The most effective leaders preface (read pre-face) their relationships with a committed trust and a highly developed sense of humility.
With that trust prefaced and well anchored, those leaders can then be personally more open with each other -face-to-face — and more vulnerable to each other.
Face-to-face those leaders can then be more professionally accountable to each other and more transparent with each other.
And then most significantly…..
… those leaders face-to-face can then be more likely to welcome, savor and digest negative feedback as a professional development opportunity.
That’s because loving leaders foster a more intimate communications process -face-to-face-with their direct reports.
They look into each other’s eyes rather than hide behind each other’s texting screens.
They say what needs to be said in person without feeling virtually oppressed under each other’s texting thumbs.
And together they celebrate their face-to-face contact.
They realize how distinctly human their face-to-face contact really is.
They celebrate the fact that human beings are the only animals on earth who mate face-to-face.
They realize that when you face each other you are more likely to give birth to more intervention and insight.
They also realize that when you face each other you are more likely to foster a feeling of caring and sharing that is the bedrock of effective leadership and sound management.
At least that is the way the leadership columnist for The New York Times summarized a Google study on effective managers.
Adam Bryant observed:
“What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”
And of course the most effective leaders preface their interest in the lives and careers of their employees with face-to-face communications.
You can learn more tips on developing significant working relationships in a 300-page book now available on Amazon. com filled with 77 short stories (5-minute reads called Leadership Mints) on examples from business, sports and politics.
It’s titled: LOVING Like a Leader with Empathy- one of three books in The Leadership Mints Series designed to help leaders refresh their feeling for leading. And as a bonus, the postscript titled- BUSINESS: A HUMAN EXPERIENCE — shares the impetus for this book on empathy impacting the bottom line.
The two other books in The Leadership Mints Series -now available on Amazon.com — include THINKING Like a Leader with Clarity and 
SPEAKING Like a Leader with Civility
