Calendars and Checkbooks are Relationship Priority Proof Points!
Calendars:
Checkbooks:
Business Relationships:
What we all schedule and pay for highlight relationships most important to us.
Who are you making time for and investing in?
Give me someone's calendar and checkbook, and I can tell you about their most important relationships. Calendars and checkbooks are surprisingly insightful tools for understanding priorities and commitments in the context of building and nurturing long-term, value-based business relationships. If you think about it, whether in a personal or a professional context, we make time for and invest in relationships that are important to us. And if the relationships that are important to you are not making time for you nor are investing in you, you need to figure out why!
Here are a few of the reasons why understanding one's calendar and paying closer attention to both what you schedule on yours and which relationships make time for you is crucial to understanding the health and long-term viability of that relationship:
Time Investment: How you allocate your time is indicative of your strategic priorities. Calendars show what and who is important enough to receive your time and attention. Prioritizing time for due diligence, scheduling meetings, follow-ups, and relationship-building activities in a calendar reflects a commitment to maintaining and nurturing those specific business relationships.
Planning and Consistency: Regular touch cadence, whether they are meetings, check-ins, or networking events, shows a consistent and planned approach to business relationship nurturing and sustaining. It signifies that maintaining relationships is an integral part of your routine.
Responsiveness and Availability: The willingness to make time for someone, regardless of their role/stature, perhaps even at short notice, can demonstrate the value and priority placed on that relationship.
Balance: How you balance your time between different demands (work obligations, personal aspirations, professional development) can also demonstrate how you manage relationships and whether you can maintain a healthy and productive blending of what really matters to you.
Old school reconciling of our handwritten checkbook registers often comes to mind when I think about where I'd spend my money. Even though it's all digital now, think about a financial dashboard of your investments:
Financial Commitment: Where and how you spend money is a clear indicator of your priorities and values. In business relationships, investment can take the form of direct financial support, purchasing services or products, or investing in joint offerings. For those who lead a team, allocating their teams to a relationship is also an indication of a commitment to that specific relationship's success.
Resource Allocation: Beyond direct spending, checkbooks reflect where resources are being allocated. This could be in training, events, or systems that indirectly benefit the business relationship outcomes.
Supporting Common Causes: Investment in causes or philanthropic projects important to both parties in a relationship can strengthen bonds. This could be through sponsorships, donations, or joint initiatives to make a real difference in one's community.
Risk and Trust: The willingness to financially invest in a relationship signals trust and a belief in the mutual value of the partnership. It's a tangible demonstration of commitment to the relationship's future.
Let's break one's relationships into two distinct categories:
Relationships we already have - and I can break that down further into:
Internal relationships (think those inside your organization) and
External ones (customers, prospects, partners, collaborators, investors, media, etc.)
Net new relationships we need to develop - again, I can break this group down further into:
Known relationships we aspire to get closer to
Hidden relationships we don't see, or we've yet to realize are critical to our success.
Let's begin with the relationships we already have. Most we're neglecting, post-pandemic, see less frequently in-person, thanks to virtual substitutes, and in a deranged misperception that we always want/need more, we keep pursuing shiny new objects vs. doubling down on those who already know, like, trust, and (hopefully) respect us. Want proof? Let me ask you a handful of questions:
Can you make a list of your top 100 relationships? A simple list of the relationships you already have, which are most important and valuable to you, and how you define success. Maybe the first 10-20, how about the rest? Did you sufficiently consider internal relationships supportive of your efforts, as well as external ones?
- Time Investment: How you allocate your time is indicative of your strategic priorities. Calendars show what and who is important enough to receive your time and attention. Prioritizing time for due diligence, scheduling meetings, follow-ups, and relationship-building activities in a calendar reflects a commitment to maintaining and nurturing those specific business relationships.
- Planning and Consistency: Regular touch cadence, whether they are meetings, check-ins, or networking events, shows a consistent and planned approach to business relationship nurturing and sustaining. It signifies that maintaining relationships is an integral part of your routine.
- Responsiveness and Availability: The willingness to make time for someone, regardless of their role/stature, perhaps even at short notice, can demonstrate the value and priority placed on that relationship.
- Balance: How you balance your time between different demands (work obligations, personal aspirations, professional development) can also demonstrate how you manage relationships and whether you can maintain a healthy and productive blending of what really matters to you.
- Financial Commitment: Where and how you spend money is a clear indicator of your priorities and values. In business relationships, investment can take the form of direct financial support, purchasing services or products, or investing in joint offerings. For those who lead a team, allocating their teams to a relationship is also an indication of a commitment to that specific relationship's success.
- Resource Allocation: Beyond direct spending, checkbooks reflect where resources are being allocated. This could be in training, events, or systems that indirectly benefit the business relationship outcomes.
- Supporting Common Causes: Investment in causes or philanthropic projects important to both parties in a relationship can strengthen bonds. This could be through sponsorships, donations, or joint initiatives to make a real difference in one's community.
- Risk and Trust: The willingness to financially invest in a relationship signals trust and a belief in the mutual value of the partnership. It's a tangible demonstration of commitment to the relationship's future.
- Relationships we already have - and I can break that down further into: Internal relationships (think those inside your organization) and
- External ones (customers, prospects, partners, collaborators, investors, media, etc.)
- Known relationships we aspire to get closer to
- Hidden relationships we don't see, or we've yet to realize are critical to our success.