We have just entered new into the new year, already celebrated our success in 2022, leaving behind us the events that had a negative effect on us during the past year, contemplating about what will happen next both locally and globally, sharpening our strategies for the year. But are we really in a position to say that we are having a clean start? In most cases, we continue living and working on the same market, interacting with a more or less similar group of people, experiencing life in all of its shades.
Sustainability has been recognized as one of the most important priorities for many companies during the past years, rightfully so, and generally refers to topics related to ecology, environment, and society. Although not so viral, there is also a context of sustainability related to long term relationships and we are going to discuss it here, as we find it very important, especially in a small market like ours. The ability to maintain positive, trustworthy, and long-term relationships with our colleagues and co-workers, clients, customers, business partners, friends, etc. has always been considered as a virtue. Now, in such turbulent and unpredictable times, when we are more than ever dependable one on the others, it becomes even more meaningful.
Relationships are the foundation of any successful leading and any successful business, and its sustainability could be seen through different aspects.
Internal relationships – Not any external relationship could be successful if the internal ones are false and broken. They should be based on trust, commitment, respect and sharing mutual values. Without the intention to introduce the topic of Employer branding her, it is clear that everything starts from within the organization and aims at sending a message not only to potential new colleagues, but also to potential consumers, customers and associates, about the values that the company cherishes.
External relationships with vendors and contractors – Like internal relations, the external ones should also be based on trust and respect. As the cornerstone in this type of relations is mutual business success, it is necessary to provide the same behavior that we ourselves expect from the other side. Showing thoughtfulness and sincere care for the other side is crucial and assures mutual understanding and better cooperation in the long run.
Relationships with prospects and clients – These relations are crucial for one’s revenue and business results. Clearly, fostering the relations starts long before a prospect becomes customers. What ought to be done is researching and learning about the company, understanding their business and ’pain’, proposing the right solution and showing a genuine care about them. Searching for new clients should go hand in hand with retaining the ones who already showed confidence in you. Undoubtedly, keeping the highest level of service over time is a must.
Each one of us has their additional stakeholders to take care of, depending on the industry we work in or the position we work at. For example, in the area of personnel consulting, Relationships with candidates are just as important as the ones with clients. In order to maintain sustainable relations with candidates, a consultant needs to represent fairness and confidentiality, to have in place some basic principles and to be trusted advisor to candidates, in the same way he/she is to his/her clients.
We all want to be perceived as true professionals and to be recognized as such, so we need to invest our time and energy into building sustainable relations all around us. No matter of our current position, be that the one of a manager, a company owner, an external partner, or a person looking for a new job, we all need people around us to succeed. Finally, our market is rather small and sometimes in future our roles might switch places. We don’t want to be seen, by previous examples, as someone who is driven only by some current interest, as someone who doesn`t care about other side, as someone who doesn’t find important to provide feedback and similar. Therefore, building and maintaining meaningful and sustainable business relationships is the right thing and a basis for our future success.

Petra Spasojević
Senior Consultant
Dr. Heimeier Executive Search doo
Mob.: +381 63 24 55 99
E-Mail: spasojevic@heimeier-executive.com