How are your relationships? Both business and personal connections play a key role in navigating to success with less stress.
I credit my success at moving up the corporate ladder with cultivating strong connections as much or more as my working hard to perform well. You can be the best at what you do and yet be unsuccessful due to your lack of strong relationships. Having a healthy social life with strong connections has also been shown to have a direct correlation to a higher quality of life and more success.
Coaching tips for creating strong connections:
Cultivate your listening skills. See my prior blog post about Listening for Success. This skill is so powerful; keep practicing it and ask for feedback from people you trust to give you the truth.
Don’t ask for anything. Too often we reach out to a prior contact only when we have a need to fill. Keep in touch with people and authentically care about what and how they are doing.
Ask what you can do and be curious about them. Genuinely ask if there is anything you can do for them and don’t expect anything in return. Ask about what is going on in their lives and how things are going with them.
Understand your communication style and those around you. I know there are certain styles of people that I work with better than others. Just knowing the various styles will help you alter your style and understand where others are coming from for more productive communication. Click on this link oustmartyourbrain.com for a free assessment to determine your dominant style.
Practice noticing the styles that are challenging for you and altering your own style. This is especially important if you are in a leadership role. You are who you are, but the great leaders recognize when it is important to alter their dominant style to engage and inspire their team to higher performance.
Choose your personal relationships. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people. Ask a few of these people that you really trust to be brutally honest (in a kind way) about your blind spots.
How have you built strong relationships? Please post a comment to share!
photo credit: Tuchodi