Part 3 of 4: How You Interact with Others — The Hidden Impact of Behavioral Alignment in Leadership

We tend to evaluate executives based on intelligence, industry knowledge, and results.

But when teams underperform, when misalignment drags down progress, or when a transition fails to stick—it often comes down to something less visible but more powerful:

How a leader interacts with the people around them.

In mid-market companies, where roles are fluid and leadership presence carries weight, interpersonal behavior becomes a multiplier—or a slow leak.

At Turret Advisory, we’ve seen again and again that strong interpersonal skills don’t mean being “nice” or “charismatic.” They mean being intentional and skilled in how you influence, align, and activate others in service of the business.

This isn’t soft. This is structural.

Let’s look at the three behavioral sub-skills that define this category—and why one of them is often the x-factor for success in a senior role.

A) Optimizing Talent Differences

This skill is about seeing the full potential of the people around you—and helping them operate at their best.

It starts with accurate evaluation: Who’s truly great at what? We’re all “good” at many things, but high-skill leaders can spot what someone is uniquely great at—and structure teams accordingly.

Next comes intentional team construction. The goal isn’t to build a group of clones—it’s to build a team with a mixture of strengths that’s fit for purpose. The right blend of cognitive styles, skillsets, and identities can create a team culture where everyone knows they’re indispensable to the mission.

Finally, this skill is about developing others. And not in the HR-101 sense of asking someone to “fix a weakness.” High-skill leaders think beyond checklists:

• Sometimes it’s about muting a strength that’s overused
• Sometimes it’s about helping someone go from good to great
• Sometimes it’s about creating the structure and accountability for growth—not just suggesting it

When done well, this is culture-shaping. It makes a team feel known, valued, and capable of more than they imagined.

B) Power & Influence

Power isn’t a four-letter word.

It’s a tool—neutral on its own—and leaders either wield it skillfully or carelessly. This behavioral skill is about understanding how influence works and using it to move people toward shared outcomes.

At its core, this includes:

• Adapting communication to different audiences—not just repeating the same message louder
• Clarifying purpose—making it easy for every team member to understand where they fit and why it matters
• Shaping context, not just content—framing issues in a way that helps others move with you

Skilled leaders here can take the same message and repackage it for the board, the frontline team, the skeptical VP, and the new hire—each in a way that lands.

They also know how to navigate hierarchy and organizational complexity. Not with politics—but with awareness of human systems. Influence isn’t just about logic. It’s about timing, tone, relationships, and framing.

This is the realm of leaders who align others without formal control—and who make alignment look easy.

C) Collaboration & Networks

This final dimension is about getting big things done through others—intentionally, relationally, and with trust.

It starts with empathy and perspective-taking. Skilled collaborators don’t just share their ideas—they understand where others are coming from, anticipate points of friction, and proactively build buy-in.

It continues with relationship-building across difference. Not just bonding with like-minded peers, but building durable relationships with people across departments, functions, and backgrounds.

High-skill leaders in this space:

• Build bridges across silos
• Cultivate networks inside and outside the organization
• Know how to bring the right people into the room at the right time
• Are credible, curious, and trustworthy—especially to people unlike themselves

When collaboration is behavioral—not procedural—it becomes a source of momentum, not delay.

Where Leaders Go Wrong

Underperformance in this category usually doesn’t come from bad intent—it comes from behavioral blind spots.

In fact, most interpersonal failures at the leadership level are unknown unknowns:
The leader doesn’t realize how their own behavior is creating misalignment, dysfunction, or drag.

Some examples:

• The team builder who fills roles with capable generalists—but misses the one unique strength the team actually needs
• The communicator who repeats the same message across every audience, unaware that it’s not landing—or worse, it’s creating confusion
• The well-meaning collaborator who brings in too many voices, disrupting decision-making by allowing the wrong people to believe they have a vote when they don’t
• The relationship-builder who’s strong with peers—but burns trust with those above or below them due to inconsistent behavior

These aren’t personality flaws. They’re patterns of behavior that go unchecked because no one names them—and few leaders know to look for them.

In senior roles, these blind spots are costly. Because at that level, how you operate socially becomes part of the system.

How to Use This Lens

If you’re evaluating, hiring, or promoting a leader, ask:

“What kind of interpersonal behavior will make the biggest difference for this role, in this business, at this stage?”

Then define the primary need:

• Optimizing talent differences — when the work requires complex team dynamics and growing internal capabilities
• Power & influence — when the job is about alignment, storytelling, and navigating complexity
• Collaboration & networks — when success depends on building trust across silos or driving external relationships

Choose the wrong fit—and execution will stall in subtle, cumulative ways.
Choose the right one—and the organization moves faster with less friction.

Final Thought: Interpersonal Behavior Is Not Style—It’s Strategy

You don’t need every behavioral skill in one person.

But you do need to know:

“What behavioral pattern of interaction will drive success—and does this leader consistently operate that way?”

Leadership is influence. Influence is behavior.
This is where good teams become great.