Manage and Improve Your Business Relationships

Manage and Improve your Business Relationships

By John Kyriazoglou*

Managing your professional and business relationships is a very important and critical issue in dealing with your people (staff, partners, customers, authorities, colleagues, etc.) in any business environment. It takes a significant amount of time to build and can be broken in just an instant.

Is it possible to manage, improve and sustain your business relationships?

The answer is YES! But you have to ACT immediately.
Don’t let one or more mistakes in judgment turn into a failure of your character.

I would suggest that you take the actions and that you use the behavioral dimensions noted next:

1. Sensitivity. Show sensitivity by avoiding personal comments and do not criticize, condemn or complain to anyone.

2. Collaboration. Make your goal the habit to work together harmoniously, show patience and maintain good relationships with everyone (colleagues, supervisors, senior management, customers, authorities, etc.).

3. Honesty. Be interested in others (colleagues, supervisors, senior management, customers, etc.) with sincerity, always showing friendship, goodness and love to all.

4. Respect. Remember that it is the sweetest sound in any language when you address the other person with friendship and love.

5. Politeness. Address the other person always in plural terms, unless the other person allows you to speak in the singular.

6. Silence. Use silence appropriately. Be careful how long you talk so that you do not become wordy and boring.

7. Importance. Make the other person feel important to you, and you do that with sincerity.

8. Opinion. Show respect for the opinion of others and do not to tell them that they are wrong.

9. Errors. When you are in error, accept it quickly and emphatically and apologize with honesty.

10. Conversation. Start a conversation in a friendly and pleasant manner.

11. Sympathy. Express your sympathy to the other person.

12. Humor. Keep your humor within acceptable social boundaries while rejecting slander and vulgarities.
13. Appreciation. Relate to the other person by using praise, appreciation and honesty.

14. Time Management. Examine your activities in accordance with the values ​​of love and friendship, and your obligations. Spend 60% of your time in critical non-emergency activities, 30% of your time in critical and emergency activities, and the remaining 10% of your time in uninteresting activities.

15. Rejection. Learn to say a friendly "no" when others attempt to load you with activities that are not aligned with your needs, your vision, your mission and your values​​.

16. Positive Thinking. Use positive and friendly thinking to manage all the events, issues, problems and facts related to your business life and take preventive action when it is required on your part.

17. Priority. Perform your activities based on the priorities set by you and the time requirements of your life, but also reinforcing the values ​​of justice, goodness, fairness, love and friendship.

18. Participation. Participate in social groups, professional societies and corporate volunteering (unpaid) activities on the basis of love and friendship.

19. Ethics. Understand and know your personal limits and the limits of your business organization.

20. Quality. Do not take on more responsibility and tasks that you can do with absolute quality and execute your tasks and deliver your work, studies, services, etc., within well-accepted time and cost limits and best quality, technical and scientific standards.

 

Will these improve your relationships? Yes, if you act with honesty, love, friendship and self-control.

 

*John Kyriazoglou (jkyriazoglou@hotmail.com)

John Kyriazoglou, CICA, B.A (Hon-University of Toronto),

International IT and Management Consultant (with over 35 years of experience),

Editor-in-Chief for the Internal Controls Magazine, www.theiic.org

Author of several books:

(1) ‘IT Strategic and Operational Controls’, Publisher: www.itgovernance.co.uk

Direct Link: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3066

(2) ‘Addendum to IT Strategic & Operational Controls’

This book contains over 60 of IT audit programs and checklists in all IT audit areas.

Direct Link: www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3143

(3) ‘Corporate Strategic and Operational Controls’, Publisher: www.theiic.org

with Dr. F. Nasuti and Dr. C. Kyriazoglou.

Direct Link: http://www.theiic.org/publicationsbookstore/bookstore2.html

(4) ‘Implementing Management Controls for Small and Medium-Size Companies’   

AMAZON Kindle Books:www.amazon.com

Direct Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z1WTOM

(5) ‘Business Management Controls: A Guide’, Publisher: www.itgovernance.co.uk

Expected to be published within 2012

(6) ‘Pearls of Wisdom of the 7 Sages of Ancient Greece’

AMAZON Kindle Books:www.amazon.com

Direct Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YNPR8Q

Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-kyriazoglou/0/9b/919

Blog: http://businessmanagementcontrols.blogspot.com/

SSRN Free Publications: http://ssrn.com/author=1315434

Business Management Free Material

Business Management Free Materials

 

Please check out my blog and the SSRN site (noted next) for my free posts and articles on business management.

Blog: http://businessmanagementcontrols.blogspot.com/

SSRN Free Publications: http://ssrn.com/author=1315434

Regards,

John Kyriazoglou, CICA, B.A (Hon-University of Toronto),

Business Thinker, Consultant and Author

Editor-in-Chief for the Internal Controls Magazine (U.S.A.),

Member of the Board of Directors of Voices of Hellenism Literary Society (U.S.A.)

Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-kyriazoglou/0/9b/919

Human Factors in EA Implementation

Human Factors in EA Implementation

 

By John Kyriazoglou

 

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is used to align IT systems with your business strategy and objectives (for more details see my book: E-Book: ‘How to Align IT with your Business’, Direct Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009E6U8Z8). It has proven a very difficult and cumbersome process.

 

My experience has taught me that when implementing enterprise architecture for your own company and business environment the most important issue for success is to manage the human aspects (so called ‘soft controls’) permeating any such difficult and cumbersome effort.

 

All of these soft controls relate to tone at the top, understanding of the organization by the board, culture, structure of reporting relationships, morale, integrity and ethical values, operational philosophy, trust, ethical climate, empowerment, etc., and are directly linked to the emotional contracting issue, also referred to as 'the psychological contract'. This is the crucial and powerful link between the organizational performance intent (board and management planning to implement enterprise architecture), and the motivations, values and aspirations of the people (EA coordinator, enterprise architect, IT staff, etc.) instructed to carry out all implementation tasks.

This emotional contracting element is sometimes overlooked by organizations, board members and managers, and that is the reason that may explain why the people have failed to do what the organization expected and asked them to do.

Soft internal controls (trust, integrity, values and beliefs, etc.) should be part of the organizational process of strategy setting and ethical environment establishment. Corporate policies and procedures, vision and mission statements, strategic planning, ethics codes, job descriptions, training and coaching of staff, compliance programs, etc., are the tools and the hard controls that help define whether an organization consistently will do (supposedly ) the right thing.

An organization (private or public) might have written codes of conduct and other value defining type documents (vision, mission, values, social responsibility, etc.) but that does not guarantee whether they are actually followed consistently. Most of the real understanding will not be expressly written in any document but better evidenced in the day-to-day discharge of everyday duties and interactions. For example, the ethical culture can only rise as high as the tone set by the board and the senior executive management. If management distributes the message about ethics poorly or worst yet, delegates the message to subordinate levels, then the effectiveness of the ethical culture is greatly diminished.

The best way to reinforce soft controls and therefore ensure better EA implementation for your business is to (probably) formalize them. I recommend this to be the task of a senior board member of your company. This can be accomplished by Soft Controls Management Action Plan, as described next.

Action 1. Establish and monitor the implementation of an ethics code and a fraud policy and associated procedures.

Action 2. Ensure that your EA process is well communicated to all parties within your company.

Action 3. Interview key organization personnel and select the best for the EA implementation project.

Action 4. Implement training, coaching and mentoring programs for all critical staff involved in your EA implementation.

Action 5. Certify critical personnel (finance, IT, audit, purchasing, etc.) to ensure success of your EA process.

Action 6. Certify, if needed, all your critical functions (finance, IT, audit, purchasing, quality, customer service, etc.) related to EA.

Action 7. Review and improve all soft controls and particularly pay attention to how these are related to your EA project and to the linking of your IT strategy to your business objectives.

 

It is your duty, as a board member or senior executive, to handle all these successfully and therefore avoid any potential failures.