Intentional Relationship Building at Work

You’ve heard the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” which is true up to a point. Knowing someone isn’t enough. I know of a lot of people, so do you. You have to be intentional in building business relationships because that comes first. Before a potential client does business with you, before you get hired for the job, and before a colleague trusts you to be the lead on a project.

Relationships are not the byproduct of working with someone. They are the reason that person worked with you in the first place.

Sometimes we flip the order and assume a good relationship forms over time. That’s not always the case. If a colleague doesn’t trust you from the beginning you’ll have to work twice as hard to win them over, and that’s only if they’re willing to pay attention to your efforts. A potential client isn’t going to fork over money to hire your services if they don’t trust you’ll be able to deliver the expected results.

Relationship building isn’t something you can shortcut. It has to happen first. And here’s the good news -it doesn’t have to take years or months.

Relationships are built through short exchanges, pleasant conversations and with multiple touch-points like the ones small talk and your daily conversations provide.