The Power of Relationships

On Wednesday, February 27, UMD hosted part of the IT@UM Community Event.  We were very pleased to have VPCIO Scott Studham, ACIO Brittany Lloyd, Enterprise Architect Patton Fast, Senior Operations Manager Jim Nolan, and Organizational Effectiveness Consultant Jen Mein join us from the Twin Cities campus.  I especially thank Jen Mein for the extra work she did in planning this event.

This event gave us an opportunity to get to know IT professionals from across UMD.  Here's a comment from Justin Keppers, one of the participants:

"Wednesday's meeting with UMD IT folk was great. I got quite a bit out of it, including getting a few ideas for new projects that can help out others as well as just getting to know people better. I'd really enjoy it if we could hold a similar meeting on a regular basis, be it quarterly or semi-annually. The interaction with others outside of my usual groups in this kind of setting is very valuable."

 Over the past several years, I have gained a tremendous respect for the power of relationships in getting work done.  Some may have stayed away from the event Wednesday, thinking they had too much work to do or that the event was somehow frivolous.  But as the quote above testifies, you can get much more work done, and more effectively, if you take the time to build relationships with the people you need to collaborate with.

In order to influence others, you must first have a relationship with them, hopefully a good relationship.  To be a leader, spend time building relationships.