic leaders.
Empathy, in other words, makes good business sense.
So how do you learn how to build better relationships? What do you do to develop empathy and become a better leader? These tips can help.
As you get to know others better, try to view your decisions through their eyes and make choices with those other perspectives in mind. In doing so, you not only strengthen your relationships and build better rapport, but develop a deeper understanding of their role and why they do what they do. That, in turn, will help you drive better decision making.
The beauty of empathy is that it doesnt demand that you agree with the other persons ideas, Chris Voss, former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator and CEO and Founder of The Black Swan Group, added in his book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Voss was another speaker at Venas Excelerate 2022 virtual conference.
Just by better understanding others points of viewas well as their challenges and goalsyou can apply them to your relationships, leadership and the strategic decisions you make.
Understanding others starts with understanding yourself. That entails being aware of your blind spots. Are your biases getting in the way of empathizing with someone elses point of view? Are poor leadership or communication habits making it hard to develop relationships that matter. For instance, if youre prone to interrupting, talking down to anyone who doesnt agree with you or just not listening, itll be difficult to develop the reciprocal relationships you need.
And while it may be difficult to face your own weaknesses, understanding them will help you overcome them. Through a better understanding of yourself, you can start to work through those blind spots, to build the relationship-building skills and empathy you need to be a better leader.
Not sure whether you truly understand someones perspective? Or that youre fully realizing your own blind spots? Finding out the answers is as simple as asking for feedback along the way.
Feedback can help you better understand what you still need to work on, and find out what people think of your leadership skills. All of which can help you develop better empathy and stronger relationships with the people around you.
But asking for feedback can be scary sometimes, Vena CFO Melissa Howatson points out. So how do you find the courage to ask for the feedback you know will make you betterwhile also staying open to possible criticism too? Asking specific questions in specific situations can helpguiding the feedback and keeping any criticisms focused on the situation at hand.
It's lower stakes feedback, Melissa says. [Such as] What could I have done better? or Tell me where I went wrong?
Finally, doing what you say youre going to do goes a long way to getting people to trust you. And that makes delivering on your promises key to building business relationships that last. By following through and doing exactly what you said you would, youre showing people they can rely on youand thats how strong business relationships start.
But just as key is knowing what to do when you cant follow through.
Because there will be times when you simply arent able to deliver on a promise youve made. Whether something goes wrong or circumstances change, these things happen. But to keep your relationships intact and show youre a strong leader, you need to be ready for them. And that takes transparency and problem-solving skills.
In our 2022 benchmark survey, 44% of respondents said they prioritized problem-solving skills. And for good reason. Good problem-solving skills help you build relationships with your team, stakeholders and customers even when you cant deliver on your promises. By coming to an alternative solution you can show that you care about their needs and will do anything you can to meet themeven if that means finding an alternative when you cant.
Relationships are central to good business partneringwhich makes relationship building necessary for any finance leader. And building strong relationships starts with empathy. By understanding what other people want, and being the type of person who can deliver on that, youll start to become the leader they need.
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