Even if you’re massively talented or highly knowledgeable, your relationships are going to be one of your greatest assets in business. Of course, the famous saying goes: “It’s not about what you know, but who you know.”
If you really want to succeed as a leader, be mindful of these common mistakes in building and maintaining relationships:
1. Treating the relationship like a transaction.
You’ve probably experienced a situation like this: Someone you haven’t talked to in a while gets in contact with you out of the blue. They ask a bit how you’ve been and what’s happening in your life.
However, during the conversation you can still kinda sense that they want something else, and then that’s when they hit you with a request.
What this is doing, is treating the relationship like a transaction. You’re only getting in contact with them because you think they can do something for you and not because you truly value the relationship.
This is not the path to building strong business relationships. Instead, you should remain in regular contact and treat them as though they have value on their own. By truly creating a compassionate relationship, they’ll be more than happy to help when you really need it.
2. Not taking time to nurture the relationship.
It’s natural in life that some of our relationships will continue to grow while others simply fade out. As our lives and goals change, the people we want around us isn’t going to stay the same.
However, transformational relationships require continual investment. You can’t just drop them when reaching out becomes harder, has no clear ROI, or takes more out of you.
It’s important to identify the relationships that are most important to you and figure out what each of them need to thrive. Then make time during the week to nurture those relationships so they become truly timeless.