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How to value and evaluate your relationships
Leaders recognise the power of relationships. They value their relationships with clients and with colleagues in their own and other agencies. They understand the particular significance of relationships with their line manager and with their direct reports.
In my preliminary information gathering for leadership development programmes with new managers at every level, I always ask ‘who are the three most important relationships in your current role and what could you do to strengthen them’?
Some people find this question a challenge – what do I mean by relationships? Which relationships are most important? Why am I asking this?
Use this simple process to evaluate your relationships
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Identify your key relationships by asking the following questions. Who are the people with whom you interact on a regular basis? – is it your manager? work colleagues? other staff? what about colleagues in other organisations
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Make a list
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Evaluate each of those relationships. What are the strengths in each relationship? What are some of your frustrations? Are any of these relationships stressful and why?
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What could you do to make good relationships even stronger? What needs to happen to resolve the issues in challenging relationships? Who can help? Let’s choose to evaluate all of our current relationships and plan to celebrate those that are already great and to work on improving those that could be healthier