Comments

When I think about ANYTHING that was achieved in healthcare in my career it was always underpinned by relationships. In any setting there are always those folks who love to work on their own and that is great … but when it comes to implementing anything it always depends on others. Relationships and communication are not ‘soft’ options. The 'soft' option is to lock yourself away from others and not communicate - that is easy and we can all do that. The ‘hard’ bit is selling your dream and that is about relationships.

Posted by Trevor Gay at December 10, 2007 6:10 PM

Boyd Clarke, former CEO of tpc, always said, it is more important who you are in business with than what business you are in...and he lived that way...very cool

Posted by Mike Neiss at December 10, 2007 7:05 PM

Relationships--the letters could stand for--

Real
Emotions
Love
Articulate
Togetherness
Intrigue
Openness
Nourishment.
Sincere
Happy
Interest
Promote
Success

What words would you use?

Posted by Paul Thornton at December 10, 2007 8:24 PM

Relationships not only are needed horizontally (at the same level) but also vertically between manager and employee. The employee needs to feel needed and the manager needs to be both a visionary, a coach and a cheer leader.

Posted by Small Business Marketing at December 11, 2007 5:07 AM

From a sales perspective my greatest success is directly a result of my relationships. A genuine concern and trust for my clients/customers and colleagues/co-workers/employer.

Relationships fail with out trust!

Posted by Matt Balachandran at December 11, 2007 1:06 PM

Good point, I mentioned this as well in I post I made about Gen Y's views on ADRE and relationships on the internet:
http://newlycorporate.com/2007/12/11/deliberate-relationship-enhancement-20-christmas-cards-for-generation-y/

Posted by Brandon at December 11, 2007 7:46 PM

Ok, ok, we're all in agreement that relationships are pretty integral to a culture of engagement where people thrive...so what are the reasons why so many senior leaders in so many businesses cannot connect the dots?

Posted by Doug Brockway at December 11, 2007 9:59 PM

Doug - good question. Maybe the answer is: because we expect too much.

All the recent discussion about relationships and listening tends to assume that the objective is for everyone to like each other. In a small PSF this could well be a realistic and necessary objective. But is this likely or needed in a 100 person enterprise? Or if there are 1,000 people or 10,000 or more?

I agree with Matt's comment about trust. I'd add respect. And I'd posit that these things come about through listening, reacting to what's said and delivering agreed outcomes. This way, you build up a reserve of credibility so that in the future you can persuade people to do things they might be uncomfortable with.

So when we talk about "relationships" shouldn't we be thinking a bit more deeply about the kind of relationship we want (are customer and employee relationships the same? are all customer relationships the same?) and the factors that define it.

Personally, in a business setting, I'm more comfortable with trust and respect than simply with being liked - although that's always a nice bonus!

Posted by Mark JF at December 12, 2007 4:36 AM

Hello everybody !! for all MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR...good lucky for all and very sucess....

Posted by JOSE GILBERTO at December 12, 2007 1:02 PM

Tom,

800CEORead just hosted a "Pow Wow" that included an amazing group of about 30 authors and publishing experts. In the sometimes solitary world of writing business books, it was great to be with a community all looking to help each other. And through the community, even you were "there" as Rajesh Setty, Shelley Dolley, and Steve Yastrow were a part of the gathering and shared wisdom. The value of the in-person relationships formed there is something that will last and has real power.

Mike

Posted by Michael Kanazawa at December 12, 2007 2:04 PM

Tom, we met at Pine and Gilmore's ThinkAbout at Keystone a few years ago. I'm an "achievaholic" who suffered from task list tyranny(although I didn't know it at the time). When my wife was diagnosed with two forms of cancer in 2003 and 2004 I put my work aside to focus on her and my daughters. That season in life I spent a lot of time with my family and my best friends...and I loved it. The supportive relationships we had protected our family's spirits. After my wife went into remission, I accepted a gig at a Wall Street firm and realized people didn't take the time to get to know one another. This lack of connection is damaging to one's mental and physical health. It also has a negative effect on business outcomes when communication or morale break down. I learned so much from these experiences that I wrote a book about it. I'm concerned for our society that time poverty is crowding out connection. David Myers, Robert Putnam and Robert Lane have all written excellent books about it. (By the way, my wife Katie is in remission and feeling great...she's moved on to new challenges like raising teenage daughters, with my help, of course.)

Posted by Michael Lee Stallard at January 16, 2008 8:27 PM