Relationships are the foundation of leadership and success. Without people, you cannot achieve your vision alone. The challenge therefore lies in how you can effectively utilize your relationships with others to help them and you advance your goals. Some people fail to pay attention to building relationships with their people, they treat other people as only ‘transactions” and miss out on the huge opportunity to make the most out of relationships.

The truth about human beings is that if you bring them to close to you they may hurt you, but if you keep them too far away they cannot help you. Winning with people is about striking the balance, and reaching out to others in the following ways:

• Build rapport: Take time to get to know the people around you. Have open honest conversations with them sharing about yourself – your interests, motivation and values and learning similar things about them too. The more we know about each other’s backgrounds and motives, the better we will be at working as teams and influencing each other.
• Show Empathy: To win with people, we also need to show empathy – to put ourselves in the shoes of others and feel where it pinches. You can only lead people whose pain you understand. Stay connected and like they say – “keep it real”
• Listen effectively: Most leaders are great talkers and often make the mistake of talking too much and listening too little. Effective listening requires you to pay attention to others, sensing not only their words, but their body language – listening to their hearts and connecting with their messages.
• Build Trust: Trust is the foundation of sustainable relationships. You must work hard to eliminate trust destroyers like sacred cows and untamed elephants in the parlour. You must strive to be a person of integrity – ensuring alignment between your words and actions.
• Invest in People: Invest in the people around you with your time, resources and talent. Everyone needs help and support, and the investments you make I people will no doubt yield positive results.

People are integral to your success as a professional, manager or leader. Win with people today by building rapport, showing empathy, listening effectively, building trust and investing in people.