The Power Skills of relationship management, represent a framework for personal and organizational success, wherever you may happen to be and whenever you might need them. They can permit individuals and companies to maintain an all-important top-of-mind visibility, that is, an awareness of you and/or your company foremost on the minds of your various relationships and connections. You are the first one they think of, you’re the one they remember most easily, and the one accorded their highest esteem.

The five Power Skills are defined below and work in sequence to assure quality relationships:

1. Positioning

Positioning enables you to rapidly establish the top-of-mind image you desire. Naturally, you do yourself no good creating an image that would not propel you toward your objectives. A sales expert, for example, wants to be recalled for her consultative sales expertise, not for how organized she keeps her office. An IT manager wants to be seen as someone who can solve user needs, not just an expert on technology.

Positioning refers to generating an image of yourself that will advance your business goals. When we position effectively, we communicate our added value, establishing credibility with, and in, the minds of those who matter.

2.  Hunting

Hunting refers to a process in which you identify and access the people with ideas, influence, and information that can benefit and add to your vision. Such valuable connections are your VIRs (very important relationships). As a hunter, you research needed resources outside of your immediate experience.

3.  Coaching

Through coaching we build learning relationships with others as we deliver and exchange value. Creating value for others rewards you with a multiplier effect. When you assist others in attaining their professional goals, you create “value deposits,” i.e., bank accounts of goodwill that you are later able to draw upon. Coaching makes business personal and reciprocal too; coaches often feel they’ve learned as much (or more!) than their coachees.

4.  Leading

If you’ve worked hard at the previous three stages, you’ve earned the right to approach others for help in achieving your objectives. Leading means motivating others to work with you to get things done that you want done. Here, others spend time helping you. The key is to lead your partners, prospects, and clients to victory, broadening their thinking and sharing a greater vision. This PowerSkill is used in conjunction with all the others, and you more effectively lead by influence.

5. Farming

It’s critical, when all is said and done, to maintain and harvest all that value you’ve long been creating and demonstrating. This takes planning and discipline but it pays off. Farming your communities of interest results in long term benefits for all. By keeping relationships current, relationship “farmers” till the soil for present and future value. They sow, they nurture—they reap!

Everyone has a relationship system whether they know it or not. Most of us, however, are so focused on tasks that we miss big opportunities that could come about from our relationships. The five Power Skills will help you evaluate and adjust your current relationship system and approach. More importantly, when you practice and apply the Power Skills in your daily life, you will be building top-level relationships for bottom-line results.

Take the free Power Skills Assessment to understand your strengths and opportunities for improvement.