I will develop my key relationships
Daily Keys to Success
These daily excerpts from Randy Kay's book Daily Keys to Success will show you how to grow your potential while expanding your personal success to lead a life of significance. You will benefit from 365 topics with ideas, tools, and tactics for living life fully.
We’ve all heard the saying, “it’s not what you know but who you know.” But that’s only partly true. Knowing who can help you reach your goals is only the first step. Developing those key relationships is the second and most important step. It’s key that we cultivate credibility and trust in our relationships others, as this comment once made by the vice president of a company about a person two levels beneath his position demonstrates: “I would trust Anderson with my kids.” Now that’s trust!
In the professional world, those types of relationships are built on helping others achieve their success. That may not appear like a normal action toward a person whose position is higher than your own. After all, why do they need your help? People in positions of authority need to feel supported, and sometimes they need help to get them toward their goals. “How can I help you today?”may be enough to initiate a conversation that begins the process. So it’s not just what you know or who you know—it’s how well you know them, how much support they feel from you, and how influential they are with the people who will influence your future.
Not everyone who can help you achieve your goals is in a senior position. Sometimes we need to look for what author Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Back Bay Books, 2002) calls “hub-like, nodal, super connectors,” who are basically the matchmakers in the professional world. They are the networkers of our age. The better-connected people are, the more they succeed if those connections are developed, as in the case of Anderson, whose VP would allow him to babysit his children.
Professional mobility allows people to develop relationships of respect that can be “graded” according to the level of support one feels from the other. When people feel safe and supported, they don’t have to concern themselves with survival tasks. They let down their guard, and so they’re more likely to help others succeed. Trusting relationships, even those that are not close, tend to bear out positives for the one who is trusted. As human beings we want success for those who desire our own success.
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” ~ Maya Angelou