Certainly, when it comes to your professional and business dealings, you need to win. That’s a requirement. You’re in business to win.
According to Frank Carone, chairman of Oaktree Solutions and co-author of Everyone Wins! How You Can Enhance and Optimize Business Relationships Just Like Ultra-Wealthy Entrepreneurs, “Among the most successful entrepreneurs, winning is not only about them winning, it’s also about their business associates winning. It’s about everybody winning. The key is to systematically enhance your business relationships so that everyone is better able to succeed. For example, top entrepreneurs are extraordinarily good at showing employees how their vision for the company is great for everyone—for each person—at the company.”
Consider the impact of enhanced relationships from the vantage point of three critical entrepreneurship components—leadership, negotiating and networking.
Valued Business Outcomes Because You’re Enhancing Business Relationships
You aim to develop powerful working alliances with others who can help you build a great company that enables you to become seriously successful and possibly quite wealthy. But there’s so much more to your life than business or money.
| Leadership When you combine this approach with vision and insight, you’re able to build a substantial and hyper-loyal following. You’re able to do a great job of motivating others within and outside your company to do their very, very best so your company can excel. People will stick with you even when things turn bad. |
| Negotiating You’re able to get the best deal possible pretty much regularly, recognizing that there are likely to be other deals to be made in the future. You’re building a reputation as someone who is fair and responsible, which makes more people want to do deals with you, thereby providing you many more opportunities. To get consistently solid negotiating results, you need incredible leverage, strong relationships or both and it’s often so much easier and more certain to consistently enhance and possibly optimize relationships with the other side in order to get amazing outcomes. |
| Networking Other people are actively identifying resources for you and make robust introductions. The introductions are closely aligned with people who have a good chance of being able to provide you with what you need and want. Your business relationships understand what would help you and will be looking out for the right people to introduce to you and when they find someone, they’ll do everything in their power to make the connection work for you. |
When you enhance your business relationships, you’re also setting the stage for life-enhancing possibilities. For instance, those with whom you have significant business relationships will not only help you grow your company, they’ll also be resources you can rely on when your personal life gets tough or when you need something for yourself or your family.
It’s all about being able to call on people for favors. Maybe it’s getting preferential access to a specialty physician, helping your kid land a great job, or even getting introduced to a celebrity. Regardless, when you help everyone win, you build a network of people who can greatly improve your life and the lives of those you care about most.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He is a strategist for family offices and the ultra-wealthy.