4 Ideas to Build Rich Relationships [Hint: STOP Checking Your Phone!]

Take care of the relationship and the money takes care of itself. Too many in business are focused on grabbing cash versus serving people. Yet when your dominant focus is on building relationships with your team, suppliers and customers (who put food on your family table), economic rewards are the byproduct. Get great at building a rich social network—and being of use to as many human beings as possible—and wealth, satisfaction and deep meaning will follow. My latest book “The Wealth Money Ca...

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  Hi, it's Robin Sharma and welcome to Daily Mastery. This is my short form podcast where I'll walk you through the insights, methodologies, and tactics that I've shared with many of the world's most successful people as their mentor, including celebrity billionaires, NBA superstars, world-class artists, and global humanitarians. I hope you find great value in today's episode.

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  How legendary leaders build rich relationships. I'm going to get into the first idea. It's a simple one, but it's so rare in the world that we live in right now, and it's have great manners. Peter Drucker, the great management guru, said, "Good manners are the lubricant to an organization." Please means I appreciate you. Thank you means I respect you. I want you to think about that, please. So you please and thank you in this world where people often use foul language and then they normalize it because they talk about it so much and they use it so often. Good manners, please, thank you, simple courtesies. Write that down, courtesy, because it's so uncommon. It will allow you to be a standout versus a fitting.

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  It will allow you to be unforgettable and memorable in the eyes of the people you follow and interact with. Second idea is to use people's names. Dale Carnegie, in the iconic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, said, "Someone's name is the sweetest sound to their ears." And yet, so few people, when they're relating to someone, whether it's a teammate, whether it's a family member, whether it's a supplier, whether it's an investor, whether it's a stranger on the street, use their names. You don't want to do it too often. Sometimes you go to a hotel and every second word is your name and they're using someone's name without any good judgment.

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  Do it in a respectful way, as always, do it sincerely, never to manipulate, but use people's names. It's a sign of respect. Idea number three, to build great relationships, rich relationships, strong relationships, enduring relationships, is to be present. The greatest gift you can give your family is the gift of your presence. The greatest gift you can give your team is sincere presence and good listening. Listen not only from your head, but from your heart. Be present when someone is talking. Listen at a cellular level. Even take a pause after someone has said something.

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  This is so uncommon, but take a pause to process their information so they feel heard, being present. The worst thing you can do is pull out your device, and I see this all too often. People doing business meetings, doing business lunches, and the phone is in front of them and they're checking their phone. That sends a message to the person who's talking or the person you're with that someone else and something else is much more important to them. And your job as a leader and relationship builder is to make people feel bigger in your presence. The greatest statespeople, what do they do? When they are with you, they make you feel like nothing else matters and you're the most important person in the world.

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  Practice this skill because relationships are important. Build a relationship and the money will follow itself. So all too often, what business people do is they're more concerned about the commodity and the transaction. Don't do that, and I know you wouldn't, but remember that take care of the relationship and the money will take care of itself. Build relationships, do it sincerely. Idea number four, to build rich relationships. Idea number four, what is it? It is keep your promises. So when you keep a promise in a world of broken promises, where people treat their promises very lightly, because they don't have self-awareness around the importance of promise-keeping, I want you to be a world-class promise-keeper.

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  You say, "I'll introduce you to this person." When you get back to the office after a business meeting, send the introduction. If you say to someone, "Oh, I just read this book." Maybe it's The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Maybe it's Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Maybe it's Hope for the Flowers by Trinus Pauling. Maybe it's Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which is so much more a book about making life than a book about making money. Maybe it's Long Walk to Freedom, which is the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Maybe it's Walter Isaacson's amazing book on Steve Jobs. Make sure if you make a promise to send a book, to make an introduction, to start a project, to follow up, do it.

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  Masters are all about the consistent and excellent follow-up in a world where most people don't follow up. They're able to do something and then they get busy. This is a GCA, a gargantuan competitive advantage for you to stand out. And here's the real key. When you keep your little promises and big promises, you build credibility. When you build credibility, you build trust. And people do business with people they trust. People do business with people who follow through. When you trust someone, then you say, "Okay, you know what? I'm going to do business with them because I like them and I know they're going to do what they say they're going to do." And the final idea, I want you to think about idea number five, to build strong relationships, is I want you to be an encourager versus a discourager.

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  Far too many managers, far too many leaders think that their job is to walk around the workplace and find people doing something wrong. It's amazing to me how few people are world-class encouragers. That doesn't mean you're weak. It doesn't mean you're not firm. It doesn't mean you don't have the hard conversations when necessary. It doesn't mean that you can't be a strong leader. You've got to be a strong leader. Having said that, spend a lot of your time at work every day encouraging people, saying, "You know what? Here's your area of opportunity." You never say, "Oh, here's your mistake." You never want to shame someone. You never want someone to lose face.

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  So be a statespersonally leader and say, "Here's your area of opportunity to get to the next level." See the languaging? "Here's your area of opportunity." But always start with, "I saw you doing this and you did an amazing job." Because behavior that is celebrated is behavior that will be repeated. I'll repeat that one again because it's so important. And write this down. Behavior that is celebrated is behavior that will be repeated. And your job is to build a culture of leaders without titles who work at world-class and follow you to the mountaintop, so you get giant things done, not only for you, not

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  only for the team, not only for your organization, not only for your community, but for the benefit of a brighter world. So those are five ideas I want you to start practicing today because ideation without execution amounts to delusion. Legendary leaders are all about the consistent follow-through. Legendary leaders get big things done. Legendary leaders are less about talking and more about doing. Become a master of execution. And people say, "Robin, how do I, how do I start?" You start. People say, "How do I become consistent?" You become consistent. People say, "How do I get good at executing?" You practice getting good at executing. And as you do it every day and versus being a procrastinator, you start to get things done and this becomes a way of being.

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  And also remember, it's easier to behave yourself into a new way of thinking than think yourself into a new way of behaving. So behave as the leader you wish to be and your mindset will follow your daily behavior.

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  Hi, it's Robin Sharma. I hope you've received strong value from today's episode. I encourage you to read my latest book, The Everyday Hero Manifesto, which is helping people from right across the world live soaring lives. If you'd like to go into further learning, you can head over to robinsharma.com or you can download my free ebook, The World Changers Manifesto. And when you do that, you'll also get full access to the Everyday Hero Training Formula, which is a complete system to help you upgrade your productivity, positivity, impact, and the quality of your life. Have an outstanding day.