At the core of any organization are relationships that influence how well the organization performs. Any leader needs to understand how to nurture and cultivate these relationships. 

 

Why are Business Relationship Management efforts in organization sometimes not creating the results the organization is looking for? One of the reasons could be that the efforts only focus on a small group in the organization, for instance only the BRM team. Other leaders have relationships but are not included in any relationship improvement actions.

 

The BRM Leadership capability model is developed to clarify the approach to advance a BRM capability in an organization. The model is focused on two distinct different abilities that support the overall capability:

Organizations have addressed BRM as a separate focus area, often in very specific small areas. For instance, introducing a BRM team as part of a larger organizational unit. The challenge with this disconnected approach is that other parts of the organization feel that what the BRM team works on is not relevant to them, and that they are not part of the relationships, nor do not want or need to be part of relationship management. Creating a better understanding of BRM as a leadership capability will help to connect the relationship efforts in the organization and drive the concept of “relationships are everywhere.”

 

The second axis in the model focuses on the Ability to Execute and Demonstrate Organizational Value. Business relationship management needs to show value to the organization through very specific activities, behaviours, results, and communication. This requires a focus on key techniques and approaches that demonstrate the value of building relationships. When BRM is recognized and adopted in the organization as an organizational leadership capability, we will see the organization flourish and relationships will be recognized as a differentiating factor. If the only focus on BRM is in small parts of the organization, this may cause siloed situations where the relationships are addressed in a few parts of the organization and not systemically throughout. Consequently, when relationships are not utilized in all aspects of driving value, they may not deliver the results and impact the organization is looking for.

 

 

 

 

In this model we can see 4 key quadrants that are used to support organizations to advance their BRM capability. The key objective is to stay in the safe zone.

 

This provides the possibility to use the model to demonstrate challenges by focusing on only specific elements. To move toward the Integrated Quadrant, we need to understand that it is easy to overdo certain parts and move unintentionally into risk areas. In the Siloed Quadrant, the BRM leadership capability is too narrowly focused on a small group or multiple small groups, and it may have difficulty in demonstrating its value and impact in a broader organizational context. In the Connected Quadrant, we recognize that we do a lot of training and education, but with very little results to show for it (yet).

The intent is to advance the BRM leadership capability through the Safe Zone and ensure value and impact are recognized and accepted. This means that in any advancement approach, we need to focus both on the wider understanding and adoption of the BRM leadership capability. At the same time, we are addressing the practical application and execution of the related behaviours and actions that will demonstrate the results and value to the organization. 

 

In your efforts to advance your BRM capability you need to include all leaders in your organization to get results. Contact us for more guidance on advance your BRM leadership capability. Stay within the safe zone to lead and succeed!