Relationships – Building them feeding them and scaling them.

Relationships. Building them, feeding them and scaling them.

It is important to spend time intentionally connecting and creating relationships with people.

By CAROLINE FERGUSON, Southwest Utility Solutions

Show me an article or news story that says “This just in, relationships are no longer important.” It’s like a company having a core value of dishonesty or disrespect – it just doesn’t happen! Relationships and connections with other human beings is what has always, and will continue to, make the world go ‘round.

So the question is, why?

Why is it important to spend time intentionally connecting and creating relationships with people? Why is it so necessary for us to invest our energy in feeding and maintaining relationships? If they’re so fruitful and great, how do we scale them in an authentic way to support our businesses?

It’s all in the network.

When I was in college, I remember sitting down with my mentor and listening to him explain to me the power of having a robust network. I also remember him explaining that having a real, engaged and thoughtful network has to go beyond simply connecting with someone on LinkedIn or Facebook.

The saying “our network is our net worth” has some truth to it. The collective impact and influence that our networks have is massive. Think about it for a second in terms of the world we’re all in: Multifamily.

Your onsite teams, your offsite teams, your supporting partner and vendor teams, your ownership teams, your asset management teams, your residents. These are all teams composed of human beings that you have (or should have) relationships with.

If no one has told you yet, let me be the first to say it, we’re in the people business. Everything we do as an industry is intimate and impactful. Touching someone’s home and creating a space for them to live in and raise their families is deeply personal. There are real relationships, real emotions and real connections that take place here.

Can you imagine for a moment if Walt Disney had decided to build his Disneyland dream all by himself? What if one person on your team decided that they alone could run every facet of your company without any help? Have you ever heard of a skyscraper being built by one person alone?

Great things require people. Working with people requires being in some form of community with them. Being in a community means, yep, you guessed it, you’re now in the relationship business!

It’s all in the engagement.

When we think about building and feeding relationships intentionally and authentically, one overarching theme comes to mind: engagement.

I’m not talking about getting engaged or a wedding ceremony. When I say engagement, I’m referring to its literal definition: “the state of being engaged.” Building and feeding relationships in an intentional way means we’re engaged authentically with the people we do life with.

This means our relationships should be active. An active relationship means there’s communication, presence and acknowledgement. Relationships that are impactful require participation. We’ve all experienced the one-way relationship and aren’t they exhausting? Meaningful connections require time and energy. • It’s important that you remember birthdays. • It’s important that you celebrate new promotions. • It’s important that you mourn and grieve during times of loss. • It’s important that you are showing up for your community, team and partners.

It’s all in the influence.

Let’s talk about impact and influence.

Most of the time, we assume the impact and influence we have ends with the person we’re directly in relationship with. As an example, if I’m talking to one of my clients, the assumption could be made that the impact of my words ends when our conversation ends. The truth is that rarely happens. The impact we have on the people around us goes beyond the people we are directly doing life with.

My favorite way to think about this is by comparing it to how networking on LinkedIn works. For those that are looking for some pointers on how to use LinkedIn, take some notes here.

It’s all in the connections.

LinkedIn has three levels of connections: 1st Degree, 2nd Degree and 3rd Degree connections. 1st Degree connections are people you are directly connected with, 2nd Degree connections are connected to your 1st Degree connections and 3rd Degree connections are connected to your 2nd Degree connections. Imagining these levels is easiest for me if we look at them like circles within a circle.

On LinkedIn, when you interact with people and engage with posts, most of the time you are going to be engaging with someone you are directly connected to, or your 1st Degree connections. The engagement doesn’t stop there, though. While you may not be engaging directly with content posted by your 2nd and 3rd Degree connections, LinkedIn is sharing your content with them. This means that the connections of your connections on LinkedIn are seeing what you are posting and who you are interacting with.

Why does any of this matter?

Our real life communities and relationships are not much different. Though we may directly be interacting and engaging with a small group of people, the impact our engagement has touches other people. Consider Simon Sinek or Brene Brown, neither one of them have immediate connection to us (if they do, you are super cool and I’m jealous), but we are impacted by the power of their relationships and how they engage with their community!

It’s all in the community.

Building, feeding and scaling relationships is crucial for our businesses. Building and feeding thoughtful community and intentionally connecting at scale creates an opportunity for tremendous impact.

In our industry especially, when we’re thoughtful and intentional with how we choose to cultivate and maintain our relationships, the impact we have goes far beyond the immediate person we’re in relationship with.

How we build and feed relationships with our onsite teams affects how our residents perceive how their home is maintained. How we build and feed relationships with vendors and supplier partners affects how your management team is perceived and viewed. How we build and feed relationships with our coworkers and employees affects how they show up to work and how they go home to their families in the evening.

It’s all in the relationships.

Relationships are non-negotiables. They’re necessary and required. Building, feeding, and scaling them has tremendous impact on our businesses and communities.

Caroline Ferguson is the vice president for Southwest Utility Solutions. Ferguson can be reached at cferguson@swutilitysolutions.com.