Relationship Quotient @ Work

Dears,

I am a quote freak. Good quotes pull me up, keep me on the run and give me sound sleep at night. One thread which connects all my favorite quotes is about relationship. Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they're trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take. The real path to success in your career and in your personal life is through creating an inner circle of “relationships" - deep, close relationships with trusted individuals who will offer the encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support that every one of us needs to reach our full potential. Whether your dream is to lead a company, be a top producer in your field, overcome the self-destructive habits that hold you back, lose weight or make a small difference in the larger world.

The professional success is very much directly proportionate to your relationship quotient and there is nothing called Lone Professional superman. In projects the team members get to live a life bigger than their personal circle ultimately it is largely dependent on being there for one another – Having Each Other’s Back and giving the customer the ultimate value for his investment and getting the customers into this relationship circle. Extraordinary business success can be attributed to strong leadership and effective management and utilization of project teams.  In today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment, integrated and effective project teams are required to use cutting edge technology to achieve unprecedented financial earnings.  Often however, these projects fall victim to ill-conceived, poorly-executed business plans that completely ignore the importance of relationships among the people making up the project team.  To ensure corporate survival under these conditions, leadership must secure a competitive advantage.  As Jack Welch, former CEO and Chairman of General Electric simply stated:  “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.

Relationship building and consensus are critical to effective innovation, risk management and corporate growth.  The Learnings which l would like to share is out of some of our project experiences both good and bad, the centerpiece for success and failure lies in relationship. What would you get out of good relationship? A question asked by one of my colleagues I said “Harmony and Inner peace”, the great driving force for any successful execution of a program. The Harmony with Self, with your team & with your customer. Sometime sheer magnitude of the project drives us crazy and what brings us back to harmony is relationship. We have seen most rough and tough customers come into your circle with relationship. The relationship building is Art and Science, Its Art by the way you express and it’s a science when you have right facts to demonstrate and strengthen your relationship.

I would like to bring to your notice some of the significant component of relationship building.

Forgiving Makes You More Important

Forgiveness can be very transforming for an individual.  Imagine what it can do for an Organization. This component may sound little abstract but this is tremendous catalyst for great transformation. The willingness to admit and willingness to forgive forms the core part of relationship. I have seen number of times the project leaders take unprecedented stand on penalizing the coworker for their mistakes and I am not advocating that is right or wrong what I suggest is to see things beyond that particular incident and give a chance to someone who can prove himself the next time and go that extra mile for you in your project. 

Nurture the relationship in your Nest

While you need to be outgoing to make a relation but you need to nurture this in your nest. Be it a coworker or your customer you need to put forth your best foot to build a relationship and more importantly you need to nurture this by keeping the human touch alive. Mails cannot bail you out all time and you need to reach them in person and build this relationship. We have seen during some of our projects the hot pot escalations just evaporate when you meet and greet the tough customer. Sometimes a dinner with your hostile friend would save plenty days and month of hard work.

Round of Applause for our Social Network Technology

“I am not Facebook to like”, one of my hilarious quote. Keeping the fun part aside you did get to see lot more happening on the social network sites be it a Twitter, FB, MySpace, Yammer etc. what do you think they are out there  for, if not for great market caps these companies made but from the people point of view they are building their relationship. When there is hue cry about privacy we also see people want to reach out and connect to bigger circle and more meaning to their daily life beyond work and immediate family. I use this as a medium to connect to my customers, coworkers and friends. It’s kind of soother to the daily stress and it gives you a feeling of being part of a community which share the pains and pleasure of our daily life.

Relationship building is a mindset and when you have the right frame of mind to do it, you will find a way to do it better.

Loving P&C

DC*