“I don’t think my parents liked me. They put a live teddy bear in my crib.”
 Woody Allen
Being a leader can be a lonely place.
The higher you go in an organization the least likely you are to have colleagues and reports provide you with honest and candid feedback about your behavior. How many of us of heard the refrain, “good meeting Bob” only to wander out the door muttering to ourselves just how much a waste a time the meeting actually was.
Leaders also seem to be high in self-delusion (no research has looked at how many leaders still have “imaginary friends“). In a study reported in Harvard Business Review, CEOs seem to have unrealistically optimistic perceptions about several aspects of their top team’s performance.
In this study, CEOs reported providing significantly higher effective direction for their team or caring more about team interests than their direct reports ((Rosen, R. & Adair, F. (2007). CEOs Misperceive Top Team’s Performance. Harvard Business Review, September 2007)).
What exactly do relationships at work do for talent? Do close relationships with one’s boss and colleagues have any impact on engagement and productivity?
Current research suggests that strong relationships with one’s boss and direct reports are associated with:
- Less inflammation measured as C-Reactive Protein ((Suarez, E. (2004). C Reactive Protein Is Associated With Psychological Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease in Apparently Healthy Adults. Psychosomatic Medicine 66:684-690)).
- Enhanced immunity ((Schwartz, G.E., Schwartz, J.I., Nowack, K.M., & Eichling, P.S. (1992). Changes in perceived stress and social support over time are related to changes in immune function. University of Arizona and Canyon Ranch. Unpublished manuscript)).
- Less burnout in professional working women–lower depersonalization and higher personal accomplishment ((Nowack, K. and Pentkowski, A. (1994). Lifestyle habits, substance use, and predictors of job burnout in professional working women. Work and Stress, 8, 19-35)).
- Decreased depression ((Stroetzer, U. et al. (2006). Problematic interpersonal relationships at work and depression: A Swedish prospective cohort study. Journal of Occupational Health, 51, 144-151)).
- Enhanced job satisfaction ((Simon, L., Judge, T., & Halvorsen-Ganepola, M. (2010). In good company? A multi-level investigation of the effects of coworker relationships on well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76, 534-546)).
- Less illness during life based on meta-analytics reviews of over 148 studies ((Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000316. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316)).
- Greater longevity based on a 20-year longitudinal study indicating that those with low social support were 2.4 times more likely to die than those with high support systems ((Shirom, A., et al. (2011) Work-based predictors of mortality: A 20-year follow-up of healthy employees. Health Psychology, 30, 268-275)).
- Enhanced levels of employee satisfaction, productivity, retention, and engagement at work (The Gallup Organization research on “having a best friend at work”).
Despite the challenges and problems in conceptualizing social support, social integration and networking by researchers and practitioners, having people in our lives to use for emotional, functional and intellectual support appears to be a protective factor in health and one that simultaneously contributes to increase productivity.
We took a look at some social support research results from our stress and health risk assessment called StressScan by analyzing availability, utility and satisfaction of social support by gender. We tested gender differences by using a statistical test called analysis of variance (ANOVA) and found some interesting differences in gender with a sample of almost 800 professional working men and women.
- In general, women reported greater availability and use of their social support network (supervisor/boss, colleagues/co-workers, partner, family and friends) than their male counterparts (all p’s < .01).
- Women reported using their boss or supervisor significantly more frequently than men, which was surprising as research suggests that more successful women indicate that mentoring was less important to their career advancement than did less successful women.
- Women reported significantly more availability, use and satisfaction with their friends compared to males. They also reported greater availability and use of their partners, families and friends (all p’s < .01) which is consistent to what Shelly Taylor, Ph.D. has suggested as part of the female “tend and befriend” response to coping with work and life stress ((Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. Behavioral Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight” Psychological Review, 107(3):41-429)).
In our statistical analysis of social support for professional men and women we were able to determine the relative amount of dissatisfaction with specific sources of social support.
Men and women (N= 785) rated they were either “Not at All” or only “Slightly” satisfied with the following sources to meet their emotional and instrumental support needs:
- Boss/Supervisor 31.0%
- Colleagues/Co-Workers 16.8%
- Family 13.0%
- Partners/Significant Others 9.9%
- Friends 8.3%
Having a strong social support network and being satisfied appears to be significantly associated with their perceived level of stress and well-being.
Men and women in our sample who reported greater overall social support also reported significantly stronger correlations with:
- Lower Stress ( r= .35, p < .01)
- Greater Resilience/Hardiness (r= .47, p < .01)
- Greater Happiness (r= .58, p < .01)
No doubt Carole King was definitely on to something when  in 1971 when she wrote “You’ve Got a Friend“….. Be well……
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
