It's All About Relationships!

The article below is reprinted from our Fall 2007 newsletter. Please see the Potty Press section of our web site for more of our "views from under the urinal!"

Even in the Marketplace, It’s All about Relationships

Generally, when we think about relationships that we want to develop and improve, we think about our relationships with our spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend, our kids, our parents, and close friends we’ve made in high school or later in life. We want to develop those relationships because they are essential to having a healthy spirit and support our physical well being. If we feel good about our relationships, we feel good about ourselves.

This is also true at work. The tendency to distill business leadership down to management of a spreadsheet and financial decisiveness is contrary to the needs we have as people, and it is people who make up a business. When we disregard relationships in the workplace between ourselves and customers, between ourselves and vendors, between managers and workers, et cetera, we set our business on a path to discord and decline. That’s not to say that we should always bend over backwards to please everyone. Sometimes healthy relationships require “tough love,” but the driving force behind our actions should be how the action impacts the collective relationships that make up the business.

This is especially true of the relationship between managers and employees. If it is true that “the front line determines the bottom line,” then the worker is the one who makes or breaks the business. If a manager is responsible for what the worker controls, how important is the communication, training, trust; that is the relationship, between the manager and the employee? As a manager will your time be better spent looking at spreadsheets, in meetings with your boss, or developing your employees to be disciples of what you want for your customers?

There are a number of moral codes, both recent and historical, that support the critical nature of relationships. The Vision of the Better Business Bureau is to build “an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other.” The Cadet Honor Code at West Point requires that “a cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do.” In addition, Jesus summarized the importance of relationships when he said “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). All of these codes and commandments underscore the critical nature of relationships between us (and between us and our Creator) and none of them exclude application in the marketplace.

So if it’s all about relationships, what are some practices that business managers should follow? We suggest that managers work to build strong relationships with everyone: not just in superficial terms but in a way that develops confidence and trust. As a manager one needs to know, like, and trust everyone he/she pays (for example, employees and vendors). Also, one needs to make himself/herself known, liked, and trusted by everyone who contributes financially to his/her well being (customers and shareholders). To build these types of relationships a manager needs to be willing to give of himself/herself—not just information, but their time, talent, and treasure as well. When their employees, customers, vendors, and shareholders return the same, you will know that the business is built on a solid foundation and relationships that will last. For what it’s worth, that’s our view from down here under the urinal!