Relationships

        I have always loved the quote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”Distinguising the features that made individuals strong can be a key role in a workplace in order to build relationships and foster outstanding performance. In order to successfully manage others in a future industry job, the foundation of knowledge that has been grown through coursework as well as first hand experiences in internships and leadership roles has taught me the idea of emotional intelligence and creating relationships because of those skills. Creating strong professional relationships can impact performance and in turn, lead to a more effectively functioning business. Developing a sense of awareness to other’s strengths (or weaknesses) can make it much easier to effectively communicate and collaborate.  Understanding others in order to initiate better performance has been something that I have been in close contact with throughout my classroom and internship experiences that contributes to my Graduation with Leadership Distinction in the category of Professional and Civic Engagement.

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       Emotional needs can be a driving factor behind customer service, which explains why building relationships is important within the retail industry. In EDLP 520, a class designed to prepare students to serve as a peer leader for a University 101 class of first year students, we frequently discussed different methods to communicate with our class. Many of the ways that we gauged our ability to have emotional intelligence within professional relationships in EDLP was through strength assessment tests. Artifact 1is a “road map” that explains details about what is important to me, some of my strengths and weaknesses and details that I would like others to know about me. We often discussed the concept that explained that understanding relationships can directly relate to sucessful managers and empower organizations and people. I found that due to my more empathetic nature, my ability to imagine myself in others shoes is something that comes naturally and often benefited me within the workplace. This social awareness was directly transferable to my merchandising internship at Sea Island Resort. Empathy is a large part of reacting to customer’s demands, as they are expecting that you will be able to understand how they feel in any given situation and act accordingly. Sea Island Resort is a Forbes 5-star rated resort and the guests who enter are expecting that you will be able to provide service that goes above and beyond. Anticipation of requests is a large part of top-notch service and many of the training aspects we covered involved asking questions to ensure needs were met successfully. The thinking behind this type of interaction is that something like purchasing a men’s button up shirt in a store, for example, would prompt a question like, “can we steam this for you?” Regardless of whether or not you know why they need the shirt, recognizing a need that this person has is the 5-star service that they expect. When a customer has their needs satisfied before they even have to ask, they are much more likely to be advocates for your company. In the retail industry, customer interactions are frequent and the building relationships can alter the perception that they have of your company. Something as simple as tuning your customer service to how you think they will best react can make or break an interaction and drive a positive business. 

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        Another key aspect of relationship management is between coworkers. Our emotions and skills often come into play within the workplace and can impact not only our own performance, but also that of others. Many practices that promote emotional intelligence within the workplace are set up in companies as a way to ensure that feedback is being provided to employees. This idea was also covered in my HRTM 344: Personnel Organization and Supervision class, as we discussed the concept of companies’ annual or semiannual reviews. Although to some, these may seem frivolous, initiating a conversation about both positive and negative emotions of employees can play a crucial role in preventing issues from arising in the future. Understanding the person that you are evaluating makes these conversations more useful and learning to develop the ability to communicate with coworkers effectively can create a work environment that promotes collaboration and in turn, more efficient day to day practices. Evaluations can be used as a way for the supervisor to better connect with employees and understand what both their abilities and needs are. Playing to the strengths of employees can be a key in the effectiveness of any business operation, as you would want someone who is qualified to complete a job. I discovered that workplace evaluations could be either a point of growth or a tension creator depending on how they are performed. During my internship at Nordstrom Rack, we completed these surveys online and they seemed as though they were almost just lists in which we needed to check off the boxes. Although I met with my supervisor to discuss it, it felt as though I was just another number rather than en employee who has a distinct set of skills that were utilized in the workplace. While my supervisor did a great job of understanding my strengths on a day-to-day basis and she knew what I was best at but this was not reflected when we sat down for the discussion of what I could be doing better. In contrast to this online evaluation, I also completed a workplace evaluation at Sea Island resort during my second internship which was conducted as a conversation, rather than like a test. It felt very personal unlike the online assesment that was completed at Nordstrom. I often found that after this evaluation was completed it was much easier to ask my supervisor for suggestions that were related to the points that we discussed. One of the things that we covered was my role as an intern and how I could get the most out of it. I mentioned that I had a strong interest in visual merchandising and because of this my supervisor made a point to allow me to have opportunities to grow upon this skill. There was a common understanding of trust as a result of this style of evaluation that directly impacted my relationship with my supervisor as a result. The formulation of a space to ask questions and ask for help is something that can be of great benefit when problems arrise and cut back on issues from forming in the future. 

 

        Maintaining strong relationships within the workplace can be an important factor in promoting growth and constant collaboration. It is imporant to create these relationships built upon common understanding to more effectively function in the workplace.