What I Learned About Building Relationships (Part 3)


One of my favourite workplace comedy movies is “The Devil Wears Prada.”  

There is a quote from this movie that I like.

For those who haven’t seen “The Devil Wears Prada”, this movie stars Meryl Streep (who plays Miranda Priestly) and Anne Hathaway (who plays Andrea “Andy” Sachs).  Miranda is the editor of a fashion magazine who hires Andy as her personal assistant.  Working at a fashion magazine is not Andy’s idea of a dream job, but she commits to her job wholeheartedly and takes calls from her boss outside of working hours.  Andy’s commitment to her job starts to wear thin on her boyfriend Nate Cooper (who is played by Adrian Grenier).

In one scene Andy and Nate are having a conversation, and their conversation is interrupted with a phone call from Miranda.  Andy decides to take the call much to the chagrin of Nate. 

Nate makes the following remark as Andy takes a call from Miranda:

“You know, in case you were wondering - the person whose calls you always take? That's the relationship you're in. I hope you two are very happy together.” (WikiQuote)
I think Nate makes a very good observation. 

You are in a relationship if you are wiling to take calls (or even e-mails) from someone.  The opposite holds true as well, i.e., you’re not in a relationship if you’re not willing to take calls or respond to e-mails from someone.

As a student of relationship building, the quote makes me think about relationships and networking on LinkedIn in particular.

LinkedIn networking can be a terrific way to start a relationship!

In the early stages where you have just connected with someone, you can engage with that person on LinkedIn as follows:

-Wish that person a happy birthday, congratulate them on their new job, promotion or work anniversary
-Ask your new connection what kind of article interests them and if you see an article that may be of interest, pass that article to your connection
-Like, comment or share a post that was written by your connection
-Follow-up with your connection on a topic that you know is important to them

It takes two to tango, so if someone engages with you on LinkedIn, acknowledge that person and say “thank you.”

To take the relationship to the next level, invite your connection to a coffee.  Face-to-face meetings are helpful to get to know someone and to see a person’s body language.  A face-to-face meeting is a way to make more of an impression on someone.

The frequency and quality of communication are important.  It’s not much of a relationship if you’re communicating with someone only once a year.  The quality of communication is about what you talk about.  Once you have been talking for awhile and you have reached a certain level of comfort and trust, you start sharing what’s important to you:  your hopes, dreams, concerns, fears, etc.  At this point the relationship has deepened and what started off as networking on LinkedIn turns into…. (gasp) a friendship!

Originally Published on LinkedIn:  March 13, 2016
Image Credit:  Pixabay


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