To achieve a certain level of success, you need to be good at your work. But if you want to achieve limitless success in your life, you need to have good relationship management skills to create a bond with powerful & influential people around you.
Influential people have the experience, the exposure which could uplift your career to the next level. But to get their attention, you need to be good at relationship building.
Not everyone knows the importance of a relationship with influential people. Those who know they have an abundance of opportunities.
And those who don’t know just complain there’s no opportunity left in the market.
Those who’re not good at relationship management skills don’t understand one simple fact that any talent can be learned by doing it repetitively. And networking is also a skill that anybody can acquire.
Below I’ve mentioned some steps which will surely help you to become a master at building relationships.
WHAT’S IN IT
1. Don’t Overthink it; just do it:
When is anyone trying to start or even think about building a good relationship with powerful & influential people? In the beginning, they all have this feeling, Who am I? Why they even spent a minute with me? I’m nobody.
One fact is actually that you’re nobody, but the exciting thing is that influential people don’t care about this fact.
Influential people love to help people, those who ask the right questions in the small interim & who knows how to build relationships the right way.
2. Just Be Yourself:
When you’re trying to build a relationship with influential people, just remember one thing, “Be Yourself.” Those who know the importance of relationships know that they can’t make a lasting relationship with influential people by faking.
Influential people know who’s faking & who’s not because they have the experience; they also made it through building relationships with the right person & hard work.
“When you are authentic, you create a certain energy; people want to be around you because you are unique.” Andie MacDowell”.
3. Focus On the Person Whom you’re talking to:
Those who have a proper understanding of the importance of relationship building will never commit the mistake of losing focus with whom they’re interacting.
We all don’t like when someone’s talking to you, but his/her attention is somewhere else, their eyes just fluttering around the surrounding except you.
The same thing will be applied when you’re trying to network with influential peoples. This gives a wrong impression of yours if you being caught doing this because it implies that something is more important than talking to that influential person & you are not good at relationship management skills.
The most important aspect of building a solid & robust relationship with influential people is never moving your focus from them.
When you’re communicating with them, no matter what’s happening in the surrounding, people are chattering, or the room is full of bustle. You always need to be present in that conversation, not just physically but mentally also.
It shows to others that the person is interested in this conversation. Opportunity can come from anywhere; you never know one full-hearted conversation with the higher authoritative person could lead you to your dream job.
So from the next time, whenever you strike a conversation with influential people, be genuinely present at that moment.
4. First listen & then Speak:
Nowadays, it’s widespread that when a person communicates with anyone, they always start the conversation by talking about themselves. But if you want to excel at relationship management skills, then you must master the art of listening.
Don’t rush with your agenda to influential people; they hate it.
Like if they ask- What are you working on nowadays? And you start your trying to impress speech. Hold on a bit, start your conversation with interesting questions like, whatever you are doing, why do you do it every day? How you got into a position where you’re right now.
And now listen patiently to what they have to say, you’ll get to know about their interest, passion & their struggles.
If you ask these types of questions which they very rarely heard of, they’ll get a feeling that this guy wanted to learn & they’ll eventually ask about what you do too.
And now the time comes where you can seize the moment by talking according to their likes, passion & interest.
Always try to connect with any influential people humanly, not just professionally. If you’d be able to do this, you’ll go way up top in your life by building a good relationship with them.
5. Do some Research:
First, learn & do some research on that influential & powerful person with whom you wanted to work for in the future.
In this colonial era, knowing about famous individuals or anyone is not a big deal. There are so many platforms like- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, podcasts from which you can keep track of what’s will be their next move or in which city they are coming in next week’s or they’re in a hunt for a digital marketer.
And if you could provide the value which they’re looking for, then Bingo! Because that’s what you want.
Start writing an email saying like-
Dear Mr Xyz,
I heard that you’re looking for a Digital marketing expert for your organisation. And I’ve worked with Xyz comp. For x years & I would love to add value for you.
You got the gist, right! Research that influential person you wanted to work for & who knows, the opportunity comes to your door anytime.
6. Be Honest:
Do you know what strength is? When you open up to the world that you have weaknesses. We live in a society where it’s a norm that those who have disadvantages & if they share with anyone, then everyone will judge them based on their weakness.
But the reality is quite the opposite; when we open up about our weakness to others, we can only connect to the deeper level & create a deeper relationship.
Because everyone has some kind of weakness like some have insecurities about something, some don’t do something due to fear, someone struggled in their life, due to lack of skill in the early days & we all have been in this kind of situation.
When you open up with your weaknesses, people also find you credible because of your honesty & this will create a common ground for others to connect with you. So don’t try to be “Mr. knows it all” because you’ll get exposed if you fake it. Instead of this, try to become honest about your weakness & it’ll help you create strong bonds with essential people in your life.
Those who know the importance of relationship-building never shy away from opening up because it’s crucial for good relationship building.
7. Provide value to others:
Those who know the importance of a relationship know a straightforward fact that you can’t get from anyone without giving. Nobody has time for anyone until & unless that person has some kind of value to add. Now you know how to reach out to influential people; now you just need to reach out to them & give what they want, like creating content for them, they are looking to expand their marketing team, then send them an email & become a worthy candidate for that.
It’s not about what you can get from them; it’s about how much value you can give to others—any kind of good relationship built on trust. And one can gain confidence only when they others without any hidden motive or reason behind helping someone.
And good deeds always pay you back in one way or the other.
8. Work for Influential Person:
Suppose you get a chance of working for the most powerful & influential people of your industry & did a great job there. Then one thing is for sure that you’ve opened the gate for being more successful. Why? Because an influential people group also happened to be full of influential people.
More influential & powerful people constantly surround successful people.
So if you are good at what you do & if you have worked for one powerful individual, chances are they will take your name whenever other influential individuals compliment or talk about your work.
Due to this, you will get more exposure & you may even get the opportunity for your dream company.
9. Believe in your ideas:
Just building a good relationship with influential people isn’t enough. If you want to make others believe in your work or ideas, then you first need to consider your work more than anyone in the world.
Just think about it, if you don’t believe that your work or ideas are great, then how could anyone believe in your career or ideas.
People are intuitive creature, so if you are confident about your work, it will come out to the other person that this person knows what he is talking about & the same thing applies with faking & show-off.
If you try to lie about your work or ideas, they will instantly know because they become successful with experiences.
Conclusion:
To reach a great height, you must involve yourself with more powerful & influential people. There’s a saying- “You are the average of five people you spend the most time with”-Jim John.
To find influential people in your industry, gather every kind of knowledge about them, try to provide value to them & if they found some spark within you. You’ll find yourself working for them, or they will refer to other influential people.
So, now you know the importance of relationship-building with influential people can do for you. Apply all the suggestions in your life & soon, you’ll master the art of relationship management skill.
Also, you can read our blog on How to use Cause and Effect Analysis to Easily Solve any Problem