This new article will show you everything you need to know about how to build a better business relationship.
Strong and valuable relationships are essential for business success and career development. Whether it’s your boss, co-workers, mentors, customers or other people in your network, it’s important to actively build, nurture and strengthen these relationships. We will need good relationships with people in different situations and at practically all stages of our path to success.
One of the challenges of building strong relationships in the age of the Internet and social media is that our relationships with other people become superficial. We add someone to our network of professional contacts on LinkedIn or Facebook and keep in touch mainly “on-line”. We focus on the number of contacts, not the quality of our unions. To overcome this, we should strive to establish and nurture deep and truly meaningful relationships with people in our lives. Especially in the real world, not only in the virtual world.
How to build strong business relationships? What can help us build stronger and more meaningful relationships is to learn about the essential qualities and elements that affect our relationships with other people. They are mainly related to the professional and business world, but many of them work equally well in personal and private life.
How To Build a Better Business Relationship:
1. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to feel the mental states of others. The ability to adopt their way of thinking, to look at reality from their perspective.
Empathy is a basic skill that is often overlooked, but is crucial for success and for building strong relationships. People with underdeveloped empathy are not able to assess or perceive the emotional states of other people. Fortunately, we can develop empathy in ourselves and move towards more and more empathic maturity.
2. Sensitivity
An important feature of a strong and significant relationship is sensitivity. Although it may seem that the modern world does not value sensitivity, we should rather not show weakness, be tough and strong, but sensitivity is the basis for strong relationships. Sensitivity is revealing oneself, showing one’s own sensitive places to remain authentic and sincere. Sensitivity is being true.
Relationships based on sensitivity are positive, devoid of judgment and oriented towards improvement. Trust, good communication, love and other important features of the relationship result from sensitivity.
3. Respect
If you don’t respect your friends, colleagues or customers, you may want to forget about good relationships. Strong relationships require commitment and mutual respect. Giving your best from each other. You only get what you give, and to get respect yourself, you need to show it to others. This applies to both building and maintaining business and personal relationships.
4. Give and take
One of the features of strong relationships, especially business relations, is first of all providing something valuable before asking for something for yourself. Far too often these days people just want to be given something by others. At the same time, the same people don’t want to offer anything in return.
First you have to give something from yourself. Sometimes multiple times, then ask for something for us. What’s more, when you’re the first one to offer something worthwhile, there’s a higher probability that someone will fulfill your request.
When you develop relationships, especially in business, you need to create and deliver value. You have to ask yourself, “How can I deliver value to you, your company? When you ask this question and commit to it before asking for anything for yourself, you show in action that you care more about building a strong relationship than that the relationship is primarily for you. Building this mentality within yourself can help you go far and increase your chances of success.
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5. Good intentions
It all starts with good intentions. Then the relationship begins to bring fulfilment, because there is understanding and a desire to get closer to the other person. You probably met people who, no matter how hard you tried to explain something to them and present your point of view, didn’t want to understand you at all. Everyone was entrenched in their own position, which made it impossible to understand.
On the other hand, there is someone with whom you are able to communicate almost without having to say any words. This is because this person knows that you have good intentions and therefore she understands you better. Strong and meaningful relationships start with good intentions and a desire to understand each other.
6. Unique perspective
The strongest and most meaningful relationships offer a unique perspective and interesting insight into different situations. People who know you well thanks to a long shared history provide a context for your actions and motivation. They can help you better understand how you’ve changed over time, what’s left of you and what’s really important in your life. Keeping a good relationship with someone for a long time gives you access to extremely valuable thoughts and points of view.
7. Honesty
Your intuition and first impressions are usually accurate. The cornerstone of a meaningful and authentic relationship is honesty. Although not always easy, we should not be afraid to express our sincere opinion on any subject.
Unfortunately, often, especially in the professional environment and in many companies, there is a culture of deliberate omission of certain topics. Rumours are spreading, and instead of honest opinions, there are false smiles and nodding. This is especially the case when we are dealing with someone who is higher up in the organizational hierarchy.
However, strong relationships are based on transparent and sincere communication (1) and the ability to discuss content. They require mutual respect and understanding sometimes different points of view.
8. Challenges and questioning the status quo
Especially in business, it is worth having relations with people who pose challenges and know how to wisely question the status quo. It is not about complainants and malcontents who do not like anything and who question everything you say. It is about a constructive discussion of arguments. People who can challenge you to think differently and try new things. This can inspire healthy competition. It keeps you alert, has an open mind and always strives to be even better.
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9. Meetings in the real world
Online communication tools such as Skype and various video conferencing systems and applications are very convenient and useful. Thanks to them, we can almost immediately make contact with someone, see them and talk to them, even if they are on the other side of the world.
However, the relationships that are the strongest are those in which we meet in person. Nothing can replace a face-to-face meeting in the real physical world. Additionally, by meeting someone in the offline world, we show that this someone is especially important to us. Such a meeting usually requires more commitment and investment of our time, but thanks to them we build better and closer relations.
10. Trust
Trust is the key to a happy and lasting relationship. Without trust the relationship will not be strong. Trust takes time to build and can be lost in an instant. In order to build trust, it is particularly important to keep one’s word and to be honest and respect the rules and principles of conduct.
11. Hard work
Strong relationships will not last on their own. They require the commitment of both sides. You need to make regular efforts and invest time in building and cultivating relationships. This applies to both business and personal relationships. Sustained relationships (2) are built through work, active engagement and making every effort to ensure that our relationship is healthy, valuable and strong.
12. Friendship
One of the strongest forms of relationship is friendship. We can have many friends in life, but as a rule we have few real friends. A friend will always be there for us, regardless of the situation we are in.
All relationships require sensitivity, attention and care, but truly meaningful relationships are built on a solid foundation of friendship. Starting a relationship with a client, a peer or even a person in your personal life based on these components will allow you to build a long-term relationship that, if nurtured and maintained over time, can turn into friendship.
Summary
Here you have learned the essential features that build stronger and more valuable relationships. It is worth remembering about them when interacting with people, making new acquaintances and maintaining contacts. Relationships with other people are the essence of our lives. Its quality is largely determined by the relationships we build.
