As y’all know I meet with a group of business owners once a quarter. Our last meeting was in Birmingham earlier this week, where we had a family and relationship counselor speak to the group. Very interesting of our host to invite Michael to speak to a group of business folks, but if you peel back the onion a bit, you realize that having a good and balanced life includes having great relationships at home, be it with your significant other, your parents, your kids, your siblings, your roommate, etc. Peel back the onion even more and you realize that what applies to personal relationships also applies to business relationships.
Remove the word personal and business and you have relationships. The tenets of both are the same:
Communications: Open and honest communication is the basis of success in all relationships. When people lie, hold back information, don’t give you the whole story that is when issues arise. Again, open, honest and authentic.
Conflict resolution: Knowing how to resolve conflict and come to an understanding is an important part of relationships. This includes seeing things from the others perspective, being open minded, listening (truly listening), negotiating to a win/win, compromising and committing.
Trust: Building trust goes a long way. In my opinion, if there is no trust there cannot be a good relationship.
Building relationships takes time. A relationship is not knowing about the other person it is knowing the person. The stronger the connection the deeper the relationship.
Relationships is one of our core values, we value them as much as we value the service and thought provoking expertise we provide. Remember, people buy from people they know, like and trust. Go out and build GREAT relationships with everyone you meet.
Hugh Mackay said, “Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” Build them anyway.
Have a great weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!