Can You Point to a Return on Your Relationship Investments?

I’ve long believed that an investment in our single biggest asset - our relationships - has a quantifiable and strategic value. For two decades, I’ve advocated that if you promise and deliver value, you’ll begin to exchange Relationship Currency. When that value is realized, and you are recognized for having delivered that value, over time, you begin to accumulate Reputation Capital (see image below from Relationship Economics, 3rd edition (Wiley, 2023) - originally introduced in 2008).

So, what does that Return on Relationship Investments look like? Here is an example from just one day…

1. An old client remembers your work together (from 3 jobs ago!) and invests in your new startup.

2. An old client remembers your passion and conviction in the work you did for them (15 years ago!) and books you to deliver a new keynote.

3. A grad school friend (from 20 years ago!) comes out of retirement to be your wingman on a journey fraught with potholes.

See a pattern? Beyond any product or service we sell, project or initiative we lead, a chapter in our lives that happens to be a logo on a business card or our LinkedIn profile, the relationships we choose to invest in, nurture, and create material value for become our single biggest and only sustainable differentiation.

None of this is ever going to be just handed to you. You have to be thoughtful, proactive, intentional, and authentic in how you show up.

In 2024, do yourself two favors:

• Drop the facade and be more real, knowing that everyone won't be your cup of tea. Yet, those who get you and are like you will be gold in your life.

• Choose to double down on your biggest asset: your relationships! They often provide an extraordinary return on your investments.

#Blessed #businessrelationships #relationshipeconomics

David Nour is the author of 12 books translated into eight languages, including best-sellers Relationship Economics®, Co-Create, and Curve Benders. He regularly speaks at corporate meetings, industry association conferences, and academic forums on the intentional, quantifiable, and strategic value of business relationships.
Learn more at NourGroup.com/About.