Having strong and beneficial working relationships can make or break your career or your business, let alone your own morale and enthusiasm. It’s vital, particularly as an entrepreneur, that you are able to build strong relationships and avoid ending up in a really lonely place trying to build your empire.
You may well be self sufficient and on your own mission, but you certainly do not want to journey alone. Connections, partners, associates and mentors can all be very powerful and influential on your route to achieving your goals. At the very least an inability to build strong relationships will certainly slow your progress and make life a great deal harder than it needs to be.
Here are some short but punchy tips to create and maintain better professional relationships:
Slow Down
Literally. Slow down when you’re talking. Those with lots to say and who are self-assured will often have a bad habit of talking at great speed and severely risk being misunderstood or not coming across as sincere. Fast-paced talking is often associated with being scripted, and while this may not genuinely be the case, when you are talking passionately, you may accidently lose sincerity and thus lose your audience.
Show Empathy
Better professional relationships often shine from a personal connection rather than always being about who is a more influential person from a success or industry perspective. Showing genuine personal and professional empathy to others regardless of any feelings of stature or superiority will go a long way to building mutual respect.
You may be successful, you may be influential in your business and your field, but if you don’t show respect for people on a personal level with sufficient shows of genuine empathy, they won’t respect you as an individual.
Celebrate Other People
It’s a classic error to feel like you need to consistently talk yourself up to others to assert your worth on a given scenario or group. While there is sometimes a justified situation for doing this, what you’ll find is that celebrating others is actually more powerful.
Celebrating the achievements and contributions of others goes a long way to demonstrating that you pay attention and you are aware. The recognition of success and good work in others also passively creates a sense of recognition for yourself through the demonstration of that understanding. It’s also great for generally making others feel happy and appreciated which is always a good thing.
Respond Positively to Feedback
Feedback is a valuable thing, even if that feedback is negative or not what we want to hear. Those who are willing to give you difficult feedback are often trying to help you and they are doing you a favour in letting you know how you can improve. Even if you don’t completely agree, thank those who give you feedback and respond positively and gratefully for having received it. Whether you think so at the time or not, you actually want to encourage others to continually give you feedback to better yourself.
Check in Without Reason
It’s not easy when you have a large list of connections to manage. But do your best to check in regularly with those who are important to you even if you don’t have anything specific to discuss. You’ll often find that it’s during the times that an individual is quiet with you, that they in fact need you most. Even if they’re not in need, no one ever turned their nose up at a check in from a friend of colleague.
