I attended a business meeting yesterday [Monday]. We were discussing a small business solution for helping people come together to build relationships around goal achievement and celebrating accomplishments. The discussion turned toward how most of us feel when our social and emotional needs go unmet – and how we could solve this. Pretty exciting stuff.
After transitioning from the ministry, I started a small business that focused on helping [other] businesses improve company culture. And at the center of this was the idea that companies had to find a way to create a safe place where trust and mutual respect reigned. Since many of you love hacks, here is a great framework for establishing trust and mutual respect in any relationship, but especially in business ones.
It is taken from Reed Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and the author of a dozen books. In 2014, he wrote “The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age”. Really a book on building a great business culture, it is also a template to build great relationships:
- Mutual Commitment. Telling each other you are committed is not only powerful, it’s necessary. Just say it. Most people leave out elements in a relationship they feel are “too” obvious. Sometimes the obvious is powerful. It’s also rare.
- Mutual Investment. It has to be obvious to both parties that time and even money are a part of building a key relationship. Talk is cheap – nothing says you’re important like giving time to someone else. Especially when it’s not connected to achieving a business objective.
- Mutual Benefit. There are “seasons” in relationships where one is able to give more; they are making more money, achieving more goals, etc. Even leaders and mentors need to express how much value they get from being with someone they are leading, and it needs to be in clearly tangible ways.
Sometimes the obvious is powerful. Tell them you are committed, show them you are invested and let them know how much value they bring you.