The Heart of Relationships

What does the heart of a relationship mean? Is it the core values, is it the approach to building a strong relationship, the way in which we conduct ourselves?

Yes, it’s all of these but above all, for me it’s about trust. The foundation of a relationship is placing and building trust with that person. When beginning a new coaching session the client needs to trust you which will in turn bring openness and honesty.

In my job, I travel three weeks a month and have had to adapt to developing virtual relationships. The essence remains the same, building rapport, understanding the client’s needs, asking all of those open questions, ensuring the client feels safe knowing information won’t be shared further.

Building relationships outside of our normal tribe is interesting. It’s easy to stay within the comfort zone. The challenge is those we may have little in common with – those that aren’t aligned with our values. However, we often need to take that step and build a relationship maybe for political purposes in work or with a friend’s spouse who you’ve nothing in common with.

If you don’t trust the person the basic foundation isn’t there. Trust won’t be built in one coaching session but it can be built and gained over time.