Relationship capital is a career differentiator. Relationships are essential to getting anything done in life. Relationships help you reach your goals faster and reduce stress. Focusing solely on performance will keep you in business, but without relationships, you won’t get the career you want.
It’s important to be around good and inspiring people. Having friends and mentors who inspire you to work harder is essential to your success. Make sure you surround yourself with people who are motivated to succeed and who drive you to achieve it. Seek out and surround yourself with successful people. Never underestimate the importance of what you achieve in your immediate surroundings. Remember, you need to surround yourself with people who inspire you to reach your goals.
A positive person can help you become more optimistic and learn how to work towards your goals.
Deliberate prominence requires visibility and relationships with your team, peers, key stakeholders, and key decision-makers. It is also powerful to create a personal board of directors to help you think differently and be more purposeful. Effectively managing your relationships can help you win in many ways in your career, giving you the skills and relationships to win on your own terms. This is how you dance impressively to a real rhythm.
Throw away long to-do lists and leverage relationships to help you get your to-do list accomplished. Once a week, use your connections to change your mindset and stand out intentionally. Success in Corporate America requires performance. You are already demonstrating excellence in what you offer. (If not, that’s the first step.) You’ve mastered performance. You may lack relationship capital.
To win at relationship capital, you need to look at five types of people:
Key Stakeholders –
These are the individuals that help us stay relevant. They may or may not hold senior-level roles, but they have significant influence over key decision-makers. Their opinion matters. These individuals need to be talking about you in a room you don’t have access to for good reason. In some organizations, the head executive of a department may even be an assistant. It could be a close colleague or staff person. These individuals know the answers to questions that can help you. They know the unwritten rules of success, the music for your company.
Key decision-makers –
These are the individuals who make decisions about who is hired, promoted, fired, fired, and given new work assignments. They are individuals with formal and informal authority within an organization. These individuals should know who you are and what you can offer. They also need to like you enough to not let new career opportunities get in the way.
Colleague –
These are your team members or people who report to you. They are the people you spend the most time with and help you accomplish extraordinary things. These are the people you should interact with and partner with frequently.
Peer –
This is a group you often neglect to build relationships with because you see them as competitors. Build effective and productive relationships with your peers. We need to visualize what they are thinking and feeling. They have your leader’s ear and it’s important to understand what they share about you. One day they may even be your leader. You can learn valuable information from them. Establishing a connection with this group is a powerful beat to add to the tempo.
Personal board –
Create a personal board of directors. This group should act as advisors for the core areas of your life that need rhythm. These individuals should be successful in achieving what you want to be successful. For example, my board of directors is made up of life coaches, pastors, business executives, working mothers, authors, and my husband. They are my role models. They keep me grounded and committed, providing clear direction and advice for navigating life and corporate America. It offers a lot of space and inspiration. They offer wise advice to win my terms.
Boards are connected and influential people. It doesn’t have to be someone who lives in your city or someone you talk to every day. Instead, they are the people you check in with on a regular basis. These are the individuals who can help you if you need direction or need advice. Find someone who has achieved what you want to achieve. These are the individuals best suited to offer you advice.
Those who do not have vision are very limited in telling them how to achieve their goals. A personal board of directors can connect you with strategic partners that you currently do not have access to. They should be aware of your desire to provide strategic guidance. They should also help you recognize and discover if you’re out of tune.
Relationship capital is a winning strategy that helps revitalize your goals and ambitions. If you want to achieve your goals and ambitions, start by crafting a winning strategy with these five he-types of people.
Ask yourself the following questions.
- What can you do to build relationship capital?
- How do you increase visibility within your organization?
- Which group of relationship capital models are your greatest strengths?
- What is your biggest improvement?
