Catching the big fish!
I learnt that in large corporations the key to success is
1. Networking with people in power.
2. Communication Skills-- English ofcourse
Surprisingly, It's not your knowledge/skills, or your hardwork that counts!
How do you (i)build and (ii)maintain a successful relationship?
I know that merely talking in a "friendly way" is not the way to build a relationship, and if you try to get in touch with people too often they tell you they are busy?
I expect answers from those who are good at initiating and nurturing professional relationships.
1. Networking with people in power.
2. Communication Skills-- English ofcourse
Surprisingly, It's not your knowledge/skills, or your hardwork that counts!
How do you (i)build and (ii)maintain a successful relationship?
I know that merely talking in a "friendly way" is not the way to build a relationship, and if you try to get in touch with people too often they tell you they are busy?
I expect answers from those who are good at initiating and nurturing professional relationships.
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gram77,
I once worked in a company which had an elegant, intelligent woman as the Chairman (person if you like) - that's the top job in a company in the UK. She worked in America for a while and learned that as a woman the way to get on was to 'make friends with powerful men'. These were her words not mine. She did exactly that and in due course, through some hard work and 'friends', she was appointed as Chairman of the company. She'd broken the glass ceiling. However as the years went by the commercial scene changed and she failed to anticipate the changes. The company was sold to people who didn't want her skills. She left the company and joined another well known company as their Chairperson. The stresses she bore told on her health and she died in her early 50s.
Now, please tell me why is there is such a drive to succeed at any cost - when that cost might be your health and so your life. Make no mistake, stress is a major contributor to poor health.
So whatever strategies you adopt to get on in your company do remember to get a balance in your life that is not a major source of stress. Now it may be just work is OK for you, but if it isn't, then recognise it early and accept that it is not an admission of failure; instead it is a recognition of what you want out of life - and that's an achievement in itself.
I once worked in a company which had an elegant, intelligent woman as the Chairman (person if you like) - that's the top job in a company in the UK. She worked in America for a while and learned that as a woman the way to get on was to 'make friends with powerful men'. These were her words not mine. She did exactly that and in due course, through some hard work and 'friends', she was appointed as Chairman of the company. She'd broken the glass ceiling. However as the years went by the commercial scene changed and she failed to anticipate the changes. The company was sold to people who didn't want her skills. She left the company and joined another well known company as their Chairperson. The stresses she bore told on her health and she died in her early 50s.
Now, please tell me why is there is such a drive to succeed at any cost - when that cost might be your health and so your life. Make no mistake, stress is a major contributor to poor health.
So whatever strategies you adopt to get on in your company do remember to get a balance in your life that is not a major source of stress. Now it may be just work is OK for you, but if it isn't, then recognise it early and accept that it is not an admission of failure; instead it is a recognition of what you want out of life - and that's an achievement in itself.
ASKER
patrickab:
There is sense in what you are saying. To recogonize early in life "how much is enough".
Life has much more to it.
But still I want to know the secret of creating and maintaining relationships.
I have seem some people who are too good at it. They complain each time their manager changes that the time when i created a wonderful relationship with my manager he was replaced by a new one, and i had to redo it all over again with the new manager.
I have seen people working from home, and taking leaves at will when they have good relationship with boss, even though they are average at work their ratings are not affected, and they are permanent members of the team.
Many times, such people are messangers. They are friendly with everyone, get information about evreyone in the team and pass it on to the manager. The manager needs someone from the team who has internal information about everyone. This is the manager's "grape wine" source.
This is one way to buld a successful relationship with your boss, other way it when you are excellent at what you do. But definately some people build relationships even when he doesn't have any interaction with the boss like with the bosses boss... How do they do it??
There is sense in what you are saying. To recogonize early in life "how much is enough".
Life has much more to it.
But still I want to know the secret of creating and maintaining relationships.
I have seem some people who are too good at it. They complain each time their manager changes that the time when i created a wonderful relationship with my manager he was replaced by a new one, and i had to redo it all over again with the new manager.
I have seen people working from home, and taking leaves at will when they have good relationship with boss, even though they are average at work their ratings are not affected, and they are permanent members of the team.
Many times, such people are messangers. They are friendly with everyone, get information about evreyone in the team and pass it on to the manager. The manager needs someone from the team who has internal information about everyone. This is the manager's "grape wine" source.
This is one way to buld a successful relationship with your boss, other way it when you are excellent at what you do. But definately some people build relationships even when he doesn't have any interaction with the boss like with the bosses boss... How do they do it??
Bulding relationships with bosses should be seen for what it is. It is only a means of reassuring him and you that you can help one another. In no way should you consider it as anything other than a sensible business transaction. Keep it at arms length such that when the manager changes you don't feel you have lost anything. Instead the new manager needs to establish who is going to help him and who is not - likewise for you - is the manager going to help you.
gram77,
"But still I want to know the secret of creating and maintaining relationships."
It's what I said above -- mainly that you have to be seen as someone who adds value to the relationship.
Again, you have to be perceived by management as someone who adds value in a relationship with them.
This is accomplished through
Some level of recognized competency.
Communication skills
Political skills
So you need to add competency and political skills to your list and to put them in the right sequence for development.
1. Develop competency and business skills.
2. Develop communication skills along with all other development
3. Develop a sense of corporate politics and how to use it.
4. Develop your network as you progress through steps 1 - 3.
The secret is no secret; these are skills that are developed over time. You don't start by creating and maintaining relationships without having basic competency (in an area important to management) and without having political skills.
How badly do you want to network with the important people. If you really want to know, here are things that work:
Learn to play golf so you can do it with them (or handball, or what they do), talk about sports (makes you a regular guy), ride the same train as your management and develop routine conversations, participate in the same community functions as your management or key people in your company, coach the team or have a child on the same team as the child of those persons and get in a car pool with them, etc. Join charitable organizations that these people belong to. Join their church group. If you smoke and your company only permits smoking in a certain area then adjust your schedule to be there regularly when your management or key people are there. Most of these really work. I've refused to go out of my way to do any of them, because I agree with patrickab about the need to succeed at any cost.
"But still I want to know the secret of creating and maintaining relationships."
It's what I said above -- mainly that you have to be seen as someone who adds value to the relationship.
Again, you have to be perceived by management as someone who adds value in a relationship with them.
This is accomplished through
Some level of recognized competency.
Communication skills
Political skills
So you need to add competency and political skills to your list and to put them in the right sequence for development.
1. Develop competency and business skills.
2. Develop communication skills along with all other development
3. Develop a sense of corporate politics and how to use it.
4. Develop your network as you progress through steps 1 - 3.
The secret is no secret; these are skills that are developed over time. You don't start by creating and maintaining relationships without having basic competency (in an area important to management) and without having political skills.
How badly do you want to network with the important people. If you really want to know, here are things that work:
Learn to play golf so you can do it with them (or handball, or what they do), talk about sports (makes you a regular guy), ride the same train as your management and develop routine conversations, participate in the same community functions as your management or key people in your company, coach the team or have a child on the same team as the child of those persons and get in a car pool with them, etc. Join charitable organizations that these people belong to. Join their church group. If you smoke and your company only permits smoking in a certain area then adjust your schedule to be there regularly when your management or key people are there. Most of these really work. I've refused to go out of my way to do any of them, because I agree with patrickab about the need to succeed at any cost.
WaterStreet,
That's some list in your last paragraph. Each to their own, and I do recognise all that you have listed but the truth is, it's just not for me. I could never do those things and I have no doubt that it cost me - but in the end does it matter - no.
That's some list in your last paragraph. Each to their own, and I do recognise all that you have listed but the truth is, it's just not for me. I could never do those things and I have no doubt that it cost me - but in the end does it matter - no.
Provide documentation, or as much paper as you can in the formats that the company uses that describes what your area does. Work your way into email chains and provide good documentation that will be usefull to higher ups. Lots of people cringe at the thought of providing good documentation for a process or for a project, but if you are the person who creates this documentation then you can get included on more calls.
Attend more meetings. Whenever you talk with your supervisor and they mention anything about any meetings always ask if there is going to be anything discussed at the meeting that will be of interest to you. You can usually get invited to sit in on a meeting and by doing that you can. Get onto conference calls early and know who is attending before the call, then in the lead up to the meeting when someone says they are present confirm who they are by saying something like 'you work for Joe Smith's oranization don't you?' then mention who you work for. Figure out as much information as you can about the org chart, who works for who, and what major projects are being worked on.
Say good morning and good evening to everyone you work with or know at work always. Find out and remember the names of their kids and what activities they participate in and pretend to be interested in them. Smile, make a conscious effort to smile as much as possible at work. I know a guy who used to force himself to smile at the end of every sentence, it looked goofy and a bit forced, but man was it effective.
I was a consultant for many years and it was all about creating relationships and finding out where the needs were and creating a scenario where you were able to fill those needs. The truth is a smile combined with name recognition from a document you authored can help you create a lof of opportunities.
Attend more meetings. Whenever you talk with your supervisor and they mention anything about any meetings always ask if there is going to be anything discussed at the meeting that will be of interest to you. You can usually get invited to sit in on a meeting and by doing that you can. Get onto conference calls early and know who is attending before the call, then in the lead up to the meeting when someone says they are present confirm who they are by saying something like 'you work for Joe Smith's oranization don't you?' then mention who you work for. Figure out as much information as you can about the org chart, who works for who, and what major projects are being worked on.
Say good morning and good evening to everyone you work with or know at work always. Find out and remember the names of their kids and what activities they participate in and pretend to be interested in them. Smile, make a conscious effort to smile as much as possible at work. I know a guy who used to force himself to smile at the end of every sentence, it looked goofy and a bit forced, but man was it effective.
I was a consultant for many years and it was all about creating relationships and finding out where the needs were and creating a scenario where you were able to fill those needs. The truth is a smile combined with name recognition from a document you authored can help you create a lof of opportunities.
Very interesting comment about smiling. I am convinced that it allowed my female colleagues in particular to get away with downright lies more times than I can remember. That was particularly true when they had male bosses but it seemed to work even on female bosses - perhaps not so reliably but it did help them.
I reckon you're right about that behenderson - big time!
There's little doubt in my mind that often more can be achieved through charm than bullying or force of personality.
I reckon you're right about that behenderson - big time!
There's little doubt in my mind that often more can be achieved through charm than bullying or force of personality.
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Thank you.
By the way, the person who I work for is a V.P. and is a master of these political skills. Something that I've noticed about him and others like him for whom I have worked for is that they always seem to know when I am annoyed about something and haven't told them. They seem to have an extremely good sense of people. In my case, my boss can work his magic on me and I leave his office a dedicated employee - at least for the next couple days.
Maybe they are Jedi mind tricks.
By the way, the person who I work for is a V.P. and is a master of these political skills. Something that I've noticed about him and others like him for whom I have worked for is that they always seem to know when I am annoyed about something and haven't told them. They seem to have an extremely good sense of people. In my case, my boss can work his magic on me and I leave his office a dedicated employee - at least for the next couple days.
Maybe they are Jedi mind tricks.
http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-Business-Without-Working-Damn/dp/0446679860
Not very simple to build and maintain relationships. Knowledge and skills are important too. But making connections through third parties is necessary. Business works on profit. You will be wanted if the people in power think that you can make profit. Your appearance has to be neat and pleasing. It should be a pleasurable experience talking to you; having a sense of humor in you. Listening is as important as talking.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/networkingcolumnistivanmisner/article62140.html