Should Business Leaders Focus On Performance Or Employees?

There is much discussion about what P has created outstanding leaders.

As a scientist, I want to talk about the relevant data.

In 2009, James Zenger (JamesZenger) published an interesting survey: by investigating sixty thousand employees, we found out how the different characteristics of leaders affect employees' perceptions of their superiors.

Zeng examines two characteristics of performance and social skills.

Focus on performance, including strong analytical skills, and strong motivation to advance and solve problems.

But if leaders are regarded as highly valued, they have only 14% chance of being regarded as excellent leaders.

Social skills include communication and empathy.

If a leader has strong social skills, he will be regarded as an excellent leader with a low probability of only 12%.

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< p > however, the leaders who are strong in two aspects of performance and social skills are up to 72%.

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< p > social skills have great multiplier effect.

Leaders with strong social skills can make better use of the analytical capabilities of team members.

Having a social intelligence to predict how team members will work together can make better partner matching.

At first, it seems to be a task related difficulty, but it turns out to be a matter of interpersonal relationship.

Some employees may think that other employees belittle themselves, or think they have done all the work, while their partners are doing nothing, so that the two parties will not try their best to solve the problem that can be solved.

Leaders with strong social skills are better at judging and handling these common workplace dilemmas.

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< p > then, how many leaders have scored high marks in two aspects of performance and social skills? If the combination of them can produce effective leaders, the company should have figured out this and promoted such talents as leadership positions, right?

David Roque, director of the NeuroleadershipInstitute, recently conducted a survey with the management research group (ManagementResearchGroup) to find out the answers. (DavidRock)

They asked thousands of employees to evaluate their superiors. The targets were goalfocus (emphasis on performance) and social skills, to see how many leaders were two high marks.

The result was astonishing: two leaders who scored high scores were less than 1%.

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< p > why is this so? As I mentioned in the Book Social Networking: Social:WhyOurBrainsAreWiredtoConnect, this is difficult for our brain to focus on social interaction and analysis at the same time.

Although social thinking and analytical thinking are not entirely different, evolution has made our brains deal with these two ways of thinking in different networks.

In the frontal lobe of the brain, the outer surface of the skull is responsible for analyzing and thinking, so it is highly correlated with intelligence quotient.

In contrast, the central region of the brain, where the two hemispheres are in contact, supports social thinking.

These regions enable us to piece together the thoughts, feelings and goals of the other person according to the actions, words and situations that we observe.

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< p > below is a very surprising thing about the brain.

The functions of the two networks mentioned above are like a neuralseesaw.

In countless neuroimaging studies, one of the two networks is more active, and the other is quieter.

Although there are some exceptions, generally speaking, one activity of thinking is difficult to carry out.

To be sure, analytical thinking has always been a key skill in the business world, making it harder to see social problems that can affect productivity and profits.

In addition, employees are much more likely to be promoted to leadership positions because of their technical strength.

Therefore, those promoted by us may lack social skills to maximize their ability, and we have not trained them to help them thrive after promotion.

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< p > How can we improve? First of all, we should pay more attention to social skills in the process of employment and promotion.

Second, we need to create a culture that rewards both sides of the nerve seesaw.

We may not be able to match them easily, but knowing that there is another angle to solve problems and increase productivity can help leaders build a better balance.

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< p > finally, it is possible to train our social thinking and gradually strengthen it.

Social psychologists are beginning to study whether such training is effective.

An exciting prospect that makes this training interesting is that recently reading novels seem to temporarily strengthen these mental abilities.

Wouldn't it be great if you read the latest CatcherintheRye in the rye or Grisham's latest novel, which is the key to raising profits? < /p >