Lesson 10 - how good is your relationship currency?
...why networking trumps all other skills in business.
Last week I was part of a webinar talking about coaching for Chief Operating Officers (COO’s). As a former COO, and as someone who coaches many COO’s the webinar was designed to highlight the benefit of coaching for individuals in these types of roles.
As part of the call my co-host and I talked about what makes a great COO and the five capabilities we deemed to be critical to the role. These were leading the organisation, influencing stakeholders, managing change, optimising performance and building resilience. Halfway through the call we did a poll and asked people what they felt was the most important capability of the five. Influencing stakeholders came through loud and clear. One of the attendees, a former colleague of mine said rather eloquently “if you don’t have professional relationships and influence, you can’t deliver on any of the other capabilities”. He was quite right.
Developing business networks is a key part of what we must do as professionals. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, you rely on others to help you succeed. No man or woman is an island. So, your relationship currency i.e. the agency you have with other people, is key.
So, if you are a reluctant networker, as some of my clients are, I want to highlight its importance and give you some things to think about to help you be successful on the networking journey.
When you have strong business relationships, you have people you can call on for support. If you need help with a deliverable, you will need other people. As I said, no man or woman is an island so to be successful at what you do, the likelihood is that you need others to help you. You will need them to help you even if (and especially if) it doesn’t benefit them. You can’t expect that kind of unconditional support if you have no relationship with them.
If you want to sell your ideas across the organisation you need people who will back you. Many an initiative or idea has been launched because a group of like-minded people have got together and worked together to get something off the ground.
You need allies when times are tough. If you and/or your team are under pressure or in the firing line, you need to know that you won’t be left out of the cold without any sway or influence. You also need enough allies to ensure that if you do fall out with one or another person, you aren’t shut out completely.
Networks beget networks. It is so much easier to approach someone if you have an introductory agent. A colleague can open doors for you that you can’t possibly open yourself.
Networks increase knowledge. They can be great for exchanging ideas and getting information. It is much easier to take a great idea from someone else and build upon it than it is to start from scratch. Allies are also a great source of learning. It is incredibly useful to call up someone you know who has been in a similar situation to you and say ‘hey, how did you handle this?’
Of course, having relationship currency will help open career doors. I have a mantra that I refer to frequently which is ‘network today with the people you want to work with tomorrow’. Professional networks open career doors. Most of my career moves were because someone I knew approached me about a role or an opportunity.
Having great relationship currency also builds status. Whilst we are no longer in the ‘it’s who you know not what you know’ era, there is no doubt about it if you are well connected with good quality relationships, your brand, reputation and credibility rise as a result.
Lastly, building good quality professional relationships can give you some of the strongest and longest lasting relationships of all time. Colleagues with whom you have a great relationship with can have an impact on you and play a role in your life forever.
You don’t have to have thousands of people in your network. Quality works better than quantity but ideally you want both.
In some of our future posts at Lessons In Confidence I will happily offer some ‘how to’ guides on the exact steps you need to take to build your network but in the meantime, here are three tips:
- Approach network building as you would a project.
The chances are if you are a reluctant networker then you won’t prioritise building a network unless you absolutely have to do it. But, if you only do it because you must (or have been told to) it is likely a bit late. Make a plan, draft a network/stakeholder map, set yourself goals and actions and then deliver on them. Reward yourself when you complete an action. Then keep doing it.
- Pay it forward.
One of the easiest ways of building a relationship is to do something for someone else. Volunteer your time or expertise to help someone else. It need not take long. Be an introductory agent to others. Do things and you get the joy of just doing something that benefits others. The other person will also never forget it and whilst it isn’t about storing up ‘credit’ with others, if you do someone else a favour, they will always want to repay in kind.
- A problem shared is a problem halved…
Do you keep coming up against an organisational problem that causes you issues? Or a process that never seems to work? Do you know others who experience the same thing? Get together to see how you can fix it and/or make it better. Collaborating with others to do is a good way of creating common ground, partnering to figure out a way forward and delivering on something that benefits all.
As building professional relationships is a specialist subject of mine, more posts will follow in the future on this.
I have a favour to ask. Would you mind spreading the word to friends, family and colleagues on Letters In Confidence. I’m looking to get the word out there so I am going to practise what I preach and leverage my network! Every additional person who subscribes to Letters In Confidence makes a difference and helps me to know that people out there are interested in what I write which keeps me going.
Thank you,
Cressida.