10 Tips to Improving Your Relationships in Business
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In business, we always have a lot to think about. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a CEO, an executive leader, or working your way up to that, you may find that you have your fingers in many pies. We rarely have just one job in this day and age, and because of that, we have to be flexible, dynamic, and progressive. When you know that you want to succeed, drive the business forward, and climb higher in your career, you need to be at the peak of your game. But how can you make that happen? Is it all about your personal and professional development, or is it something more profound than that?
Our network is one of the greatest assets we have when it comes to business (and life). After all, we’re only ever as strong and successful as the people around us. Your working relationships can help you progress, grow, feel supported, and find the success you’re looking for in business and your career. So, you may want to ask yourself – are you genuinely harnessing them to their full potential?
If not, you will find a wide range of ways to improve your relationships in the business world and benefit from it. Let’s take a look at ten ways to help you.
1. Understand Your Goals
Firstly, you’ll want to think about your motivations here. What kind of business relationships do you want to work on? What are you trying to achieve? When you know what outcome you’re looking for, you can begin to turn your attention in the right direction. The following nine points will help you through that process.
2. Grow Your Emotional Intelligence
The first thing you will want to do when it comes to relationship building is to look at your emotional intelligence (EQ). To have the best possible dynamic with people. Building empathy, being more objective, and understanding human emotion and intention can help you in many people-centric situations.
3. Work on Your Listening Skills
Alongside this, listening is one of the most essential elements of your ability to build relationships. When you can listen more than you talk, you’ll develop significantly as a communicator. Most of the time, improving your people skills is only about your communication skills. Investing time and focus into this will improve your relationships for the better – in all areas of your life.
4. Improve as a Leader
As a senior leader, your leadership skills often depend heavily on your communication and relationship-building skills. If you know, you want better working relationships in your company and with external parties, looking to become a better leader can also be a massive part of that. Investing in your professional development could be beneficial for you here.
5. Network More
When it comes to growing your business relationships, you can begin to think about networking more. If you know that you’d like more contacts, learning how to network better will be worth your time. In doing so, you never know what opportunities may come your way.
6. Invest Your Time in Others
Alongside growing your existing network, you will want to think about how you can nurture current and budding business relationships. One of the best ways to do this is to invest your time and energy in them. By taking an interest and actively aiming to build and improve these relationships, you may find that it helps you to move closer to your previously determined goals.
7. Care About Your Employees
It’s not just your relationships regarding growing your business with investors or other stakeholders that are important. Your relationship with your employees is arguably the most important of all. To improve this, it's a great idea to build trust with them. You can do this with actions. From providing great benefits, creating an excellent staff area, and respecting their privacy with employee lockers to taking an interest in their lives and being invested in their growth, there’s a lot you can do here. They can give more to your business when they feel valued and respected.
8. Be Genuine and Selfless
During this process, you must ensure you are heading into things with the right intention. If you have an agenda and you want to gain, it will show, and you may struggle to build genuine connections. But when you’re selfless and focus on making real, authentic connections, it will improve your ability to create lasting professional relationships.
9. Prioritize Team Building
Regarding your team and staff, you will always want to ensure that the right dynamic is in place. You might want to consider bringing in different team-building initiatives for this to happen. These don’t always have to be activity days, but making this a priority can also help your working relationships around the office,
10. Be Intentional
Finally, you will benefit if you can be intentional in this process. It’s not always about networking for its own sake; it’s more about being conscious about what you want to achieve and choosing the right actions to support that. So whether it’s being a better communicator, putting yourself in the right situations, or growing as a leader, it should all meet your goals.
Building Your Business Relationships
Ultimately, when it comes to improving your relationships across your career, being genuine, open, honest, and forthcoming does make a difference. Remember, this isn’t always about what you can gain but what you can give. If you know you can make a difference, build authentic connections, learn, and grow, then you’re on the right track. There are always so many incredible ways your network can help you blossom in business, so put the energy in and see what might come of it!
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