Relationships 2

Every person has either experienced or witnessed when a business relationship has gone wrong. Most of the time it sneaks up on us without any warning. Like when your business partner says he is leaving because he found something better somewhere (and with someone) else. Or how about being accused of not working hard enough when you are already putting in 70 hour weeks?

But are there warning signs? Signs that were there all along but you just didn’t notice?

Here are 5 signs (alarms) that the business relationship you thought you had has gone wrong:

A group of anthropologists at Cambridge were conducting research on the concepts of pessimism and optimism. Their subjects were two young boys: one a pessimist and the other an optimist. The pessimistic boy was put in a room full of wonderful toys. The optimistic boy was put in a room with nothing but a barrel of manure.

When the scientists looked in on the pessimistic boy one hour later, they found him complaining about this toy that didn't work, that one needed fresh batteries, the next one wasn't the right color, etc., etc. Recording their findings, they moved on.

Oh, the thrill of it all, flirting with a co-worker or your boss. It can be sexy, fun, and electric. And as the mutual attraction grows and is taken to the dating stage, it can be even more so. However, one should always proceed with caution when dating at work as there’s much at stake on both a personal and professional level.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you consider dating a coworker.

The insidious workplace backstabbers have to be one of the most frustrating people we have to put up with! Spreaders of malicious gossip and power-hungry manipulators, they spin wicked webs of emotional destruction, hunting down and trapping unwitting pawns in their incessantly evil games. Sometimes they can be overtly blunt; other times they're subtle and coy, gaining your trust and then turning the tables when you least expect it.

The phrase ‘His name is mud” came from the story about a man named Samuel Mudd who was thought to be a co-conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assignation. His conviction was later overturned, but nonetheless, the phrase stuck with him and for more than a hundred years later.

There probably aren't many people on the planet who don't know about the upcoming nuptials of one of the most famous bachelors in the world. Getting married is a pretty big step in life for anyone, and doing it before the eyes of millions is thankfully not what the rest of us have to take on! Still, William and Kate are going to be in "business" a long time, and we can already see they are determined to color a little outside the lines and run their own show despite all the trappings of tradition around them.

Customer retention, relationship management, and how a business owner provides customer service is extremely important to the bottom line. Everyone knows it cost more money to find a new customer than to retain an existing one. So why not give it your all to satisfy your customer’s needs.

Every customer wants something. It doesn’t matter what it is, they want it yesterday. If you could know ahead of time what they wanted, that’d make life so much easier. So, instead of the typical Top 5, let’s do a Top Ten piece. Here it is – just for you!

1. Value relationships where you are an equal. This applies to both personal and professional relationships where you are respected and valued as a person for what you believe, and the ideas you bring to the table.