RELATIONSHIPS 101 by JOHN C MAXWELL
Book Review by Suresh Salvation
Date of Review: 7th Nov 2011

John C Maxwell, a well known writer for books on Leadership wrote a few thoughts on RELATIONSHIPS within TEAMS.
KEY FACTORS TO BUILDING SUCCESSFUL REALTIONSHIPS IN TEAMS

1. RESPECT

John Maxwell shares on factor about how we should show respect to people we meet before they have necessarily earned it but that we should expect to earn it for ourselves.
As the saying goes, RESPECT IS EARNED! Many at times people are in a way labeled according to their “first impression counts” aspect and many loose out in the respect part due to the former. Not to judge a book by its’ cover is something that will facilitate one from keeping an open perspective of things and thus leading to give to a person that basic respect that can be given. We all desire (some even long) to be respected.

2. SHARED-EXPERIENCE

Sharing common experience can cause team relationships to grow; especially when they go through difficult situations. Why? Reason being, not only as individuals but as Team they learnt things about one another in one way or another (be it directly or in-directly).  John Maxwell ever interviewed a sports coach,
“Would you be able to repeat your success this year to the following year?”  His response was,
“Most probably not because there is an annual turn-over of 25%-30% of the team, and hence many new players who did not share the team’s common experience would not run at the same pace/level as the others.” 

3. TRUST

In order for Trust to take place, the 1st two factors (Respect & Shared-Experience) have to happen first. We all acknowledge and agree that trust is an important factor in life, either it being in a working environment, home or even with spouse/friends etc.  . This factor is quite straight forward.

4. Reciprocity

Good relationships require give and take at times. If one party is always giving and the other always receiving, then there is an imbalance. Reading on Lance Armstrong on how he built his team was rather interesting. Lance daily in the morning, he spends time with his cycling teammates getting to know them, about their life, challenges they go through etc. In the long run this helped to ensure their loyalty when he needs their support to win the Tour de France, again and again. There is a difference in getting to know someone with ulterior motives compared to getting to know someone genuinely. For Lance, it was the latter. To win the Tour de France over and over again was simply possible because of the Team Relationship he had built.

5. Mutual Enjoyment

 John Maxwell quoted from George Kienzle and Edward Dare (from Climbing the Executive Ladder)
“Few things will pay you bigger dividends than the time and trouble you take to understand people. Almost nothing will add more to your stature as an executive and a person. Nothing will give you greater satisfaction or bring you more happiness".
As relationships develop, people enjoy each others’ company. This helps to build positive experiences, even through out of unpleasant solutions.
Work-life integration comes into play for this factor to develop among each other and where also the other factors have an avenue to surface and nurture.

In summary for this segment, I think taking TIME to relate to the people in a TEAM is a key factor. Every day we are all tied up with the million things to do but to spend a minute or so to INTENTIONALLY know the people around us. Are we the same person we are in office and outside office environment or are we one person when we are in office and a different person when we are outside?