Relationships are critical to your business success

Each week we share resources geared towards improving outcomes for your small business. This week our theme is “Relationships”. Specifically, why relationships are critical to your business success and how you can nurture those relationships.

5 Steps to Building Great Business Relationships

https://hbr.org/2014/12/5-steps-to-building-great-business-relationships

This snippet from the article encapsulates why relationships are so important in business:

“To me, this is the defining attribute of a great business relationship: when each party has an emotional stake in the other’s success.”

Book Recommendation: Taking Flight! by Merrick Rosenberg & Daniel Silvert

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11914874-taking-flight

Of course we know relationships are important but sometimes, try as we might, there are some people we just can’t connect with. As a project manager, overcoming personality misalignment has been critical to my work. Understanding behavioural styles can help overcome these relationship blockers. Taking Flight! takes a gentle approach to a complex topic.

How to Build Better Business Relationships

https://www.inc.com/guides/201101/how-to-build-better-business-relationships.html

“The truth is that entrepreneurs too often get caught up in the details of the kinds of products or services they are selling to notice how critical it is to build relationships not just with your customers, but also with your vendors, employees and–gasp–even your competitors.”

How to Deal with Difficult Business Partners

http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/jonathan-goldhill/How-to-Deal-with-Difficult-Business-Partners.html

Sometimes it’s the relationships within your business that need attention. Perhaps the most complicated relationship is with business partners. A dysfunctional relationship with a partner can lead to a dysfunctional business.

Business partners, whether you realize it or not, are engaged in a kind of professional marriage. Like a marriage, you come together in the beginning with a common goal of building toward a shared vision. This may have worked for a while, but now one or both of you have changed just enough to no longer fit so perfectly with the other anymore. Who’s the problem? Maybe you’re both ok, but you’re just no longer ok together.

Learn How to Develop Effective Work Relationships

https://www.thebalance.com/developing-effective-work-relationships-1919386

Navigating relationships with the people you work alongside everyday presents a unique set of challenges.

No matter your education, your experience, or your title, if you can’t play well with others, you will never accomplish your work mission.

Effective interpersonal work relationships form the cornerstone of success and satisfaction with your job and your career.