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Build and Maintain Effective Relationships
The ability to build and maintain effective relationships is an important life skill, which many of us acquire through trial, error and experience. For some people, "winning friends and influencing them" comes naturally. For others, it takes a little more effort and concentration.
However, what is clear is that we are all able to identify in other people those key characteristics. The challenge is to assess whereabouts you are on that behavioural scale and work on those areas where you need to improve.
To help you, I have devised a questionnaire adapted from a Building Effective Working Relationships Workshop. It includes some of the factors identified as important characteristics of people/leaders who have the knack of building effective working relationships. If you would like a copy, please email me at jane@develop4choice.co.uk.
Also at that workshop, the barriers quoted as preventing effective working relationships were:
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Personalities
-
Hidden
agendas
-
Conflict
with objectives
-
People
thinking differently
-
Lack of
commitment
-
Lack of
communication
-
Lack of
trust
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Discrimination - age, background, gender and the "old boy network"
-
Workload
-
Lack
of time
Building and maintaining healthy relationships and networks does take an investment of time, as you invest in your future success. In a busy working environment, lack of time and heavy workload are often quoted as causes of stress, but so are difficult situations that have been allowed to fester in the hope that they will somehow magically disappear of their own accord. How many times have you known that to happen?
Top Tips
Harness your emotional intelligence. People react positively to others they feel a degree of empathy and rapport with even if the time spent is a brief 5 minutes.
-
Concentrate on being "in the moment" rather than rushing to your
next appointment or task and give your undivided attention.
-
Actively
listen not only to what they say, but how they say it and what clues
can you glean from their body language or tonality?
-
Demonstrate your understanding by correctly summarising the
conversation.
-
Maintain
comfortable eye contact. Accept that whilst some people are fazed by
a lot of eye contact, others thrive on it. Take your lead from the
other person and reflect how much eye contact they maintain with
you.
-
Do not
allow the "voice in your head" to think negative comments or pass
judgment, the other person will be able to read your less positive
thoughts! Instead view any difference in opinion from their
viewpoint or "hilltop". Say and think "That's interesting I had
not thought of that before / seen it from that angle".
-
A
measure of your success will be the degree to which you remember
your conversations and any personal information they disclose next
time you meet.
To help grow
Leading Women Lawyers please forward this Leading Women Lawyers
newsletter to as many friends and colleagues as you can. Your friends
can sign up to receive this newsletter at www.leadingwomenlawyers.co.uk.
Leading Women
Lawyers is for everyone interested in developing their talent.
Until next time
and best wishes
Jane
Wintringham
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