Creating Career Building Relationships

Relationships rule when it comes to your job satisfaction and ultimately promotion decisions. Stop looking at work relationships as though they are casual friendships and start looking at work relationships as criteria for which you will be judged and hopefully supported.  There are three classic pitfalls that you should be careful to avoid.   Falling into one or more of these pitfalls could mean sudden death for your career.

Pitfall #1

Loose lips sink ships. Do not take on the role of office gossip OR betray someone's confidence in an effort to win friends or entertain yourself.  You are being watched whether you realize it or not.  You will lose trust and credibility with others if you engage in such behaviors.

 Pitfall #2

Direct reports as best friends. If you are in a leadership position it is never a good idea to display a best friend relationship with individuals that report to you.  The supervisor/manager/leader loses credibility and instantly creates an exclusive culture.  It is also important to remember the direct report is in a subordinate role so they may feel pressured to comply with any favors or request you ask of them.  This could come back to severely haunt you in the form of harassment if the relationship turns sour.  If you are the direct report that is in this type of relationship with your boss, you may not be taken seriously by others.  Keep your relationship as professional as possible.

 Pitfall #3

Having too many best friends
It is also not wise to seek out “20+ best friends”.  Your inner circle should never be that large.  Having 20 best friends will inevitably result in leaks in information, feelings of exclusion and

sure disappointment playing out of the old adage, “you can never please all of the people all of the time.”  If you are consumed with making sure that everyone likes you, chances are you are very exhausted and very unsuccessful.  Consider why it is so important to you to be liked.  Also consider that this desire will typically result in paralysis as you agonize on what to do in certain scenarios in an effort to please everyone.  You may also get into trouble when it comes to decision making in terms of demonstrating unethical behavior as your values and morals can become clouded by your desire to be liked. 

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