Unlocking the Potential of our Relationships
In the nonprofit sector, we often hear that relationship-building is central to successful fundraising. If this is true, it stands to reason that strong relationships may also be a powerful driver of success in other areas of organizational life, among staff, board members, volunteers, partners, vendors, and even perceived competitors.
A brief scan of leadership and organizational research reveals no shortage of ideas for strengthening relationships at work. Below are three particularly powerful and practical concepts, each paired with simple actions leaders can begin using immediately.
Psychological Safety
Imagine a work environment where colleagues feel safe asking for help, offering new ideas, admitting mistakes, and showing up authentically. Psychological safety has been consistently linked to stronger team performance, innovation, and engagement.
Action steps to put this into practice:
Model vulnerability by openly acknowledging mistakes and learning moments in meetings.
Normalize help-seeking by explicitly inviting questions and input, especially from quieter voices.
Respond constructively to missteps, focusing on learning and improvement rather than blame.
Assuming Best Intentions
What would change if we approached every interaction with the assumption that colleagues are acting in good faith? While this may feel naive at first, the alternatives, skepticism, cynicism, or defensive neutrality, often erode trust before conversations even begin.
Action steps to put this into practice:
Pause before reacting and ask yourself, “What might be motivating this person?”
Seek clarification before judgment, especially when communication feels charged.
Name positive intent out loud, reinforcing trust during difficult conversations.
Curiosity
Workplace routines, time pressure, and competing priorities often crowd out curiosity. Yet few things build relationships faster than feeling genuinely heard and understood. A lack of curiosity, over time, quietly erodes trust and engagement.
Action steps to put this into practice:
Ask one open-ended follow-up question in every meeting (“Can you say more about that?”).
Listen to understand, not to respond, resisting the urge to immediately offer solutions.
Invite perspectives intentionally, especially from people whose roles or lived experiences differ from your own.
This short and incomplete list proves one thing for certain: we do not suffer from a lack of knowledge when it comes to building strong workplace relationships. Most leaders can readily name examples of relationships marked by frustration, resentment, or disengagement, and recognize the cost of those dynamics.
What often holds us back from realizing the full potential of our relationships is not a lack of insight, but a reluctance to experiment, to lead differently, conversation by conversation. And so we return to where we began: the growing body of leadership research reminding us that trust, vulnerability, and authentic connection are not soft skills, but essential ones.
The knowledge is available to us. Perhaps by putting it into action, 2026 can be the year we all need it to be.