Building Better Business Relationships In A Remote World

Building and maintaining strong business relationships isn't just about providing consistent, valuable products and perfecting your cold-calling and networking spiels (although it's a good idea to do those things, too). In today's fast-paced and increasingly remote business landscape, it's important to maintain the interpersonal communication skills necessary to form and grow meaningful relationships with internal and external stakeholders. 

It may seem as though relationship-building through interpersonal communication isn't as important today, when so many remote work positions exist, and Business to Business (B2B) as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions are primarily done online through websites, social media, and other mediums designed to bridge geographic distance with technology. Everyone has an email address, and most people have smartphones and prefer to text. The list of impersonal communication options seems endless and it's easy to fall into a pattern of allowing your communication style to be more media-based than interpersonal. 

The most successful leaders in business blend an aptitude for modern technology and communication, with a strong sense of how to form meaningful relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Regardless of how technologically driven we are as a society, when it comes to making trust-based decisions consumers, employees, and business leaders still rely on four main criteria: Openness, competence, respect, and rapport (or shared values). 

These four criteria form the pillars of effective interpersonal business communication. One surprisingly easy way to increase your odds of communicating those four pillars is to use an interpersonal communication technique known as "an ethic of care." As a business leader, implementing an ethic of care across all your professional communications means you effectively switch the focus of communication from "What should I do?" to "What can be done to nurture connections in professionally meaningful and growth-supporting ways?" 

Defining Internal and External Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders include individuals within a company, such as employees as well as project managers. External stakeholders include consumers, service professionals, vendors, and business partners. There can be a great deal of diversity among your stakeholder groups. Because of this, you will have to be flexible in your communication styles. 

Many business owners are more motivated to cultivate external stakeholder relationships because they see external stakeholders as the primary drivers of profit. However, without strong employee relationships, there is limited benefit to the relationships you create with external stakeholders. Having a fantastic relationship with a trusted vendor only matters if you also have clear, ethical, and pleasant relationships with the employees that the vendor will be dealing with regularly. 

Once the interview process is over, onboarding is complete, and an employee is ensconced in their role, many owners and leaders only worry about the relationship if there is a crisis, performance slump, or breakdown in general morale. When leaders neglect employee relations until a problem is unfolding or there’s already productivity or profit loss, it's too late. The damage has been done.  

To help you better understand and successfully build business relationships in face-to-face and remote work environments, let's look at six common business scenarios involving internal and external stakeholders. 

1.   Make Your Meetings Work

You might hold regular staff or marketing meetings, performance reviews, client and customer meetings, or participate in various networking meetings and events. No matter what kind of meeting you're conducting, two of the most effective criteria to build trusting relationships before, during and after the meeting are respect and intentionality.

One of the best ways to show respect is to be mindful of others' time. Whether in-person or remote, treat all meeting start times as sacrosanct. There's never a good reason to keep someone waiting. If an emergency does not allow you to be present on time, send a colleague to begin the meeting in your place. 

When conducting remote meetings, you or your business representative should have all documents, slides, and anything else on the agenda prepared and in front of you or prepped in the background of your desktop before starting the meeting. It's best to open your preferred meeting app and be ready to allow participants to join at least five minutes before the start time. If you wait until precisely the scheduled time to open the meeting, you will have to wait for each participant to sign on and get their microphones and cameras settled, and you haven't allowed time to deal with an unexpected technology glitch or unexpectedly slow connection speeds. 

Opening a meeting a few minutes early also allows for some friendly banter and casual check-ins with the participants. In-person, this means you shake hands, make eye contact, smile, and ask a few relevant but low-pressure questions. Humanize yourself and help participants ease into "meeting mode." If you're meeting remotely, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the chat features available in different applications, and familiarize yourself with various emojis for reactions and quick communication.   

Whether in-person or remote, after the meeting begins be intentional with your agenda —  move through each item in a way that is efficient but also allows for any input that might be required. Maintaining a tight agenda allows your customers, partners, or employees to return to their work and home priorities. 

As the meeting facilitator, you should always note all input, questions, and potential leads carefully. If something important comes up during a meeting but there isn't time to properly address the issue, be intentional about sending follow-ups that focus on learning more and how you can help. 

It's also a good idea to note anything volunteered that is of a personal nature and be intentional about following up about that detail at a later time. Your employees have rich and unique lives outside of the workplace. Show them you care about who they are, not just what they do. Vendors and potential business partners will also appreciate being remembered for more than just the skills or talents they offer for your business growth. 

2.   Give Feedback In The Moment and At Performance Reviews

One of the most difficult things to do in any leadership role is to provide constructive feedback meant to address a shortcoming without being harsh or insulting. Communicating the need for improvements can still be done with care and, when done well, can even help strengthen your working relationships. Feedback, both positive and negative, can be given "in the moment" or as part of a performance review.  

In the Moment

Communicating strengths and praise is something that should be done regularly (don't save it all up for a performance review) and should be specific. 

For example, sending an email stating, "Alice, catching that mistake in the mission statement contributed to us receiving the grant. I appreciate your careful attention to detail," provides Alice with an example of how her skills are contributing to the overall success of the business, encourages her to continue a general behavior, and shows that you are paying attention. Sending out just the second part: "I appreciate your attention to detail," might seem honest, all-encompassing, and also much quicker and easier to give. However, it doesn't highlight the employee's special role in achieving success, and it comes off exactly as it is — simple and general. Strong stakeholder relationships require more than simple, general interactions. 

Being intentional with positive feedback also helps when it's time to give someone feedback for improvement. Past advice for delivering business critiques was to use the "feedback sandwich" method of offering a positive comment, then addressing the area for improvement, then ending with another positive comment. This method of sandwiching the critique between positives is better suited for a lengthy performance review meeting than sending immediate feedback on specific projects or job details. 

Using the sandwich method for immediate feedback comes across as insincere and even manipulative, and it can undermine the authority of leadership or project importance. If you know how to give critiques in a constructive and caring way, and if you regularly focus on providing praise at other times, there should be no need for the sandwich method. 

Instead, when noting a performance or job-specific shortcoming in-person, your communication can utilize non-verbal cues: tone, body language and timing. Doing this remotely requires either scheduling a quick phone or Zoom call and being mindful of tone and timing, or sending an email. When communicating a critique in writing, acknowledge that the employee likely did something in a certain way not because of incompetence, but for reasons you're unaware of. Provide an invitation to reply to your critique with their own questions so that they can better understand how to interpret expectations and surrounding contexts in the future. 

Even though you don’t want to use the sandwich method, it’s still a good idea to end your remote critique with an encouraging closing salutation. You can use something general like, “Looking forward to seeing your next presentation,” or something that highlights a skill the employee possesses that you appreciate, “Thank you for contributing your great research skills to our marketing plans.”  

This same advice applies to critiquing the services or performance of professionals you work with but don't necessarily have authority over. Always be professional and honest. Let them know what you are perceiving and why it's a problem within the business agreement's parameters. Then, show them respect by opening the floor for them to explain their perspective and how they plan to address similar issues in the future. 

Performance Review

Performance reviews may apply only to internal stakeholder relationships, but they benefit overall morale and lead to increases in productivity and business loyalty. 

First, it's a good idea to set and be vigilant about keeping a performance review schedule. Providing inconsistent feedback or only providing feedback when there's something negative to communicate makes performance reviews feel like a trip to the principal's office and does nothing to encourage trust in your leadership. Having predetermined regular reviews also allows you to plan your feedback with more detail and time to collect insights across several departments. 

Using a modified sandwich approach (see above) can come in handy during a scheduled, remote performance review. Open with praise and specific details about strengths you've noticed, progress made, and how the employee has furthered the mission, goals, and brand or business narrative. 

Then, it's time to discuss areas where you'd like to see improvement. This isn't an opportunity for you to call out all the employee's past mistakes; instead, you should be prepared to go over specific details of a few instances in general ways. For example, suppose an employee is struggling to get his work accomplished by the due date because he continually has to rewrite or re-do reports after reviewing by another department. In that case, you might take a combined specific-general approach like the following: 

• Specific: "Tom, I noticed the Mercer project summary and the sales figure report for the board were both turned in late. It seems your work was sent back several times for revisions." 
• General: "I'd like you to work on being more detail-oriented and pay closer attention to the various specifications for each assignment." 

After addressing strengths and areas for improvement, rather than closing with more praise (as in the typical sandwich method) allow time for education. Together with the employee, come up with some ways they can use the strengths you've pointed out to improve the areas where they fall short. Invite them to ask you questions so they have a clear understanding of what you like and what your expectations are going forward. Use your leadership style to work alongside the employee and help them better meet business or project goals and clearly understand how their strengths can be used for their own professional improvement. 

3.   Remove Ambiguity Surrounding Minor and Major Decisions

Dealing with remote teams when changing or adding to a policy, redefining business goals, or entering a merger or acquisition can be tricky. 

First, be timely in your communication. Invite employees to learn more and ask questions, and provide reassurance about the future. Acting with consistency and integrity is crucial for stakeholder trust and productive relationships, regardless of the workplace environment.

From the beginning of any remote relationship, be sure you communicate to all stakeholders the process you will use to share information with them. It's also important to clearly explain to your stakeholders how their input will affect the outcome of a project and to what extent you will engage them in decisions. When people understand their role in the decision-making process and how they can influence the outcome, they are more willing to engage and share ideas. 

When doing business virtually, it can be challenging for stakeholders to understand decision-making processes. To minimize these challenges, you'll want to ensure that you're using accurate language, a professional but positive tone and that you communicate your decision-making process and the end results of that process in writing. Communication and relationship building in a remote world require the ability to express yourself just as clearly (and sometimes even more clearly) in writing as you do in conversation. 

 4.   Clearly Communicate Expectations, Responsibilities, and Roles 

Clear written and spoken communication is especially important when it comes to job descriptions, role responsibilities, employee expectations, and paths to advancement. Building strong internal stakeholder relationships begins with removing ambiguity from job descriptions and being honest about what's expected in a specific role, as well as from employees in general. When everyone knows and understands their roles and responsibilities, the day-to-day operations are smooth and your positive image impacts partners and your industry. 

The most important thing you can do as a business leader is to be transparent about what you expect from your employees. If you're at the helm of a small business where individuals wear many different hats, be transparent about that. Let new hires know that they might specialize in one area, but will occasionally be expected to serve in other areas as well. 

If roles change during employment, take the time to contact the affected employees individually and fill them in on the details, the new expectations, and how they will be fairly compensated for any extra work. This is no time for a group email. If an emergency arises or an employee unexpectedly has to take on additional work, be sure you acknowledge that work and the employee specifically. No one likes to do good work or go above and beyond and not receive credit. You'll earn trust and loyalty if you're open about expectations and freely give thanks for a job well done. 

Remember, employees that feel their roles no longer matter or that their progress in the professional world has stagnated are likely to leave for greener pastures. If you want to build a team of loyal, trustworthy employees who will stay with you for the long haul, you need to be someone they can trust to help them advance in their professional (and thus, personal) lives. 

Even if you're running a small company, there are ways to reward effort, time employed, and an individual's service to the business goals and plans. Be honest about what you can offer, how much room there is for advancement, and what kinds of extra perks are available as rewards for effort. Whether remote or face to face, when employees understand their roles and how they can advance, their anxiety diminishes and their trust increases. 

5.   Bring Stakeholders Into Your Mission, Vision, and Brand Story 

Everyone likes to be able to see themselves in stories, or read stories that draw them in and make them feel like they are right there with the main character. When it comes to building meaningful stakeholder relationships remotely, your mission, vision, and brand stories are no different. Bringing internal and external stakeholders into your overall business narrative gives them a way to see themselves represented in the success of the business, and it allows them to contribute in meaningful ways.  

Make sure your internal and external stakeholders know and understand your mission and vision statements. Remove ambiguity from the language and use those statements as the ground from which you communicate and make business decisions. If you confidently work your mission and vision into your professional communications and relationships, you enable others to feel they are actively contributing to something bigger than themselves, and to see themselves as an integral part of the overall story of your business.  

When you communicate with potential partners, make your common business interests and competencies clear, and talk about how those interests relate to your core values as a company and the mission you are pursuing. Make sure your professional partners and network connections know it's about more than just business; it's more like finding common goals and then helping each other survive in new and occasionally challenging environments.

6.   Don't Skip the Personal Stuff

You might hear a lot about team-building activities or corporate retreats, but for many small business owners or new company startups the expenses associated with such things aren't feasible — especially if remote employees live all over the country. Worry not —  often, those activities are superficial ways to cover up for the fact that genuine relationship-building isn't occurring within the company. 

It doesn't take a company-wide trip to a wooded cabin or a weekend spent pretending you're all teenagers again to build trust and loyalty. What it takes is genuine, interpersonal communication that seeks to find out and celebrate the best in your employees, associates, and partners. Although dedicating time in virtual settings to getting to know others is less than ideal, it's not impossible, and it's important for building trust in relationships. 

Because in the virtual world you have less opportunity to get to know the other person, those moments of interpersonal communication have to be intentional and they have to be honest. Take an active, genuine interest in the lives of your employees to gain insight into what kind of rewards would be most appreciated or what kind of advancement timeline the employee is hoping to follow. 

Don't be afraid to build time into more casual one-on-one meetings to ask about family life, hobbies, and personal goals. Listening to people talk about what motivates them outside of work can go a long way to helping you decide which roles they will likely excel in and how to reward their efforts. Don't just head out on a fact-finding mission — building a relationship requires both give and take. Be willing to share some of your own hobbies, professional stories, and favorite pastimes, too. 

When stakeholders feel connected through more than just work output and can sense a leader's genuine care for them as people as well as employees, their loyalty increases. All your employees, contacts, and vendors bring more to the table than what their job descriptions define. Building meaningful relationships with the people around you can result in new ideas, pathways to success, and unique perspectives on your industry. 

Building Stakeholder Relationships Matters in A Virtual World

Building strong, meaningful relationships with employees and facilitating the growth of similar relationships between employees can bring measurable and immeasurable benefits to your business model. Business relationships in a remote world might take a bit more effort and require new ways of thinking, planning and communicating, but it will be worth it at the end of the day. Utilizing the preceding six pieces of advice can lead to: 

•       Improved productivity throughout all employee levels
•       Reduction in crisis situations or low morale 
•       Moral support and assistance during challenging times
•       A larger network of business associates 
•       Increased employee loyalty and retention 
•       Increased satisfaction with career goals across all stakeholders
•       Increased feelings of purpose across all stakeholders
•       Increased revenue

Investing in positive workplace relationships with all stakeholders doesn’t cost a cent, but the benefits to your business success and reputation are numerous. That’s one incredible ROI! 

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