David Maister has an interesting post on using friendship skills as a strategy at work. David's target audience is people in professional service firms where clients are your key customers. He suggests that skills that make a person a good friend will also make a person a good consultant for your clients. I think it's a very interesting perspective and I agree with it. In fact, I think it's brilliant! And, I think it's good advice for anyone who is trying to have a successful and impactful career.

We hear about the importance of leadership, teamwork, collaboration, building networks, and personal effectiveness. But to explicitly call out friendship skills takes this to a new level.

True friends:

• believe in each other
• have a good time together
• are honest with each other
• are proud of each other's success
• go to extremes to help each other without hesitation, even if it means making a personal sacrifice
• have reciprocal relationships that result in a win-win for everyone
• give each other the benefit of the doubt
• tolerate mistakes and are ready to forgive
• go out of their way to make up for mistakes to regain lost trust

When I think about it, my most effective work relationships have many of these friendship properties. And, when I think about, the biggest accomplishments I have seen come from teams with many of these friendship properties.

I'm not saying that all your coworkers should be your closest friends. But I am agreeing with David that friendship skills can be important factor for career success.

What do you think about using friendship skills at work?
What do you think about developing friendship skills for your career?
Which friendship properties are most useful for work?
Are there other properties of friendships that are useful for work and your career?

Tags: friendship skills, teamwork, career advice, David Maister, HP

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