Relationship Management - DEFINED
Monday, January 28, 2008 at 11:36AM 
As part of the corporate ladder climb, building essential leadership skills are the foundation of effective management ability; this, of course, goes beyond the world of IT.
Relationship Management is one of the core building blocks to any manager’s successes or failures. In theory, it is the ability to satisfy your customers’ needs, both internal and external, while contributing to your company’s bottom line. There's a whole methodology and science to this, along with best practices, white papers, and training courses and workshops. Factor in technology and poof! Here comes the CRM salesforce!
But in reality, it's called "ass-kissing." Others may refer to it as "brown-nosing" or "schmoozing." All terms can be used interchangeably but all have the same targeted objective:
Gives the appearance that you actually give a shit, when really, you just want to cover your ass and look good, by doing as little as possible so you don't get fired.
I, however, like to refer to this as "Social Engineering"...still with the same objective in mind, of course. I've got this skill at a mastery level, which is, in part, how I got to to my career rung. [KEY WORDS: "in part." I actually do have a brain and an attitude to back it up!]
Well I just received my final marching orders for the year with limited resources and moderate budgetary constraints. This is where Social Engineering comes in handy. It's almost like calling in favors to people you know and trust. Why? Because you know they'll follow through and make you look good. It's identical to the tactics being used on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice. While 'celebrity' has no tangible relevance to the tasks being assigned, the networks and relationships established as a result of celebrity are the primary ingredients to the winningest team. (And so far it's 4 for 4 - Team Hydra...C'mon Ladies...grow some dicks!)
But first comes the building and establishing your relationships...then comes the management. And I'm going to do just that again at this Thursday's Happy Hour. I crashed a "No Managers Allowed" happy hour last week and got to hang with all the techies and analysts. They were a bit shocked that I showed up and I could tell they were still a bit reserved. But they were digging my 'cool factor' and I am now on the standing invite. (Or it could just be that I charged everything to my Corp Card...yeah, I'm thinking that.) But this is all part of the plan. The only way I get to tackle all my goals this year and come out on top is to get these guys to do the work for me. I need them, just like they need my Corp Card.
It's all relative.
Reader Comments (2)
Good post, Tech Babe. The Corporate card is a great management tool for bribery in business and should be utilized for just that purpose as much as possibe. I find it useful for "business dinners" with babes too.
By the way, the women on celeb apprentice are doomed. I think you can safely write them off.
I knew we'd see eye to eye on this one Jason! As always, thx for the support here=P