FROM LEADERS TO RELATIONAL ROLE MODELS (REFERENTS)

In an urgent manner, we have had to adapt to diverse and adverse situations. We have confirmed the need to cooperate, share care, talent, and actions. The effectiveness of hierarchical structures has faltered. Self-regulation and shared responsibility within a network have emerged as a form of organization that questions verticality, and we look for ROLE MODELS (REFERENTS) for every need, as we have confirmed that one individual does not possess everything.

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We have been observing how organizations continuously adapt to obtain maximum economic profitability and improve their processes, implementing organizational charts and structures based on the individual responsibility of the leader. Therefore, today, a change in the focus of leadership is necessary—moving from an individual expression towards the relational plane, taking care of the quality of relationships generated in co-existence within personal or professional environments. We need to provide evolutionary responses to the questions that arise regarding vertical leadership that still seeks to provide total answers: Where is the autonomy of the professionals who form the teams? Where is the development of each one of them? Where is the contribution and collaboration among team members? Where is the quality of the relationships that they generate and maintain?

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The ROLE MODELS (REFERENTS) who accompany and care for the quality of relationships and appreciate each professional in a personalized way are Relational Role Models (Referentes Relacionales). The Relational Role Model assumes their responsibility without renouncing their obligations, but generates co-responsibility, distributing leadership among the team components. The Relational Role Model considers the uniqueness and contribution of each professional in the team and works from complementarity, making visible the knowledge, competencies, and contributions of each professional. The Relational Role Model creates conditions for each professional to declare their commitments and actions, enabling the achievement of shared challenges and objectives. They clarify, concretize, and trust in communication and transparency as essential elements, and favor spaces for conversation. The Relational Role Model manages discrepancy as an engine for innovation through dialogue. The Relational Role Model contributes to quality because they believe that, if there is no relational quality, there is no learning, no attention, no collaboration, no governance; complementarity disappears, and, with it, transparency, which leads directly to a lack of commitment associated with a lack of responsibility. Managing the RELATIONAL QUALITY of an organization means taking care of the internal and external relationships among professionals, suppliers, and clients so that they flow healthily, avoiding pending conversations, unfulfilled expectations, conflicts, aggressive language, rumors, and everything that hinders and prevents the development of ideas and projects. The well-being of organizations and their professionals depends, to a large extent, on the way we care for the quality of the relationships maintained by their members. We need Relational Role Models to be able to provide answers together.

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By SUSANA DE LOS REYES.