It's hard to argue with this statement: Having the skill to get, keep, and grow productive relationships will get you far in the work world. "Relationship literacy" is becoming as important as technical skill or managerial expertise for increasing your efficiency and making your more effective in the work you do. So...when is the last time you assessed your relationship literacy skills?
Relationships as Assets
Some describe this trend as a shift from physical capital to relational capital. Ranjay Gulati at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management recently wrote: "Historically, companies developed great expertise and elaborate processes around managing physical assets, but as the knowledge economy takes hold globally, companies are increasingly applying this same disciplined approach to managing their network of relationships, effectively treating these relationships as assets." In this shift, who will be the winners? People who can build productive relationships with customers, vendors, partners, peers, and bosses.
Building Relationship Literacy
What are the new skills required to manage relationships as assets? Here a few:
Handling Intimacy
Technology has made things far more intimate, so we know a lot more about each other -- as customers, vendors, and employees -- than ever before. Borrowing from an e-commerce taxonomy, are your business relationships changing to be more than acquaintances? Are you more like friends...or even lovers?
Knowing and reacting appropriately to the level of intimacy required in your business relationships is a very new skill for many. For example, sharing sales information can be a real test for a new or even long term business relationship, whether it's between sales professionals inside the same organization, or between a company and vendor. On a one-to-one level, having that hard conversation or asking difficult questions reflects your skill and ability to handle intimacy.
Handling Complexity
Many people are experiencing what we call the "amplification of triangular relationships." The triangular social dynamic in companies (i.e., home office-field-vendor; home office-sales professional-customer) is more obvious and intense now because of increased intimacy. The skill to recognize and manage the complexity of these relationships will allow you to build productive interactions. In other words, to continue to say "corporate doesn't know what they're talking about" and then not take action to solve the problem does not demonstrate your ability to handle complexity in relationships.
Handling Interdependence
Expectations management, something the public relations world has always understood, is a key skill to get, keep, and grow productive relationships. "Under promise and over-deliver" is enduring advice that needs to be used with your customers, employees, vendors, and stakeholders.
Much of this boils down to mastering some basic, but essential life skills: being conscious of and able to sort through differences (real and imagined), identifying and articulating needs vs. wants, stretching beyond your own worldview, and speaking the truth.
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