Surround yourself with right people...

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." - Henry Ford

Connections, Networking, Team Work, Friends... many more names/labels and ways come to mind when we think of relationships. What's common amongst all these is a similarity between the people and a state of being related in one or more ways. It's a link between people that helps sharing and exchange of information. Building and maintaining good and healthy relationships is the next important step to success.

Albert Camus says, as human beings "we live as if our only task was precisely to have relationships with other people". It comes naturally to us as we form relationships with mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, friends and so on. There are two important things to note in this context: one, we have a different "role" to play in each relationship and we are only successful "as a group" in a relationship but not as an individual.

"You are who you surround yourself with" - While we are lucky to begin with a family relationship, our life is largely shaped based on the relationships that we form as we grow. There's a commonness underlying every relationship - common interest(s), common need(s) and common objective(s). To be successful, we need to constantly find, build and expand relationships which help us achieve our goals. In each such relationship we must understand and shape our roles and learn to respect the views and abilities of all involved. You may be an inquisitive student, a jovial friend, a serious data architect, a disciplined manager, and so on.

Another key ingredient for successful relationships is belief. All members in a relationship should trust each other and maintain integrity to get the best out of their relationship. It only gets better when all members know the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Most often we focus on weaknesses and try to spend time repairing them with guidance from our parents, teachers and managers. Instead we should focus more on our strengths both as an individual and collectively as a group which makes us far more successful. Strengths are built from our talents - what comes to us naturally; the way we think, feel and behave. Knowing strengths of each other helps us position ourselves in the right areas so that everyone enjoys what they do and that, in turn, leads to bringing out their best.

"The first to say sorry is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest." - A good relationship is also about caring and understanding of each other during difficult times. Emphasizing each other's mistakes during a failure will only cause grief. Instead we should quickly focus on understanding what went wrong and apply necessary course corrections to ensure we are back to a smooth sail. A good relationship should also establish a healthy feedback exchange amongst the members which acts as an early warning system and prevents us from failing.

In summary, building and maintaining good relationships lays the strong foundation for success. The more we enjoy our relationships the longer they last, resulting in continued success; at work or otherwise.

Topics: Workplace Tips

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