Relationships Are Everything

Recently I was rereading and watching videos from the best selling author, entrepreneur, and speaker Keith Ferrazzi, one of the pre-eminent thought leaders and experts when it comes to professional relationship-building.

For those of you who don’t know Keith, he is the New York Times bestselling author of the modern-day classic Never Eat Alone, as well as the author of the bestselling book Who’s Got Your Back?, former CMO of Deloitte (where he was the youngest CMO of a Fortune 500 company), and former CMO of Starwood Hotels before he eventually broke out on his own to start Ferrazzi Greenlight.

Here are some takeaways from his lessons with 3 of his relationship-building tips that you can use to advance your career on and offline right now.

"The currency of real networking is not greed, but generosity" 

1) Be The King Or Queen Of Adding Value

Those who are super-connectors in their professional and personal lives seek to provide value to others. Whether it’s through sharing lots of relevant industry content and being a learning resource to many like or it’s through transparency with your “trade-secrets” that have helped you achieve certain accolades to date, showing your humanity and being of service will result in more meaningful connections for you and your business.

2) Join Conversations Before You Start Them

Good connectors know when it is valuable to listen and show genuine interest in other people rather than talk and expect others to go out of their way to hear them.

Don’t always jockey for attention, expecting everyone else to flock to you in order to discuss what’s on your mind; instead, join in the discussions others are having on and offline and show sincerity in their concerns and needs while contemplating how you can share knowledge or value in helping them.

3) Don’t Keep Score

If you want to build real connections, it’s never just about getting what you want. It’s about making sure you selflessly provide value to others so they achieve in what they aspire to do as well. There shouldn’t be a “favor trade”, and help shouldn’t be a bargaining chip. Helping others – without keeping score – should be something you want to do in order to make the people around you better and be of service, and as a byproduct, others will naturally be more inclined to help you in the future after you’ve helped them.

Relationships are everything and people will be your best investment.