MHWest & Co., Inc.
MANAGEMENT & EDUCATION CONSULTANTS
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Marilyn H. West
Chair & CEO
Email:
Phone:
888.937.8904
Web:
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Staying in the Right Lane to Bring More Value to Relationships
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Growing up in the small town of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, my relationships focused on family and friends. I learned quickly that staying on track with a positive relationship with my Mother and Dad was the right thing to do and had consequences if I did not and benefits if I did. Not only did I learn about relationships from my parents but others as well, including: additional family members, friendships with neighbors, church members, classmates, and teachers.
I also learned from my early years in academia that relationships were not solely about people. There are relationships of molecules, numbers, genes, events and more in supporting the make-up of human life, environment, and lifestyles. While I didn't realize at the time how valuable these early experiences with relationships would be as I matured, I now know that they represented key ingredients in navigating life - personally, professionally and in the business world. Much of any successful relationship is about balance--i.e. balancing factors, forces, and circumstances that form the architecture of the relationship. How the relationship is sustained brings the value. I also know from experience and research that keeping relationships as simple as possible has a larger payoff.
So, what else is there to keep you in the right lane with your relationships?
1. Scrutinize all relationships in terms of a SWOT analysis and use findings to determine what needs adjusted
2. Take a look at your qualities and make-up and determine what you can adjust in these areas to improve a relationship that is working well and not so well
3. Rid yourself of relationships that you believe will not contribute to your vision in the near future
4. Identify relationships that you would like to pursue and determine what you need to bring them into reality
5. Take a look at relationships that other individuals or companies have built and determine what you can borrow. There are a few companies that I have looked to: FedEx, Amazon, Turner Broadcasting, Apple, Harvard University, University of Michigan, US Chamber of Commerce, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dominion, Altria, WestRock, LEAD Virginia, Kraft Industries, American Express and General Motors, Forbes Magazine and the Economist. As for individuals, I look to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, many leaders that I encounter daily in my work and a host of women and men in my family
6. Brainstorm regularly with your governing bodies and your leadership teams to obtain their perspectives on relationships that the company has, would like to have and strategies needed to support these
7. Acknowledge mistakes to the individual or business where you are in a relationship or building a relationship. Swallowing pride is difficult, but no one or thing is perfect
8. Build on lessons learned from successful and failed relationships and incorporate findings into best practices such as the following:
- Build relationships in person or face to face
- Count on yourself to build and sustain relationships not designees unless the parties to the relationship agree that this is acceptable
- Conduct research on the party that you wish to establish a relationship...Cold Calling is not the best approach
- Participate in meetings and events where you know that people and companies with which you want to build relationships will be participating
- Try serving as a resource to the company where you want to form a relationship. Most will recall when you do something for them
- Build a timeline to build a relationship. It takes time to kick off a relationship and even longer to sustain it
- Find approaches to create and sustain trust in the relationship and sharpen those listening skills...it's a good thing to allow others to do the talking some of the time
- Strive to add value to the relationship and that doesn't always mean dollars and cents
- Communicate openly
- Build a grid of milestones to reach in the relationship in order that you can monitor its success
If you are interested in strengthening your capacity or your team's capacity to build successful relationships, connect with Marilyn West today --- [email protected].
M4 for July 20 will focus on growing market share with a less attractive demographic. |
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