Last week we talked about how communication affects everything that works or doesn’t in an organization. This week I want to discuss how communication is the cornerstone of successful work relationships whether they are customers, employees, colleagues, affiliates, vendors or anyone else you interface with regularly.
I often say that how we chose to be in relationships says a lot about us as human beings. I’m not judging. All I’m saying is that if we believe relationships are important how we invest in them is different than if we see them as disposable. People that see relationships as important are more willing to work through the challenges that will eventually come up in every relationship. And this involves communication.
Successful work relationships means we have to be willing to invest in them as all relationships will have challenges at some point. If we simply ignore the problems or just toss them away when they aren’t working easily we may be missing an opportunity. This however involves a firm commitment to communicating, and communicating in a manner so that the other party understands that you are interested in making the relationship work.
Successful relationships have a direct impact on your business. Let’s explore a couple of examples.
- We all know the importance of good relationships with customers. It creates continued business, referrals and the opportunity to up sell other services or products. And if a problem occurs such as delivery or quality or service or something else the customer is unhappy about having these solid relationships, built on strong communication, makes them easier to handle.
- When employees feel heard and understood they are more willing to share. You’ll hear about their career aspirations so you don’t lose them to another company. They will feel more comfortable admitting mistakes, communicating a delay in meeting a deadline, asking for help etc. All good stuff for sure.
- When leaders trust that employees, colleague or vendors will deliver what they committed to on time they can invest their time focusing on strategic direction or other areas that will best serve the company, rather than investing time in following up or micro managing.
It’s not easy to work through relationship problems. Yet as I’ve pointed out, there are huge costs to your company if you don’t.
When there is a problem we always want to blame the other guy. They didn’t listen. They didn’t follow through. They are idiots. You can’t count on anyone anymore…the list goes on. I always tell my clients that they have to take responsibility for the communication not working, even if they believe it’s really not them.
What I know to be true is that as soon as we blame the other person, in our words or demeanor they will get defensive, and communication stops. When communication stops the relationship is negatively impacted. It can be reversed but it takes lots of work to put the relationship back on course. In fact it takes more work than it does to keep it going well in the first place.
To have successful relationships you have to make sure your message is clear and understood. You have to share in the responsibility when there is a problem for the both the problem itself and for working through the problem. You have to be patient and willing to try, try again. And you have to believe deep in your heart it’s not just about them. This doesn’t guarantee all relationships will be successful or that all problems have a solution. It does mean though that without taking these steps you’ll never realize what is possible for you individually or your business.
