Episode 32 - Strong Business Relationships with David Nour
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One of my biggest pet peeves right now is all the talk around getting back to work and preparing for the new normal. These ideas are bantered around like the way we worked pre-pandemic was something we should aspire to get back to, or the old normal should be used as the foundation for what we create going forward.
I don’t know about you, but personally, I think the way that we work (or rather, the way we worked) was fundamentally broken.
One of the silver linings of this pandemic (and I fully recognize that those are few and far between) is the opportunity we have in front of us to reexamine the way we’ve been doing things and commit to moving forward, not going backwards. My guest on the podcast this week, David Nour, summed it up beautifully as the opportunity to “rethink, reinvent, and reimagine”.
What we have in front of us is an opportunity to learn and really dissect what we can - and often need - to do better. To reset and not get stuck in trying to return to something that, quite frankly, didn’t work for a lot of people.
An example of something that hasn’t been working, that David and I discuss on the podcast, is this idea of work-life balance. The reality is that work-life balance is an illusion at best. We’ve glorified the idea and made it something that people aspire to, but it’s really a misrepresentation of what we should be working towards, which is really more about “work-life blending”. That is, recognizing there is no line separating work from life. And, instead, looking at what is going to serve you best in how, when, and where you work so that you can have the best life while doing your best work. It’s a holistic view of people and work that breaks away from the traditional ideas we have around having to show up a certain way at work, and then a different way in life. As David puts it, “You don’t have a work life and a personal life. You have one life.” The sooner you figure out how to integrate and blend the two, the more competent and capable of a human being you’re going to become.
There are a few things that I believe wholeheartedly to be true, and one of them is that we are at our best when we are able to show up as the whole human being we are and don’t feel like we have to hide parts of ourselves away or pretend to be something we are not. This doesn’t mean we don’t temper our behaviour or language for particular situations, or that we aren’t aware of the audience we are in front of so we cater our message to them, but rather that we can be ourselves inside of that awareness and embrace all of who we are. And feeling all of our feelings, and recognizing the information they are giving us, and learning how to express them appropriately, is a very important piece of integrating that work life and personal life into one.
Another key part, to us being our best selves, is to surround ourselves with people who bring that out in us. The key relationships in our lives, the ones we nurture and put time into, are vital to our ability to stand out, perform the way we want to perform, and be the person we want to be - whatever that looks like for each of us.
David’s work really focuses on the ideas of relationship economics and strategic relationships because he believes that your portfolio of relationships is your biggest asset/differentiator. The thing that sets you apart, in a world of people doing very similar things, are your relationships.
David shares that because the average person can manage no more than 100-150 relationships at a time, you really need to be intentional and strategic about who those relationships are with and where you are putting your time and effort. One of the biggest problems with networking and how people go about approaching relationships, in general, is that they don’t think about them strategically. And, they end up having no goal, purpose or plan.
As the world opens up and we have this opportunity to rethink how we work, lead, and communicate in the future, I would encourage all of you to also take this opportunity to think strategically about who you have relationships with, and who you want to have relationships with. Make a list of those key relationships. Reach out to the people you haven’t spoken to recently. Create a plan of how you want to maintain the relationships that matter most to you. Be creative, consistent, and have fun!
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To learn more about David Nour, you can grab a copy of his new book (Curve Benders) that *just* came out!
Visit him online at https://nourgroup.com/. Or, find him on any of the social platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) by searching "David Nour".