Why Building Trustful Relationships is Paramount to One’s Career?
I was always proud of being a goal-oriented person who was driven by a set of clear objectives. This quality was crucial for me to succeed in a project management role and later as an account executive. Sometime ago, however, I realized that this strength was limiting my career development. How can that be? While I was so focused on a task at hand and spending my time as I thought purposefully, I was missing out on socializing and opportunities to build trustful relationships with people in my organization.
Annmarie Curley in the podcast episode “Why project management is all about relationships” of “PMO Strategies” Podcast speaks about the importance for project managers to spend time to build trustful relationships. She explains that trustful relationships, both inside the project team as well as outside of the project team, are paramount to a project success. Project success depends on the team’s ability to identify and proactively eliminate issues. To do that, people on the team have to be comfortable to speak up. For that reason, as a project manager one must spend time fostering trustful relationships within the team. Muriel Wilkins, cofounder of the executive coaching firm Paravis Partners, in an episode of “HBR IdeaCast” Podcast gives a few tips on how one can effectively do this in a remote environment:
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Make time for informal interactions. Schedule voluntary weekly team meetings to connect and talk about everything except work.
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Make yourself available to your team, so they can approach you with questions, concerns, and new ideas. Block a specific time in your calendar on weekly bases to be available for your team members.
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Be ready for spontaneous interactions throughout a day. Leave gaps in your calendar, so you can take an unscheduled call or follow-up on an email you received.
Annmarie Curley also gives advice about the importance of building relationships with people outside of your immediate team. She highlights that “the project charter is not a document it’s actually a conversation.” Annmarie further explains “It’s about getting to a place of common understanding”. A project manager should also have an understanding of what impact the project has on various stakeholders. Is there an alignment with various stakeholders’ needs or are there concerns? Socializing with people, learning more about them and their needs are crucial to a leader’s success. It is becoming even more important for leaders as they move higher up on the corporate ladder. Executive leaders work in unison to reach strategic alignment between organizational initiatives and a thorough understanding of everyone’s objective is important.
Shady Ghattas, Global Director of Consumer Products Industry Solutions at SAP who has progressed from a Solution Advisor to a Global Director within eight (8) years of his career explains that career growth is not about being the smartest or most hard working individual on a team. It is about trust, relationships, and the ability to get things done (August 2020 episode of “Ivey MBA Tech Club Podcast”).
If you recognize yourself as a goal-oriented person who enjoys focusing on immediate objectives, don’t panic. This is one of your biggest strengths and it is a foundation of your career success. However, it is time to start purposefully spending time getting to know people in your organization. As mentioned earlier, leave spare time in your calendar to engage in spontaneous interactions with your colleagues, or book coffee-chats with people from groups that interest you. Relationship building is about letting people get to know you and learn about a person’s aspirations and goals. My recommendation would be also to get involved into a side project. It can be a fulfilling experience and it is a great way to socialize with colleagues who share similar passions while expanding your trusted co-worker circle.
I hope this article will help you think about ways to build trusting relationships with your colleagues so that you can continue to move forward in your career.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or leave a comment below.
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