Here's What You Will Find in this Issue of eBridge:
Article:
Strategic Relationship Management: An Asset for Challenging Times
Resources:
Seven Common Myths and To Hold in Trust©
Quotable Quotes
Suggested Readings
Upcoming Preview:
Here's What You Will Find in the Next Issue of eBridge
By: Joanna Murray
In this time of tremendous economic upheaval and great change, giving attention to the quality of your interactions and engagement with both external and internal customers will be a key factor in maintaining and growing your business, maximizing value, fostering collaborations, and retaining valued team members. In this issue of eBridge we invite you to consider the importance of Strategic Relationship Management and offer a process and tools for developing and assessing your current strategic relationships.
Organizational leaders operate within a complex web of interconnections internally (within departments, across business units, often across a global enterprise) and externally (with individual vendors and often multi-party customer teams). The quality of a working relationship greatly impacts the outcome of transactions. Strategic Relationship Management involves proactive thinking and action, and can enhance your ability to address change effectively. Ki ThoughtBridge offers several models and tools to help leaders assess the quality of their strategic relationships and build skills for relationship management.
Read the complete article to find out more about strategic relationship management.
Two Resources for Relationship Management
1) Seven Common Myths
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Common Myths About Relationship Management
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Effective Assumptions About Managing Strategic Relationships |
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Myth #1 The closing of the deal is the start of the relationship.
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Assumption #1 A good working relationship can exist even if we view ourselves as competitors or adversaries and do not approve of each other's behavior, or values. |
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Myth #2 Either you are interested in building a good deal or you are interested in building a good working relationship.
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Assumption #2 The better the working relationship, the better able I am to meet my own interests. |
Read the complete chart to find out about the other common myths regarding relationship management.
2) To Hold in Trust©
Moving from building client rapport to developing client trust involves a deep awareness of the process of holding in trust.
What does it mean to hold something in trust? Click here for more insights on building trust.
Quotable Quotes
"The glue that holds all relationships together -- including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity."
- Brian Tracy
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
- Maya Angelou
"The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence."
- Stephen R. Covey
Suggested Readings:
Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor. Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, James O'Tool, Patricia Ward Biederman, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2008
The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life. Piero Ferrucci, Penguin Group, NY 2007
The Last Lecture. Randy Pausch, Hyperion, NY 2008
Here's What You Will Find in the Next Issue of eBridge:
"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new (Alan Cohen)." Our April issue will give attention to the role of the leader as an agent of change. We will share examples of courageous leaders who are successfully guiding organizations and communities through transition and embracing unexpected opportunities and delight along the way!