Jan Yager - Productive Relationships: 57 Strategies for Building Stronger Business Connections

Praise for

Jan Yager combines exhaustive research with sharp thinking and engaging writing to give us a powerful guidebook to navigating the workplace. In these pages youll meet vampires, visionaries, idea thieves and saboteurs. Youll also see yourself, and how your work life can change for the better.

Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor,

The Last Lecture and Highest Duty

Especially during times of scarce organizational resources and understandably strained office relationships, everyone could benefit from such sage advice as Jan Yagers.

Lily Garcia, columnist for the Washington Post,

human resources consultant, and employment attorney

I highly recommend reading Jan Yagers new book, Productive Relationships. Yager's savvy and practical guide breaks it all down for you so you gain dozens of insightful strategies and skills to succeed with the good, the bad and the ugly in the workplace.

Don Gabor, author,

How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends

Productive Relationships is a pleasure to read with tactics that are simple to implement and guaranteed to improve relationships with a boss, a colleague or an intern.

Cammy Bourcier, Senior VP,

Broadcast and New Media Public Relations

Read this book and youll find out how to deal with negative personality types, become more of a team player, listen carefully, make a great first impression, and much, much more. I highly recommend it!

Simon T. Bailey, international speaker and author,

Release Your Brilliance

What a useful book for initiating and strengthening your work or business relationships!

Mary Jones, talk show host

SELECTED OTHER BOOKS BY JAN YAGER, PH.D.

Nonfiction

Business Protocol: How to Survive & Succeed in Business
Whos That Sitting at My Desk?: Workship, Friendship, or Foe?
Effective Business and Nonfiction Writing
When Friendship Hurts
Friendshifts:The Power of Friendship and How It Shapes Our Lives
Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover
Creative Time Management for the New Millennium
Creative Time Management
365 Daily Affirmations for Time Management
365 Daily Affirmations for Creative Weight Management
365 Daily Affirmations for Happiness
125 Ways to Meet the Love of Your Life
Road Signs on Lifes Journey
Victims
The Help Book
Career Opportunities in the Film Industry, 2nded (with Fred Yager)
Career Opportunities in the Publishing Industry,2nded
(with Fred Yager)

Fiction

The Pretty One
Untimely Death (with Fred Yager)
Just Your Everyday People (with Fred Yager)
The Cantaloupe Cat (illustrated by Mitzi Lyman)

Copyright 2011 by Jan Yager, Ph.D.

All rights reserved, including the form of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author and is designed to provide useful advice in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, psychological, or professional services in this publication. Laws vary from state to state, country to country, and if the reader requires expert assistance or legal advice, a competent professional should be consulted.

In some cases, to preserve the identity of those interviewed who requested anonymity, a fictitious name is used.

Thanks to fellow speaker and author Linda Swindling for suggesting the main title of this book.

The complete citations for books or articles mentioned in the body of this book appear in the Selected Bibliography.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN 978-1-889262-63-5 (hardcover)
Published by:
Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.
1127 High Ridge Road, #110 Stamford, Connecticut 06905 USA
http://www.hannacroixcreekbooks.com

Book Cover & Interior Design by Scribe Freelance | www.scribefreelance.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yager, Jan, 1948
Productive relationships : 57 strategies for building stronger business connections / Jan Yager.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-889262-63-5 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-889262-60-4 (trade pbk.) 1. Customer relationsManagement. 2. Business communication. 3. Success in business. I. Title.
HF5415.5.Y33 2011
650.1'3dc22

2010024026

Brians supervisor called him the it guy. Whatever it was that needed doing, Brian was the person she turned to to get the job done. A designer for a global financial services firm, Brian excelled at producing provocative and persuasive visual elements for an array of marketing products. He could design anything and make it stand out, from a motivational recruitment brochure to a dynamic cover for the internal employee magazine. His boss once sent him an unsolicited note in which she called him the best designer she had ever worked with.

Then, one day, a restructuring occurred and Brian found himself reporting to a new boss. His latest manager wasnt as open and friendly as his previous superior. Always businesslike and curt, she failed to appreciate Brians sense of humor and easygoing nature. Brian quickly realized that this new boss was not nearly as enthralled with Brian or his work as his former supervisor had been. And while the assignments were similar to those he had done in the past, suddenly nothing he created was acceptable. After a few weeks of being told his once-admired designs now needed work and to keep trying, he was called into his latest supervisors office and told he was being let go. It just isnt working out, she told a somewhat shocked Brian.

He couldnt believe it! How could his work go from being well-regarded to suddenly unacceptable?

The issue wasnt Brians work at all. Where he always had an open and positive relationship with his previous boss, there now was no rapport and goodwill between Brian and his latest supervisor. Brian hadnt realized in time that he needed to cultivate a warm relationship with this new superior or her perception of his work would suffer. He had taken for granted that his previously well-regarded work would speak for itself. He also assumed that he would automatically enjoy the same strong relationship with this new supervisor that he had with his first boss. If he had at least tried to win her over, would things have turned out differently? Unfortunately, Brian will never know.

ITS NOT JUST WHAT AND WHO YOU KNOW
ITS HOW WELL YOU GET ALONG!

You have probably heard the saying that when it comes to being successful in business, its not just what you know, its who you know. Brians experience demonstrates a third component: its how well you get along. It was Brians failure to forge a solid relationship with his new supervisorrather than the quality of his workthat ultimately cost him his job.

To be truly successful in todays business world, you have to be able to navigate the minefield of workplace and business relationships. It is paramount that you learn how to unravel these often complex human interactions if you want to find a job or keep the one you havelet alone, rise to the top. You need to be able to discern the hidden tripwires that could trigger a career-ending verbal exchange. And you must become adept at deciphering the clues that will let you know youve gotten onto the wrong side of office politics. If you are an entrepreneur, or a freelancer, you will still need to know how to get along well with your clients and customers even if you do not find yourself in traditional workplace setting on a daily basis.