Tips for Building and Maintaining Meaningful Professional Relationships

Relationships, whether personal or professional, are all about the way two or more people connect. Relationships thrive under honesty, respect, trust, and open communication conditions. Having a healthy professional relationship is important to the welfare of a company or business because when the people concerned with the company, employees, stakeholders, and the market are satisfied, the success and growth of a company are guaranteed, as each category will perform at its best. Hence, there is a need to build meaningful professional relationships.

Why Build Professional Relationships?

Professional relationships help enhance career life and assist in growing an organization, whether within or externally.

• Building professional relationships with clients or customers helps build trust in your business, assist in referrals, and retain clients for future transactions. People are drawn more to people they have a connection with, thus allowing community engagement, networking, and opportunities for career advancement.
• Healthy professional relationships within an organization lead to better job satisfaction in the workforce and efficient communication, which allows effective teamwork and promotes creativity. Thus, this leads to increased productivity, which subsequently affects an organization’s growth and success.
• Meaningful professional relationships create a positive outlook on an organization, increase work motivation, and improve personal growth.

How to Build Meaningful Professional Relationships

Professional relationships encompass relationships with co-workers, clients, mentors, mentees, managers, life friends, business relationships, work friends, etc. Let’s explore strategies for forging significant professional connections with colleagues at work and with clients.

Tips on How to Build Meaningful Professional Relationships at Work

You can build meaningful relationships at work by;

• Scheduling Time to Build Relationships With Co-workers

This method of building meaningful professional relationships works under the theory that whatever you feed your time, and attention thrives. Here you will have to consciously create time to indulge/ hang out with your co-workers.  You will have to schedule a time that conflicts with their free time not when they are working; trust me the latter will only make you look like a nuisance to them and connect with them. The best times to build relationships are before or after work, before the start of a meeting or during lunch.

• Leverage Your Co-workers’ Weaknesses

This approach works best when you identify a subject that your co-worker aligns with and you intentionally seek out ways you can make them feel you resonate with them in a way they’ll love. Actively ask questions about aspects of their lives and intentionally listen when they tell you about them. Because everyone wants to feel loved, wanted, and understood, doing these will suggest to them that you have an interest in their welfare and can help build strong and meaningful professional relationships.

• Be Your Co-workers’ Go-to Person

Another way you can successfully build meaningful professional relationships with your co-workers is by ensuring that they understand that they can ask for your help and that you are available to offer help when they need it. You can effectively build this outlook of you to them by offering help to them before they ask when they are overwhelmed with their share of work or having difficulties, this will allow them to ask for your help next time and can help strengthen your relationship with them over time.

• Build a Positive Outlook for Yourself

We are treated the way, we present ourselves, and this also works in the aspect of professional relationship-building with co-workers. You should present yourself as a trustworthy person, and a great way to do so is by keeping the promises you make. Going extra to appreciate your co-workers for the role they place in your team will go a long way, in assuring them that you are on their side and will enable them to connect with you better.

How to Build and Maintain Meaningful Professional Relationships With Clients

Building meaningful professional relationships with clients is generally about leveraging on providing premium customer service and providing value to your clients.

Generally, you will have to;

1. Build Communication

This involves all angles of communication including communicating consistently, effectively and actively listening.

2. Provide Value to Clients

This approach to building meaningful professional relationships with clients requires you to build a brand that satisfies your client’s needs(authencity) by personalizing your business solutions to address their needs as an individual. You will have to ensure your client understands that you are willing to deliver ahead of time, whenever they need your service, and that you exist to solve their problems. Most often, you will have to be willing to provide services that exceed their expectation. You can employ strategies that allow you to learn and grow with your client’s response, these actions go a long way in building your reputation and their trust in you.

3. Befriend Clients

Yes, another great way to build meaningful professional relationships with your clients is engaging in acts to befriend them. You should intentionally try to know your clients; this involves learning about their backgrounds, their preferences, and what they are looking for.

You will have to show appreciation for your clients patronising your service. Employing discounts, and referral rewards programs can effectively inform your clients that you appreciate and recognise their contribution to your organisation’s growth. Being accountable to your clients will help build a personal rapport, and allow them to understand that you see them as a person just as staying in touch, will make them understand that they have a place in your organisation/business.

The Bottom Line

Building meaningful professional relationships requires a deliberate commitment to building these relationships, however, it is not so tasking when considering the benefits that exist to be enjoyed. Professional relationships are important to a career/organisation/ business success, therefore you must invest in them.