Creating Relevancy by Building and Fostering Meaningful Relationships

Relevancy is built on your knowledge, skill as well as the degree and value of your relationships. If you don’t have solid relationships, then your work, no matter how great it is, will only take you so far. There is an art to building relationships, and mastering that art is critical to developing your visibility and influence. If you don’t focus on building relationships, you can’t influence to a significant degree.

If your intention in building relationships is to enhance the organization, make it stronger, more competitive, and a better place to work, isn’t work more engaging and fun when you have solid relationships with people you like to work with?

Here are six key pathways for building meaningful relationships:

1)

Increase your savviness about the power dynamics in your organization. Be aware of the power positions or power structures involved. Who has authority or leverage in what area? Tailor your interactions accordingly.

2)

Be careful about letting other people’s opinions influence your own, especially when it comes to taking a negative view of someone. Until you have your own experience with someone, you really don’t know. A person who you trust and respect might say, “I would watch out for Sarah, because she can be a bit of a manipulator.” Put that in the back of your mind and say, “That’s an interesting note that I need to be mindful of, and I’m going to determine who Sarah is to me by our interactions and behaviors.”

3)

Who has authority in the company and isn’t leveraging it. Maybe they aren’t acting as an influencer now, and they could be, and they could be an important ally. Maybe it’s worth aligning with them as a step toward having greater influence. sometimes people are shy about standing in their authority or exerting their influence.

A client of mine who is a Chief Technology Officer doesn’t often say what’s on his mind because he has a fear that he may appear to be constantly disruptive. By encouraging him to speak up while being mindful of what he was saying, how he was saying it and who he was saying it to and the timing of his delivery, he saw that his point of view made a real and lasting impact on business strategy. Timing is everything. What he had to say may most likely also be on the minds of five of his peers and they may be waiting for him to say something since he has more influence in certain meetings. As he did, he also engendered more meaningful conversations.

4)

Find those who are not officially in positions of authority, and are trusted and respected inside the organization. Some people are the go-to people for their thoughts, ideas, and wisdom. There may be people in your organization who are serial mentors. They love to mentor, and they like to champion projects, initiatives, or other people. Think about who those people are in your company, and if you don’t know who they are, find out.

5)

Find the informal networks that exist throughout your organization. A client  who was a senior leader at a small agency realized the leader heading up the company had a profound relationship with the person in charge of marketing, and the person in charge of innovation. It was well-known around the office that the three of them were “a clique.” This is a form of an informal network. The point was, unless you had influence with them, you weren’t going very far.

6)

Be thoughtful about who you align yourself with. Build relationships based on trust, respect, and safety and with those who cultivate similar values. When you’re forming or growing relationships, it’s critical that you do it from a place of integrity and honesty. I recommend, especially for those who are shy or introverted, that you first focus on developing relationships with people that you have a natural affinity with. Focus first on people you like and who are easy to interact with. This way you develop positive connections in harmony, and that bolsters your confidence to develop relationships with people who are more challenging to connect with.

Fostering relationships takes time and intentionality. You cannot build your visibility and influence without cultivating a network of treasured and trusted relationships. Be in the business of developing connections from a place of being in service to others. By helping others to increase their value, you in turn will do the same for you.