In this article Mark West of R&A Consultancy & Training, highlights five ways to build fast relationships with clients and colleagues.

Relationships are everything in business. As a leader, networker, team player or salesman your success will be dependent in part upon your ability to engage effectively with colleagues and clients.

More than this you need to be able to develop such relationships fast – for example when you are in a face-to-face sales meeting what gives you the edge? It’s unlikely to be your product. The truth is that people want to do business with people they like and trust and that means the relationship is all.

So how can you bring yourself to a business interaction in the way that will help the relationship? There are five key components as follows.

1. Beliefs:  Your beliefs drive your behaviour. If you go into a meeting believing that the person you are about to talk to is difficult then that is what you will get. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The challenge is to develop positive beliefs about what can occur, bring the best of yourself - the irresistible you - into the room and enjoy the result.

2. Rapport: Go into a room talking about what a great product or service you have - but holding yourself in a way that suggests you don’t believe it - and the response you receive will be negative. People always respond to unspoken cues.

The challenge for us all, therefore, is to work on our alignment. This means making sure that what we are saying is in line with what we believe, that our energy supports our line of conversation and that we know how to match our language, voice, tone and pace to that of the person we are meeting.

3. Empathy:  Empathy is about shared understanding. It relies particularly on your ability to listen deeply and on your ability to, metaphorically speaking, step into someone else’s shoes. When you do this you will learn about someone else’s world, see it from their point of view and develop a much more compassionate view of what matters to them. 

4. Emotional investment: Consider what happens when people criticise or blame their colleagues. The inevitable result is a poor relationship. But help people to feel good about themselves by acknowledging their map of the world, by appreciating their qualities and by accepting them for who they are and you will make a major impact on their self-esteem and on your relationship.

5. Accountability: And finally accountability. How many people in relationships make promises that they have little intention of keeping? And what happens when leaders make requests of others but then don’t follow through. In relational terms this is key. Broken promises undermine trust – so be committed; stay true to your word and hold others accountable for theirs.

So do relationships matter at work? Absolutely. And if you work on these five key areas you can transform yours.

R&A Consultancy and Training are also one of the leading providers of NLP training to business. Find out more by calling  01344 872026 or at www.raconsultancy.com

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