Professional Relationship BlueprintsWritten by Kevin B. Burk, Author of The Relationship Handbook
Our professional relationships draw on two sets of relationship blueprints. The Authority Blueprint governs our relationships to authority figures, as well as our relationships to our subordinates when we are in a position of authority. The Sibling Blueprint governs our relationships to our co-workers.Many companies today try to foster a sense of community (and employee loyalty) by claiming to be one big happy family. The irony is that even without company's efforts to create a sense of family in workplace, we do experience our professional environment as a family. Of course, family our company resembles is our family, complete with same dysfunctional dynamics we experienced growing up. Our Authority Blueprints are based on our relationships with our parents. The Male Authority Blueprint is based on our relationship to our father and applies to our interactions with men in authority. Our Female Authority Blueprint is based on our relationship to our mother, and applies to our interactions with women in authority. When we are in a position of authority, we're most influenced by blueprint of our same-gender parent. The thing is, when we relate to our superiors at work, we are not only influenced by our relationship to our parents--we actually experience it. On an unconscious level, we project our unresolved issues with our parents onto our supervisors. We expect our supervisors to provide us with kind of love and support that we didn't receive from our parents. If we have specific issues with either one of our parents, we will get to work through these issues in our professional relationships to authority figures. If we never felt able to disagree with our father, for example, we may also have trouble disagreeing with our male supervisors. We may not feel entitled to voice our opinions, which means that we rarely get acknowledged for our contributions. This, of course, can have adverse effects on our ability to advance, be recognized, have our validation needs met, and feel safe. If we were able to ignore our mother's rules and requests as children, we may not completely respect authority of our female supervisors. We may unconsciously test their authority and see how much we can get away with, because we need them to provide us with safe and strong boundaries that our mothers didn't. Of course, this can also have a negative impact on our prospects for career advancement and job security. When we're in positions of authority, we unconsciously become our parents. Most often, we identify with our same-gender parent, but we can take on management styles of both. If we experienced our father as being an irrational, authoritarian jackass, it's a safe bet that people we supervise feel same way about us. If we never had to respect our mother's requests, then we may find that our employees don't respect ours.
| | Is "Trust" Written All Over Your Web Site?Written by John Calder
To increase buyers, prospects, newsletter signups, and affiliate click-throughs, your web site needs to create a sense of security and trust in your visitors. Most marketers have heard that, but just saying "Trust me" inside an H1 tag won't do it. Rather than tell them you can be trusted, you need to show them. Especially now, with virus threats, online identity theft, and outright fraud in news, marketers have to subtly convey cues to their visitors that they are indeed trustworthy.Little things can mean a lot. For example, if you publish an ezine, try to publish regularly. If you state that you publish every other Sunday, then make every effort to do that. And if on rare occasion you'll be late, try to let your readers know that in advance. This lets them know that you are consistent and do what you say, even for your free materials.
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