Foreword by Keith Ferrazzi

[Note from Morag: I’m honored to post this foreword, fresh from Keith – the author of bestsellers, Who’s Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone, and CEO of PocketCoach, Inc.]

 

I’m humbled to be asked to write this foreword. Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships by Morag Barrett is a comprehensive tour of the most powerful insights about business relationships. We’ve heard many of them before, if not all in one place, but with this unique and clear perspective on why it matters: “Managers spend between 70% and 90% of their time working with others…a wasted opportunity if it is not coupled with deliberate attention to developing relationships.”

Morag builds on the teachings of relationship mavens and on her own experience coaching teams to define what that deliberate attention should be.

A survey of that much relationship landscape—from emotional intelligence to a nicely articulated view of my own generosity, intimacy, candor, and accountability mindsets with abundance as the frame for mutual success—could be dizzying in lesser hands.

But Morag pulls it all together in a Relationship Ecosystem Model that helps the reader think about relationships in the context of both interpersonal skills and the broader dynamics of organizational culture.

The book gets very practical with Morag’s Speaking Up: Four Strategies, a model for framing conversations designed to transform relationships. The reader comes away with the necessary tools for diagnosing relationship issues and fixing them with specific conversational practices. The result, once you make those practices your habit? Greater success for both you and your organization.

Using Morag’s own terminology, some might think of us as Rivals, but we’re natural Allies. I look forward to a discussion about how, together, we might help people cultivate relationships using her best practices on the front lines of business to drive even more success than this new book surely will.

– Keith Ferrazzi

Author, Who’s Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone and CEO of PocketCoach, Inc.