Building A Relationship Map

Each of us has a prime objective. Mine is creating 10,000 fit leaders by the year 2020. For me, fit leaders are high-potential executives that have developed optimal levels of clarity, confidence, effectiveness and vitality. We run an Institute for Leadership Fitness where we teach 16 unique tools and processes that increase leadership fitness.

Successfully achieving our prime objectives requires that we leverage key relationships. Linda Miller, in her keynote workshop at the Professional Coaches Association of Michigan’s 6th Annual Conference on September 26, introduced an exercise around Relationship Maps, recognizing that all great work requires partnership and teaming with others.

Simply put, a Relationship Map identifies the names and key characteristics of those individuals that can help us achieve our prime objective(s). Before we actually engage these individuals and nurture those relationships, it is important for us to be able to answer the question “What’s In It For Them”? It’s not just what they can do for us.

To create personal accountability and to leverage the relationships we map, it is useful to look at our map on at least a weekly or monthly basis to ensure that we are taking consistent action to forward our agenda and to continue developing the relationships that will contribute to our long-term success.