Success Through Relationships

Many of us will resolve to improve our relationships in the coming year. Guest blogger Casey Mauldin shares his personal insights on the subject.

We’re getting closer to the end of the year and this last quarter has so far been filled with amazing learning lessons, trials and tribulations, and as always a plethora of growing pains. But, the number one thing that I am taking from 2010 is that the future is only as good as the relationships that you are currently developing.

Whether it’s a new or existing, customer, employee, strategic partner, or even a personal relationship if you’re not developing better ways to nurture these connections then the survival rate of these relationships are on a timeline to zero.

Get in front of People
I know the biggest problem that I, like most people, deal with from day to day is venturing outside our comfortable bubbles that we have created and force ourselves to venture out into the amazing world of opportunity that is available to us and find new ways to develop new and existing relationships. With today’s busy schedules and rapidly growing distractions it’s very easy to have idle time be sucked up by social networks, text messaging, and mobile aps, but instead of spending this time attempting to become keyboard superstars we should be out nurturing our next potential million-dollar relationship.

Maximize the potential of every meeting.
There is one thing that I have learned from conversing with people is there is almost always something that can develop from even the most casual of interactions. Sometimes it’s the most impromptu meetings that create the biggest impact. Some of our biggest clients have been met in the most casual of places, and mostly by accident.

So what I do to get the most from each interaction is break it down into 3 simple action items; Communicate, Collaborate, Create.

Communicate; First is discovery, discuss the goings on, the pain points, the needs, and the desires of the person in front of you and figure out the priority of these points and begin to look for how you and your organization can add value to these discussion points.

Collaborate; After discovery it is now time to plan. Begin to build a collaborative blueprint of solutions that will resolve the needs and fulfill the desires of the previously discussed. Collaboration is key and listening is vital to the success of the nurturing of the relationship at this point.

Create; After devising a collaborative plan, it’s now time to act. This is your time to shine, whether if it’s a service or a product do whatever it is you do and create greatness.

Not every relationship is worth nurturing
In the famous words of Jim Collins “first who, then what”. The number 1 thing that I struggle with as a leader is failure, and sometimes you have to come to the realization that you just won’t always succeed in creating sustainable relationships with everyone. The saying “you can’t please everyone all the time”, well, that goes both ways and sometimes relationships can become more of a burden to you and your organization than an asset.

Don’t be loyal to a fault. Loyalty like optimism can empower your success just as it can be your demise. Though you want loyalty out of all of your relationships you can also be so blindly loyal that it blinds you the onset of disaster set before you.

Make sure that your relationships are sending the right message. The Image Pro Design board just recently made a decision to end a relationship with a very high-profile client because we felt that the client sacrificed integrity and respect for the pursuit of money and power. This decision did not come easy, potential profits from such a client could take years to be counterproductive, but this relationship didn’t lineup with our company’s vision. Every relationship should meet a predetermined criteria, or else you could end up sacrificing integrity for an immediate reward that always ends up costing more in the long run. It’s like selling your soul to the devil; it’s going to catch up to you sooner or later.

Red flags that a relationship needs to be evaluated:

– Do the resources that it takes to maintain the relationship out weigh the benefits?

– Does the relationship keep you from nurturing other potential relationship?

– Are you making too many exceptions for the relationship? Are they adhering to your systems and procedures or you to theirs, and at what cost?

– How stressful is it to maintain the relationship? Is the relationship offering profit at the expense of wellbeing?

– Does the relationship give your brand the wrong image? You become what you surround yourself with; do people misjudge you because of this relationship?

Every successful company can speak about the positive impact that relationship building has created within their organization, and within these companies are leaders who understand how to effectively leverage relationship management; when it’s time to make new, when it’s time to nurture existing, and especially when it’s time to walk away. Developing these skills will not only bring you success in life but when applied personally will make the most important difference of all, with the people that really matter, your loved ones.

Content provided by guest blogger, Casey Mauldin, CEO of Image Pro Design\nTo find out more about Image Pro Design visit their website at www.imageprodesign.com.