4 Essential Traits That Underpin Great Business Relationships

It sounds like an overstatement, but if you want to build a solid, long-lasting business, you’ve got to focus on relationships. A great business relationship will ensure a successful company and it trickles down into so many other vital components. But what does it really take to ensure that a great business relationship has the necessary foundations?

Authenticity

Transparency finds its way into so many other aspects of business, from dealing with employees to working with suppliers. Supplier relationships are notoriously tricky if you choose the wrong one. In the manufacturing industry, generator manufacturing companies like Fuji Electric provide a wide variety of Fuji Electric parts to big companies, but a large business like this still understands the importance of authenticity. And when we become transparent in who we are and in our dealings, it’s going to improve relationships.

Understand How You Can Provide Value

Rather than being in it for yourself, the right business leader is someone that can add value to every part of someone else’s existence. Working with someone else is not always about finding ways to compromise, but about ensuring that you can show others you have their back and you are adding value to your relationship with them. This is something that great presidents understand, that when they speak to one other person, it’s like they’re the only two people in the room. This is something that will build an authentic relationship because if you are adding value to someone else’s day by giving them a little bit of your time or offering expertise and connections, you are providing great value to their existence (and yours) as a result.   

Be Vulnerable

The topic of vulnerability is still a sore subject for many. When someone is experiencing difficulties in an office environment, it pays to show that we are human. We can still be professional, but we still need to showcase our authenticity, and this means being vulnerable. However, it’s important to determine who you can be vulnerable with. Some people love nothing more than to take advantage of people who are vulnerable, but this is where a great leader understands the value of vulnerability and authenticity in line with making the right decisions. Great leaders can be vulnerable, but they also know how to assert themselves.

Offering Something Before Demanding Something

Everybody wants to take, take, take, and it is so hard to set the example of a great business leader that is offering themselves without asking for anything in return. But it’s about the little things that we do to add value to other people. We can educate others or inspire, but while offering something is part and parcel of effective marketing techniques, the reality is that people want something for nothing. The trick is, once you’ve given them something, you need to have a limit.

Great relationships don’t just build fantastic businesses, but they offer a brighter future for everybody involved. Start thinking about how you relate to others, not just the facts, figures, and results!