Relationship building is an important skill that any IT manager should possess and develop in order to be an effective manager.
The IT department delivers technical assets that an organisation utilises to support its daily activities. These technical assets impact the entire organisation and therefore the IT manager needs to have an in-depth understanding of how the organisation operates, the needs of each individual department and the correlation between the requirements of all business units within the organisation,
Delivering effective IT services requires a lot of communication with members from different areas of the organisation, it is not an isolated service. Communication is a vital aspect of delivering effective IT services.
When communicating with other members of the organisation, clients or suppliers, they will respond better to you if they like and trust you. It is much easier to talk to stakeholders, internal or external, if they like and are open to you in the first place.
Networking as a key to relationship building
Networking is essentially about building solid business relationships. To do this you need good skills in creating rapport and listening.
If you can make a connection with people on subjects you have a genuine interest in, their confidence in you will grow. Use this connection to engage them and then ask genuine questions and just listen. They'll often tell you what you need to know. Strong relationships will inevitably stem from commonalities discovered in simple conversation.
Being interested in people
Building good relationships means being truly interested in the people you deal with, both from a business and personal view. While discussing business issues is usually the main purpose of speaking with someone, finding out something personal about them takes the relationship to the next level and makes the business conversation much easier.
Learning about hobbies, special interests, family, leisure time activities, organisation memberships and anything else that might be of interest will help you make a deeper connection with your peers. It is important to also be able to “read” individuals as you communicate with them. Some people are not comfortable discussing personal matters, you should be able to quickly understand this and make sure that you are not invading other people’s personal spaces or being inappropriate.
The important thing is what you do with the information you get. When dealing with team members, suppliers, clients and stakeholders, try to mix personal information in the conversation. Every contact doesn't have to be about business. It's about peeling away the layers of formality and resistance to improve your chances of achieving what you want to achieve from the interaction.
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