The CEO (my boss) called me into his office. The room was airless, the atmosphere tense…
Hang on, I’d better explain:
I’ve decided to tell the story of how I got involved in the subject of interpersonal skills, and introduce the 12 Relationship Skills for Success, one at a time like on Twitter.
Let’s go back to 1999…
The story really begins then (or 1963). I was a program director with a UK government contractor, working on the formative stages of a major capital project – “ambiguous” and “jungle” don’t quite cover it. I was effective in the role, but… The shortfall wasn’t engineering or project expertise, or management or leadership; it was certain inadequacies in the way I handled relationships with bosses, partners, peers, other involved parties. I didn’t realise I was making mistakes, of course, (you don’t) and by the time people started telling me, it was really too late.
And so arose the meeting with the boss, and my particular interest in the skills we use with other people.
Over the weeks to come, I’ll tell you what the mistakes were and what happened next.
I’ve had the chance to learn some insightful approaches from great teachers – hard to convey the power if you’ve no experience of them: Powerful ways for getting teams and organisations (large and small) working together, increasing sales, and enjoying family life, all with comparative ease.
Our collective outcomes could be much better if we made more use of what’s available. Relationships and the ability to form them are often the missing piece. We tend to regard that as something we can’t work on, but that’s wrong. We can, with the right approach. The techniques are there, so why wouldn’t we use them? Not to is like going about in the dark when you could have switched on the lights. I can tell you: You bump into things.
Next time: What the boss said, and the first bit of learning.
(This post was first published as an email update from the LinkedIn Group: Relationship Skills for Professional, Business and Personal Success, which you can join here.)