The Importance of Relationships

            When you are on your deathbed, I don't think anything will be as important to you as the relationships in your life.  I finally realized this late in life but fortunately I have learned not only the importance of relationships, but also how to build relationships.  As a result, I look back on my sixty-plus years with joy and fascination at the relationships I have formed. 

Those relationships are such a blessing to me especially at those times when I questioned myself. I want to use this forum to review and clarify the principles for myself.  I hope in doing that, you will benefit from what I have learned as well.

While I have always enjoyed meeting people, and I believe building relationships is our most important activity, I began studying relationship-building as part of leadership development.  The two go together.  Leadership is influence and influence depends on relationships.

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. ~ Margaret Wheatly

I will be drawing from some of the best books on relationships that I have found:

•             Florence Littauer and Robert Rohm on the four basic personalities

•             The leadership guru John Maxwell

•             People-expert Dale Carnegie

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.  ~Leo F. Buscaglia

Have you ever wondered what is wrong with your spouse, or you child, or your good friend when they do something that seems absolutely foreign to you?  Have you ever scratched your head at the way someone behaves?  Tell me about it and examine the four basic personalities with me coming up soon.