As Valentine’s Day was yesterday I think it may be a good time to re touch on relationships.  In the past, building relationships in the workplace were viewed as taboo.  Today, building relationships is a pathway to the top.  A recent survey was done and it found that over 70% of team members are not engaged at work, and only 4% considered themselves highly engaged.  These numbers are down right scary.  Of course the first question we need to ask is if we are highly engaged as leaders.  Chances are that if we are not highly engaged as leaders, our team members will sense that and find it hard to be highly engaged themselves.  If we take the time to build relationships with our fellow team members, I believe that we can increase engagement and overall job satisfaction.  Think about a time when you were highly engaged at work, chances are you were either new to the job or you had a great relationship with a leader in the company.   

• People want purpose in their life.  Building relationships is a way to turn your team into a tribe.  A team exists as people come together for a common goal, while a tribe lives and breathes those beliefs to a whole new level.  Creating a tribe is a great way to give people purpose.  In a tribe everyone knows why they are here, they are passionate about each other, passionate about the brand and passionate about the guests.  It can define the entire culture of the organization and build a level of trust that far surpasses a team.  Imagine what the engagement level of a tribe would be.  It seems like the 4% would be the disengaged in such a culture.  The other great thing about a tribe is how they help each other in a time of need.  This is where the relationship piece shows itself.  Ask yourself if you are part of a team or if you are part of a tribe. 
• “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”  This is a famous quote by John Maxwell that keeps running around in my head every time I see a manager trying to manage via title and wondering why they are not getting results.  Results are a lot easier to come by if you take time to build a relationship along the way.
• Try to do one thing every day to build or positively impact at least one relationship.  Write down the names of a few people you would like to have a better relationship with and work on building those relationships.  Ask yourself if you are fully engaged in the task at hand before looking to blame others.  If you can learn to give 100% when it doesn’t matter it will be easy to give 100% when it does!