Relationship Building - 5 Tips and 5 Questions

By building great relationships with all of your people, you will shift the baseline way up. So that when you manage them, it will be so much easier. Think how climbing a mountain from sea level is so much harder than from a camp half-way up. It's easy and it's do-able, from today

5 Tips

• Be Natural - by being yourself, you will build relationships with ease. Trust yourself - let yourself go. Be open, share your feelings, but mostly, listen to others.
  
• Ask Questions - you will find out more about others by listening to what they have to say, so be nosy, ask open questions, find out stuff. Then ask more about what they have been telling you.
  
• Show Integrity - by ensuring that others can trust you, by following through with promises and being discreet, people will be more open with you and that is the doorway to great relationships. Do what you say you will do.
  
• Match Them - nothing helps build relationships by matching tone, volume of voice. By taking the same body posture. By paying attention to their eyes (whilst nor staring).
  
• Have Fun - nothing works better to build relationships than by having a foundation of a fun time together. So laugh, take time to 'play' and be informal. Take part.

5 Questions

1. What do you know about your people outside the business?
   
2. When was the last time you asked them about something important to them?
   
3. What percentage of your people do you speak to every day?
   
4. Who have you shared your hopes, fears, worries and excitements about your organisation with this week?
   
5. What three steps can you take to build relationships between you and your people - in the next three working days?

There is no time like the present to start and to focus on Relationship Building. It is the basis of all you do when you manage others.