Last night while watching the TV show, Scandal, I began to think about the main character, Olivia Pope and how she manages her staff of “fixers”. Because of her business relationship management, Olivia Pope and Associates is the most successful crisis management law firm in Washington DC — arguably the best in the country.
Olivia’s team of “fixers” are known as Gladiators in suits. Every office needs them. They are loyal, productive, engaged, and most importantly they get the job done — Olivia wouldn’t be successful without them.
The success of their business relationship management system, relies upon:
1) Implementing a progress check system
2) Intervening with reassurance
3) Establishing a personal connection
It is always important to make sure every department of your office is doing their job efficiently and effectively. If every employee on your team is not reaching their true potential while getting the work done — you’re missing out on valuable time. When it comes to how Pope manages her law firm, she makes sure all of her associates are up to date on their cases and gives them guidance in any way she can.
Your gladiators in suits need to be on the same page if you want to reach your fullest potential.
Making sure each department is working hard is an essential part in your business relationship management. If an individual is not held accountable for his/her responsibilities an entire project could fall behind and miss critical deadlines. A way to make sure everyone is working on their respective job would be to have weekly departmental meetings. The meeting goal/agenda would be to have each person/ group provide a project summary and to report the week’s progress.
Along with managing progress, another way Olivia Pope has successful Business Relationship Management is by reassuring her associates when they are feeling doubtful about their work.
We’ve all been there. Sometimes weeks are filled with huge projects or more complex responsibilities. It is easy to get discouraged or frustrated.
Olivia Pope is a prime example of a supervisor who gives her office encouraging words when they are feeling down, in her own way of course. You need to encourage you team to constantly raise the bar. If every Gladiator on your team is constantly trying to better themselves and the company your productivity will show.
Besides reassuring your “gladiators” another business relationship management tip we can learn from Olivia Pope is forming connections with your coworkers.
Making connections is important in any workplace and can actually be considered a form of business relationship management. If your workers do not feel some form of connection they may become disinterested. A recent study showed that 43% highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week with this data being compared to the 18% of employees who have a low employee engagement.
You might not be a fixer, but you can still make connections with the people you work with in your office. It is important to make sure they know the special qualities they possess and hearing it from someone in a higher-up position would really give them a connection and motivation to get the job done.
Want to “fix” the way your office communicates? Try Ving today and be a “Gladiator” in your office!