Take an informal poll of business owners and ask them to identify the most important thing in their business. They’ll probably list their customers, their employees, their brand, or their financials.
Although some of those answers are close, they’re not entirely correct. The correct answer – and it applies to both business and to every other aspect in life – is relationships.
Relationships are the most important part of life and business and we need to focus on them more (but we usually don’t). It’s not like we ignore our relationships but we do tend to take them for granted. But relationships are everything!
In your business… a good relationship with an employee means that your employee will usually step up and take on more responsibility and you’ll know best how to motivate them. A good relationship with a customer means that they’ll call you first when they need your services and they’ll refer you to their family and friends because they trust you. A good relationship with vendors means that they’ll go the extra mile for you because they know you’ll appreciate it and you’ll pay on time and refer others to them.
And in your life… a good relationship with your spouse means that they support and encourage you and you’re motivated to step up your game to provide for them. A good relationship with your kids mans that you trust each other and you’re honest with each other and they appreciate your parental guidance. A good relationship with friends means that you each are rooting for the other and provide support, encouragement, and sometimes even brutally honest feedback to spur each other to greatness.
Do my descriptions above accurately describe all the relationships in your life? Perhaps some of my descriptions are accurate but perhaps a couple of them don’t sound like your relationships. Here’s what I recommend:
- If there was a disparity between my description above and a relationship in your life, I want you to commit right now to connect with that person today and start realigning that relationship to the way it should be. (It might not happen instantly but at least get it started).
- If my descriptions above were accurate, I want you to think of the people I described and come up with a way to serve each one. Be selfless and generous and adopt a 100% service mindset to think about how you can help them in some way.
Relationships aren’t easy. They’re frequently messy and complicated… but they’re the fabric of our lives and they’re so rewarding when they’re aligned. Unfortunately, we often take our relationships for granted. Instead, we need to intentionally think about our relationships more often and work hard to keep them aligned.
As an added bonus you’ll discover this: When your relationships are running well, the rest of your life “clicks” and even the more difficult times don’t seem that bad.
If you want to learn more about mastering your relationships, check out chapter 2 of my book Secrets Of Business Mastery.
