DKA Toolkit - Courses

Leading Up To Lead Down (Pt 2) Establishing Relational Chemistry

Connecting The Power to ‘Lead Up’ With Being in Your Boss’s Inner Circle

The relationship you construct, nurture, and manage with your immediate boss is critical to your work success as well as your professional growth and development. And, if you’re introspective, you’ll own the fact that you're in control of that relationship with your boss. The quality of that relationship helps you achieve your goals, because your boss has information that you need in order to succeed. She also can't do her job or accomplish her goals without your help. So, your manager shares a critical interdependence with you…it’s a reciprocal relationship. If you don't accomplish your work, goals and objectives, your manager will never excel in his or her overall responsibilities. You won't progress without the information, perspective, experience, and support of your manager. For better or worse, you are profoundly intertwined. For this reason whether you think your boss is incompetent or uncommitted…or unaware of what you need, it’s still in your best interest to be able to influence them…to lead up.

To begin to lead upward, you’ll need to start by identifying what is important to your manager as well as the business. Why? Because your request should be in line with his or her top priorities. The key is to foster a relationship, which facilitates an understanding of your leader - what’s important to them, their pain points, goals, and metrics. For example, are change and innovation key priorities for the company—or is the bottom line about cost cutting to survive? This information may not be publicly articulated; your ultimate goal is to develop your team by being able to access that information from your boss. Being part of your boss’s inner circle is the only way to access such information.

This class provides insight, meaning and understanding to the 17th key to leading up (discussed in Pt1) ‘Establishing Relational Chemistry.’ We will examine strategies and techniques to get into – and stay – in your boss’s inner circle so that your opinions are heard and valued. It’s the key to gaining true organizational influence. We will also assess why you will lack influence if you’re an outsider, and the factors that lead to you being an outsider. Also examined will be the importance and significance of being an “A” player; how to become an “A” player and how to use your status as an “A” player to get into your boss’s inner circle.

Topics covered:

• The Impact of Being an 'A, B or C' Player
• Understanding the Leader Member Exchange Theory
• Understanding the 'In' vs. 'Out' Group
• Three Phases of Relationship Building
• The People Performance Potential Model
• Performance - Perception vs. Reality
• How The Outsider Status Develops
• Connecting Influence & Reciprocity
• Steps in the Influence Model
• How To Make A Pitch

Accompanying Free Psychological Assessment!

The Employee Attitude and Personality Assessment (EAPA)

Upon completion of this class, please email me ([email protected]) for access to your accompanying free online psychological assessment – The Employee Attitude and Personality Assessment (EAPA). Leading up through the establishment of relational chemistry requires you to get into your supervisor’s inner circle, by being in sync with him/her. For this reason it’s important to provide you the opportunity to gain self-awareness and insight on whether your tendencies and behavioral traits may help or hinder that process. Some of the awareness building factors the EAP Assessment considers are:

• Social Skills: Ability to interact harmoniously with people; to build a rapport with others.
• Openness to Improvement: Assesses willingness to continuously learn and grow.
• Openness to Change: Extent to which an individual is comfortable with variability in his or her environment.
• Conformity: Refers to obedient, unquestioning, and responsible conduct.
• Need for Supervision: Assesses whether an individual possesses certain traits or behaviors that would make a supervised environment more beneficial.

The assessment’s resulting awareness, coupled with the strategies and techniques provided in the class provide the perfect compliment to advancing your ability to learn to “Lead Up Through Relational Chemistry.”