Work With, Not For

A typical response everytime you ask somebody where they work is this: "I work for..." Whether intentional or simply something we got used to, it somehow represents how our working relationships are with our employer or boss. In a boss-subordinate kind of relationship, there is not much to say about co-dependence. Maybe this is where we got the term "working for." And maybe we need a new mindset where the boss-subordinate kind of relationship needs to be changed to something like "coach-team staff" where everybody in the team would realize the value each one brings into the team to become successful. Think about it. Imagine a basketball team where each player has a different goal or the star player wants to show off or the coach simply wants to finish the game. There's no way they can make it to the championship with that kind of mindset. But with each member of the team focusing on a common goal, "working with" each other instead of working for the coach, the championship is just a matter of time. Co-dependency may not make a star player but it definitely makes a championship team. And a championship team makes every member a star player.

The Success Formula #1

I've had the opportunity to speak about The Ironies of Opposites for Success last year at the PASS Community Summit in Denver, CO. There really is no silver bullet to become successful but principles applied in every day life. The goal of this article is to come up with a series of formulas for success that we can apply.

Formula #1: Your success in any undertaking is directly proportional to how much you enjoy working with the people in your team.

Whether we like it or not, relationship has a big impact in just about anything we do - work, study, recreation, etc. And as we try to attain a specific goal and build a team, we need team members who are rockstars to become very successful. We cannot do it on our own. The book The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork by Dr. John Maxwell highlights this fact in every chapter. But what's more important is not just having great players in the team but making sure you have good working relationships with every member. Let's face it. How many baseball or football teams have you heard where the a great player leaves the team because of a stained relationship with the coach or the team captain. It's impossible to please everybody but not the fact that you can build good relationships with anybody. And this could mean the difference between success and failure. One article I read about employee turnover in organizations mentions "employees don't quit jobs, they quit managers." This simply highlights the importance of relationships in the corporate world.

When I was starting off in business, I have coined the term "relationship selling" and "relationship marketing" which highlights the effectiveness of relationships in your sales and marketing efforts. Maintaining very good relationships with existing customers would be more profitable than getting new ones. You can ask just about any sales professional you know and they'll say the same thing. Bottom line is that you can no longer ignore the effects of relationship in just about anything you do and it may spell the difference between success and failure.

I will be speaking on using Emotional Intelligence in Information Technology in this year's PASS Community Summit in Seattle, WA