Close friends and good relationships with co-workers and family reaffirm your competence and self-worth. Supportive people can help you handle difficult situations by listening to your problems and giving feedback. You can turn to this support system for acknowledgment of your efforts and for condolences when things don't work out the way you'd hoped. They can encourage you to tackle challenges, learn new skills, accomplish goals. And friends can divert your attention from the negative when you seem stuck and help you develop a new outlook.
 

Allies can help you get your job done.

Social Workplace

Most work is a complicated intermeshing of many activities and functions. Others must meet their deadlines so that we can meet ours. We work in collaboration in teams, that can come together and disband.  Success in almost every job means building productive relationships.
 
 

Allies are not buddies,
they are peoplewho have some priorities in common with you
and can be counted upon to be helpful in certain situations.

 You can improve your effectiveness at work by taking time to build a network of allies.  Allies can give you needed information, connect you with the right person, and open doors to valuable resources. Some alliances spring up naturally, like someone at the next desk may have common problems with a critical supervisor, for example.
 

People who get things done work through allies.

 People who get things done have relationships with people who have information and resources they need, who can open doors, or connect them with people who can help. We've all seen movies about the private-eye who gets the low down on the criminal by calling upon a friend in the police department to run a check on him.

The broader one's network of allies, the more opportunities for accomplishment. You will increase your personal power - your ability to make things happen - by cultivating friendly, helpful relationships throughout your company, community, and industry.

To get things done
have friends in low places.
óKeshavan Nair
Beyond Winning

 Allies can provide invaluable information about what is really happening in certain areas of the company and be a conduit of influence. Nurture the alliance and these allies will increase the chances for success of your plans and policies because they will convince their peers of the rightness of your actions.
 

Allies Build Your Value

When you are an integral part of helping other people
get their jobs done, you're more valuable to the company.

 When you're part of several networks around the office, you're perceived as indispensable and be viewed as too valuable to lose. If you should face down-sizing or decide you want to move on, your network of allies is the best avenue to a new job.

Copyright © 1980, 1993, 1998: Beverly A. Potter, from Finding a Path with a Heart: How to Go form Burnout to Bliss,Ronin.  All Rights Reserved. This article man be down loaded for person use.  Any other use requires written permission from docpotter.