As a man, you’re a leader whether you’re a corporate worker, a businessman, an entrepreneur, a homemaker, a freelancer, or anything else in between. And the key to good leadership in any sphere is to cultivate good relationships with every person you work with.
I’m an entrepreneur and businessman, and in this article, I’d like to share the steps I’ve taken to build healthy, happy relationships with the people who work for me, the people who buy my products, and the single most important person you’ll ever work with.
Building Good Relationships With Your Staff
Finding the best people to run your businesses for you is a never-ending battle. It’s a given. You can’t escape it – ask any guru in any industry, and they’ll tell you the same thing – you can’t go it alone. Not for long.
What worked for me is a three-step process I now use in every business I start:
1. Get crystal-clear on the culture of your company. For instance, my companies’ overarching culture is to help Americans build sustainable home-based businesses, and I empower my staff to believe in that culture.
2. Hire the best people. I no longer look for experience, because the experience comes on the job. Instead, I now look for the right attitude (extremely solution-oriented) and skills (the ability to make those solutions happen).
3. Invest in your staff. More than anything, you’ll need to empower your staff via education. You teach them the framework around their tasks, and then give them the freedom to execute those tasks the best way they know.
You’ll know you have good relationships with your staff when they trip over themselves to get that “yes” from your customers.
And speaking of customers…
Building Good Relationships With Your Customers
With customers, I’ve learned that while you always need to fill your funnel with new customers, you should always give extra focus to your “raving fan” customers – the ones who come back to you over and over and over.
I’ve learned that the best way to keep your raving fans is to create irresistible offers for them, and them only. That way, you’ll always have customers who keep your business afloat even during economic slowdowns.
And lastly…
Building a Good Relationship With Yourself
As corny as it sounds, you are the most important person you’ll ever work with. This bears repeating because I’ve met so many men who treat other people so much better than they treat themselves, and that’s unsustainable.
There’s a wealth of knowledge out there on how to be kinder to yourself, but for me, this one is the most important: To not be so damn hard on yourself.
You know you have a good relationship with yourself when you’re outcome-independent – that is, when you know that even your failures help you grow stronger down the line. You don’t waste time kicking yourself in the pants and feeling sorry for yourself – you get up, you pick up your mat, and you walk.
Hopefully, these three lessons will help you, too, on your road to becoming a better man.
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Photo: Getty Images