Relationship-Oriented Organization

The theory that keeps coming to mind when I network with various employees at every New York Life Investments level is the relationship-oriented behavioral approach to leadership because of the emphasis on people and building relationships. Even when I was interviewing with NYLIM, when I asked what their favorite thing about the company was, every person answered the same: the people and the culture. Even though it has only been two weeks since I started the internship, I can tell that the employees have genuine connections with each other and value the personal aspect of the company, not just excelling at the job itself. For instance, in a segment marketing team meeting, the first 10 minutes was everyone congratulating one of the women for getting engaged and then asking about their relationship and the proposal. It was so sweet and I could tell everyone was so enthralled and truly cared about her personal life. And then the meeting got started and work was done, but the first topic of conversation was personal. 

Jomil, the managing director of marketing operations, said that she likes to start calls with a personal note because it humanizes the work environment and breeds empathy and support among the team members. This is a perfect example of the relationship dimension of the behavioral approach because it highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships within a workplace, making the environment more horizontal despite traditional hierarchical structures in place in a large corporate organization. Jomil’s personal touch was especially important working remotely during a worldwide pandemic when everyone was going through a tough time in their lives. Jomil accredited this strategy to her authentic leadership because she is very aware of the pandemic’s impact on people and aims to make her team feel comfortable, another key aspect of relationship-oriented leadership. Authentic leadership stresses the importance of openness surrounding one’s strengths and weaknesses, and Jomil was very upfront about hers. She started the conversation about how she did not come from a marketing background so was already at a disadvantage when placed in this position, yet she worked hard, asked questions, and put herself out there. Her self-awareness in her lack of knowledge of the subject made her more comfortable learning from her followers, thus allowing her to develop the necessary skills to succeed at her job.