After yesterday’s post on my principle to avoid surprising teammates in business, today I’ll mention one of my other top principles in business relationships:

I want people I work with glad to have worked with me and wanting to work with me again.

Though this one speaks for itself, I think it bears repeating and reinforcing why it works.

This principle

• Puts accountability to the people you work with as one of your top priorities
• Forces you to think of the team first
• Forces you to think long-term
• Forces you to consider other people’s values, not just yours
• Forces you to take responsibility for your relationships, not just to hope for the best
• Motivates you to communicate with others and check in with them periodically
• Leads to effective, enduring business relationships
• Builds credibility and an attractive business reputation about you

If you find people abandoning relationships with you after working with you, this principle forces you to consider what you’re doing. You might do things perfectly — the principle doesn’t say you’re responsible for everything — but how other people respond to you tells you a lot about your business skills.

Like yesterday’s principle of avoiding surprising people, I learned the value of this principle through painful experience — that is, not valuing my relationships with people led to painful learning experiences for me. Recall the term “learning experience” is what people who give up call “failure.”

Tomorrow: another top principle for business relationships: “How do you decide when other your decision affects other people? Involve them in the process.“

• ← One of my top principles for business relationships: No surprises
• How do you decide when your decision affects other people? Involve them in the process. →