Developing Strategic Relationships

Extraordinary Leader by authors John Zenger and Joseph Folkman was adopted as the leadership model to assist our company’s leaders develop their full leadership potential. Within the book, the authors discuss the behaviors of leadership breaking down each into tangible and relatable items affording leaders to assess their maturity within each behavior.

In late 2010 as I pondered about my career path, I pulled out the book and reflected on the behaviors and jotted down a few that would be essential components in the next position.
 
Surprised I was at first, to find the behavior that fell at the top of the list was “develops strategic relationships.” Upon reflection, this should not have been a surprise as I have openly shared my StrengthsFinder results, with the number one strength being “relator”.

In the role we play as Technology Architects, developing strategic relationships is critical. Relationship are essential to the strategic process because they are the enabler to get a spot at the table where ideation is occurring. At that juncture, the role is amplified and we become trusted partners within the process and we are able to do what we do best: translate vision to capability.

Zenger and Folkman provide the following behaviors to demonstrate the activities necessary to develop strategic relationships:

• Know how work relates to the organization’s business strategy (line-of-sight connection).
• Balance the short-term and long-term needs of the organization.
• Demonstrate forward thinking about tomorrow’s issues.
• Clarify vision, mission, values, and long-term goals for others.
• Explain to others how changes in one part of the organization affect other organizational systems.
• Continually communicate the highest-priority strategic initiatives to keep the leadership team focused on the right things.
• Ensure that all systems in the organization are aligned toward achieving the overall strategic goals.
• Lead organizational efforts that exploit the most highly leveraged business opportunities.

Extraordinary Leader © 2010 Zenger Folkman.  All rights reserved.

Assisting our businesses take their vision and translate it into technological capability through a technology roadmap and related architecture is critical to sustain business, but even more important to maintain our competitive advantage. And, at the end of the day is an expectation of our customers to be anywhere they are at the time they want us. Thus, building strategic relationships is fundamental to our success.

Below are ideas captured from various leaders on how to improve effectiveness in the building relationships while demonstrating the core competencies of Develops Strategic Relationships.

• Develop an elevator speech.
• Develop and communicate strategic goals and report on a regular basis in every meeting with your peers.
• Ask, listen and understand where people are before communicating to them.
• Leverage the Wells Fargo Vision and Values.
• Have the written strategy defining all critical communications to reinforce the vision/ strategy.
• Communicate clear messages and do it over and over and over again.
• Ensure messages are not so “in the clouds” that they are not relatable.
• Take a Strategic Communications course.
• Ask for feedback from all audience levels.

As you make developing strategic relationships a focus, share your successes with management or offer up at team members for shared learning.

Thank you for letting me share!
~Stacy