#33: Building Successful Relationships

If you are a regular listener or you follow me on social media, you know that one of my strong beliefs is that building solid relationships is absolutely essential to a successful and fulfilling HR Career. When I look back over my twenty-plus years as an HR professional, I can honestly say that 99.9% of my success and happiness with my career has come from building strong, positive relationships.

 

My knowledge, my technical skills, and my ability to problem solve, write, present, etc. are all important, but when it comes to success and fulfillment, all the credit goes to relationships.

 

Yes, it is important to do good work. But, in order to really be successful in this profession, we also have to be human. Sometimes I think that is lacking in many organizations and sadly HR departments. What’s worse is that it's often the HR professionals who lack this human perspective that wonder why people won’t work with them or hate HR.

 

Showing interest and genuine care for other people goes a long way, but being interested in others in a sincere way and really caring is what is needed. I don’t just build relationships to get ahead in my career, but I do it because it feels good and I generally like people. Plus I know that in order to my job well, I need to get to know what the real issues are, and that means getting to know people, the humans doing the work. Without that understanding how can I possibly come up with real solutions?

 

In this episode I share five things you can do today, regardless of where you are in the org chart, to help you become a better relationship builder. Let's face it, work is way more fun if you work with people you like and respect, and the only way to like and respect people is to build relationships with them.

 

Here are the five actions you can take to build better relationships today:

1. Become more self-aware
2. Be interested rather than interesting
3. Look for ways to collaborate
4. Take initiative
5. Be a positive force

Learn more, find the show notes and check out some helpful links on my websites at www.unicorngroup.ca/episode-33