Council Post: Grow Your Business By Investing In Your People Skills

You are hungry. You’re ready for the next opportunity to shine, show your abilities and make others’ lives better.

You have a desire to make something grow from nothing. It is easy to feel inspired to make a new product shine or develop an irresistible service. You may have noticed that your team is not always following or equally as excited, or that your clients seem lackluster about your new moment of genius. There are many ways to understand this gap — an increased need for market research, that you are the visionary and your team may not see what you do, that the execution of your brilliance would be cumbersome and clunky, etc. — but today, I am only going to examine how the gap could be decreased by enhancing your interpersonal connections.

By improving your relational skills, you will be able to function with more ease with your team and have a more productive connection with your clients. You’ll have fewer stressful, irritating interactions with those around you, and a more focused, collaborative connection that will exponentially support your empire’s growth. Here are three relational tips that will turn your business brillance into more success.

1. Map your goals with the people around you.

Before introducing something new, try this five-minute exercise. Think about what your goal is for the new idea, and begin to assess the path you would need to take to get there. That’s the easy part!

Now that you have clarity, break your goal down into smaller, actionable steps, pick one of those steps, and begin to assess your staff’s level of buy-in or what the customer would truly need to say yes. For example, if you want to work more in sync with your team or client in your communication, start at the end result. What would that seamless communication look like (e.g., be faster, have more clarity, work seamlessly as a unit)? What would you need to do to prime the relationship for that to occur (e.g., gain buy-in, encourage people’s natural strengths, look at pain points)? And what would help you get there (e.g., more time with less conflict, more communication)? Use your visionary energy to share this material with your team, client or partner with excitement and the feasibility of accomplishing your goals.

2. Trust your gut.

You spend a lot of time at work paying attention to stats and your gut. You know what you think is going to best position your organization for success. The question becomes, how do you sync that feeling up interpersonally? How can you read the room, assess your clients’ needs or notice when your team is loose at its hinges?

Similar to reviewing your metrics for a new product or conversation rate for a new service, try to take hold of what you deem as important metrics in the interpersonal relationship. (You don’t have to do this alone; the key stakeholder may have helpful thoughts here.) Such stats could include the amount of support time you spend together, frequency of addressing new changes or how often praise is given. Now, the key is not to get to lost in the numbers, but to gain a pulse on what needs to be revived more. Then, as you know, stats will make it simpler to identify and take actionable steps to improve the situation; applying such achievement with your team could look like taking a staff member to lunch because you noticed you haven’t had one-on-one face time in a while. Once you get a better sense on your metrics, using your gut to assess what needs some extra energy will become a lot easier.

3. Maximize your in-person time.

I know it’s tempting to constantly multitask, but if you’ve been staying abreast of the most recent research, you know that shifting your focus can yield a decrease in productivity. This priniciple could easily be applied to your staff and with clients. Block timing becomes as excellent solution; it can help you stay focused on your meetings and help the person you’re sitting with feel more seen and heard (which is what everyone wants to feel, from your junior staff to your biggest client).

For example, if you have an important call you need to take right before an assessment of your staff member’s performance, set yourself up for success by moving the call or the evaluation. If you move your team member’s review, be sure to communicate the importance of their hard work and time and that shifting the meeting was an effort to maximize the time with them as well as reflect on the respect that you have for their performance, rather than be interrupted.

There are countless ways to capitalize on your interpersonal skills in your business relationships so you are able to have more focus and success at work. Those skills can make you a top-quality leader and maximize your professional success. You are already a master of multiple talents in the workplace; it is as simple as learning how to apply those skills to your relational interactions. Reap the returns as a replenished, fulfilled and focused entrepreneur.