If you have the skills and the determination to develop your professional career, there are several other things you can focus on outside of your technical skills. The most skillful person can sit behind a closed door all day, but the one that takes action to be a well rounded individual will climb ladders of success more frequently.
Tips for professional development can come directly from building the ability on how you form relationships with colleagues, subordinates, and your ‘higher ups’. Building a long lasting and strong relationship with this circle of influence is the key to professional development.
Here are 3 Tips on building relationships as it leads to professional development.
1. Be interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Be a good listener
Dale Carnagie’s book, “How to Win Friends & Influence People” provides 6 ways to make people like you. The 3 tips on building relationships provided here are pulled directly from Dale Carnagie’s book, but are 3 incredible ways to garner respect, interest, and the start of a good relationship.
1. Be interested in other people
If you are not interested in what others but continue to share your life’s stories, your weekend conquests, and your past accomplishments on a daily basis, people will immediately perceive you to be self centered and uninterested in anything they have to say. If you are genuinely interested in other people, this can become a long lasting relationship that can open doors of opportunity that you never knew existed.
Have purposeful conversations with people and make sure you are interested in what they have to say. They in turn will be interested in you when you do have something to say.
2. Smile
Walking through the hall and disappearing into your office is not a good way to build relationships with people. Say good morning, be appreciative, and reflect the attitude of gratitude – all with a smile. Dale Carnegie states: "the expression one wears on one's face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one's back."
A smile is an obvious and effective method of non-verbal communication. How you ‘look’ whether it’s the clothes on your back or not, is one of the first things someone will notice about you. A smile will transmit the message, a positive one, and it is sure to send the right messages to people around you instead of the negative – wrong messages – to the people you most want to build relationships with.
3. Be a good listener
Some may find it hard to be a good listener. There is a saying, “"We were given two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as talking." Therefore, listening is an important skill to work on. It is so important that you need to include both Tips 1 and 2 in order to be a good listener.
When listening, be interested in what the person has to say. Smile – because a disgusted look, a furrowed brow, and even a yawn will be negative signs to the speaker. Sometimes listening is all you have to do. A nod of agreement could be all the speaker needs from you. No opinions, problem solving, or questions. Just two open ears and a smile.
Building professional relationships is key to professional development. It will be a tough ladder to climb for those ‘professionals’ who lack the above skills than those who embrace it and work on it on a daily basis.
Be interested in other people, smile, and listen attentively to what others have to say can lead to motivation in the workplace, a strong social network, and a career path of longevity and success. These are core traits to anybody’s professional development success!