The Power of Relationships

Beth Spriggs' professional career began in information technology in 1999. As a certified PMP with over a decade of project management experience, she has combined her love for tech and project management by focusing her career on managing technology projects and portfolios. She is author of The Project Manager's Little Book of Cheats.

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Topics: Career Development, Communications Management, New Practitioners, ProjectsAtWork

Building good work relationships is one of the most powerful ways to influence others and drive project success. It bolsters buy-in and adoption, strengthens communication, makes difficult conversations easier, and develops channels for support and advice. Here are tactics to improve your work relationships.

Why do we need to build relationships at work? Why can’t we sit behind our desks all day, heads down, focused on getting our task list done? OK, we probably have to interact with people — but how about a compromise and we limit it to email or virtual chats? That way there is still one layer between us and we can hide our real-time reactions. Well, that might seem easier, especially to introverts, but it just won’t work when something you want to accomplish requires persuasion or trust.

A major telecommunications company commissioned a research study to find out which attributes best predicted long-term leadership success. They examined a variety of factors including tenacity, intelligence, work ethic, and ingenuity. What they discovered was that the ability to build and leverage a network of relationships was the best predictor of success.

Having strong relationships enables us to influence people. We can influence them when we have an idea to sell. Relationships empower us to get buy-in for our projects. People with whom we have solid relationships…

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