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Relationship Economics® Newsletter

January 2008

Happy New Year! Hope the holiday season was a wonderful time for you and your loved ones. As many of you know, Alan Weiss is a friend and a mentor and I thought his "Happy 2008" would be appropriate to start this newsletter - may you find them equally aspirational:

May the New Year:

Bring you the confidence to know when you’re right and to admit when you’re wrong.
Present more discretionary time than ever before.
Provide insights that enable you to live a more productive life.
Heal old wounds.
Create a brand new, impassioned hobby.

Read complete article >>

The Value of Holiday Cards? Again...

It has been a busy holiday season.

Total number of cards we received this year: 412
Number of those that were impersonal (a standard message and company name pre-printed inside with a name printed on an address label): 337
Cards received from people we don’t know: 146
Duplicate cards from the same person/company: 8
Cards that included life dissertations about second cousins, twice removed: 10
Last minute e-cards sent by those who just didn’t quite make it to the mailbox (or who claimed they were being “green” by not sending cards this year): 52

Value of the effort from many companies? Totally useless. Again.

Last January, I wrote an article about the self-imposed pressure to clog the U.S. mail system with what many believe is simply a nice gesture. Yet as you look around our office, as stacks of cards pile up on various desks, you have to wonder about their effectiveness.

Read complete article >>

Top 10 Tips for Effective LinkedIn Use

In January 2007, Guy Kawasaki wrote about “The 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn” on his blog. In it, he described how most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. At the time, the online network included an estimated 8 ½ million experienced professionals from 130 industries. (By the way, today LinkedIn is approaching 17 million users in 170 industries.)

It is interesting that his Top 10 list to increase the value of LinkedIn holds true a year later. As a recap, here are Guy’s Top 10 (with a few updated additions):

Increase your visibility.
Improve your connectability.
Improve your Google PageRank.
Enhance your search engine results.
Perform blind and “reverse” company reference checks.
Increase the relevancy of your job search.
Make your interview go smoother.
Gage the health of a company.
Gage the health of an industry.
Track start-ups.
Ask for advice.
Integrate into a new job.
Scope out the competition, customers and partners.

Read complete article >>

Difficult Conversations

Think of a recent critical conversation you’ve had that went poorly – what was it about? Why was it critical? What were the facts? What story played in your mind? What feelings did it generate? Did you use silence or violence to handle the situation?

I recently taught a class as part of Emory University’s MBA program on Difficult Conversations. It reiterated some fundamental skills that may prove to be very viable in 2008 and beyond. The discipline of crucial conversations and one’s ability to influence without authority is a key skill in business yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Other great titles such as Crucial Conversations (2002), which at last check had spent 20 months on BusinessWeek’s bestseller list; Winning With People by John C. Maxwell (2004); Crucial Confrontations (2005), which is currently on the New York Times bestseller list; Fierce Conversations (2002); and the most recently published Influencer (2008); reiterate the increased pressure for timely results through efficient and effective communication.

Read complete article >>

We hope you enjoy this month's Relationship Economics® Newsletter and will forward it to colleagues you deem of value.

Here is to your strategic relationship success,

David

David Nour - CEO | Author | Social Networking Catalyst

Relationship Economics - Atlanta
404-419-2115 x9101
dnour@beone-now.com

IN THIS ISSUE:

The Value of Holiday Cards?
10 Tips for Effective LinkedIn Use

Difficult Conversations

SIDE BAR:

Social Networking Webinars: LinkedIn & 2008 Schedule
PDUs2Go for Project Managers

How Relationship-Centric Are You?

Monthly Social Networking Technology Webinars:

Are you LinkedIn?

Join us on Wednesday, Jan. 9th for this month's Social Networking Webinar on LinkedIn - one of several B2B Social Networking Technology Tools, where we'll demonstrate practical applications of technology enablers for strategic relationship success.

2008 Q1 Schedule:

Jan 23, Second Life

Feb 6, LinkedIn® Advanced

Feb 20, Jigsaw®

Mar 5, LinkedIn® Beginner & Intermediate

Mar 26, Visible Path

PDUs2Go

Are you a certified project manager in search of PMP renewal certification hours? Are you considering getting PMI-certified and need some hours before the end of the year? Check out our new sister company PDUs2Go where you can earn 10 PDUs for a Relationship Currency® training course. While you're there, you may also want to check out their other offerings.

How Relationship-Centric Are You?

If you think of your broad-based business constituents, I doubt you will find anyone who will argue with the notion that relationships are important, intentional, strategic, and thus quantifiable. Focusing on how to identify, build, nurture and leverage those relationships to maximize execution, performance and results will become a sustainable differentiator in 2008 and beyond.

I would submit that a relationship-centric DNA is habitual. Mastering everyday relationship development habits can create a lifetime of success.

Four critical catalysts will define what we believe are a set of unique traits identifiable by your social style:

Astuteness – Do you go through the day with your eyes open – I mean, really open? When you engage other professionals, do you notice details about them? Are you savvy enough to observe the social intelligence in a team environment?

Inquisitive – The ability to ask insightful questions will help influence the conversation. Influence the conversation, and you influence the relationship. Influence the relationship, and you will influence the outcome you desire.

Intentional – Which relationships will be more strategic to your efforts in 2008? How diverse is your portfolio of relationships? Can you identify gaps in the relationships you need vs. the ones you possess today? How do you know and what will you do about it?

Follow-through – In observing various kinds of business relationships for the last 20 years, I can’t say that I am surprised, yet I am baffled every time I see commitments made and either no follow-up made or follow-up made but no follow-through.

These catalysts tightly integrate to identify four relationship-centric profiles. Stay tuned for our February newsletter for a description of each!

Read complete article >>

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