3.21 Levi Turner: Relational Engagement

“The best leaders and teammates have the best engagements with each other.”

- Levi Turner

What do you want people to say about you when you aren't around?

Principal Levi Turner says the best teammates and leaders have the best engagements or interactions with people. He says our engagements with others can be positive or negative and direct or indirect.

Our direct engagements are easy to recognize; they happen anytime we have direct communication with someone.

Our indirect engagements are a little more difficult to identify. A few examples include how we walk past people, the energy and body language we have while in the same room as someone else, and how we talk about people when they aren’t around.

All of those things can affect how people perceive us, our relationships, and our ability to lead.

The goal is to be mindful of the types of engagements we have, positive and negative, so we are showing up the way we want to.

For example, I want to have as many positive engagements as possible because when I walk into rooms, I want to lift the energy and enthusiasm in the room.

But as a leader, sometimes I have to have negative engagements, like when providing feedback or holding people accountable, so I think proactively about how I can make this happen.

In fact, research shows there is a sweet spot that states the best relationships have between a 5:1 and 13:1 positive to negative engagement ratio, meaning the best relationships have more positive interactions but they also have negative ones that allow us to hold each other accountable.

Questions of the Day: What kind of engagements do you want to have?