David Richardson’s team manages Lloyds TSB’s largest corporate relationships across the Midlands. With over 20 years of customer management experience, he is passionate about the crucial impact that good relationships have on business results. He believes that it is the relationships with customers, suppliers, colleagues and advisers that are an organisation’s biggest business asset.

Oliver’s introduced David’s talk in the context of research by Daniel Goleman et al, comparing the impact that a leader’s different strengths can have on organisational performance:

• Partners with effective self-management added 78% more incremental profit than those without.
• Those with strength in social awareness added 110% greater profits.
• But great relationship management added a colossal 390% incremental profit (the equivalent of £1,000,000 per year).

David’s key messages were:

• Focus on who you are responsible for, not what you are responsible for knowing
• People do business with people they like and trust – in the early stages of a relationship ensure there is space for trust to build; establish realistic outcomes and expectations; and create a pathway for the future.
• Relationships are the life blood of successful business – relationship issues are never far from the surface – avoid injury and high pressure
• Treat customers better than prospects – do not become complacent and risk the investment made in established relationships; regularly review and ‘spring clean’ the terms of the relationship. 
• Strong relationships are those that do not depend just on one person.  It is essential to introduce colleagues to create a comfortable network.  This requires investing time and trust in those colleagues.

Finally, David explored the significance of how relationships thread through the leadership role, through the four key dimensions of the Integrated Leadership Framework. He went on to discuss the Inspirational Leadership Tool, developed by Caret in partnership with the former DTI to help leaders understand their innate leadership strengths and how they can improve the way in which they inspire excellent performance.