How anyone can build exceptional relationships: ‘touchy feely’ advice from Stanford professors
- Stanford business professors who teach interpersonal dynamics explain how you can connect better with family, friends and colleagues
- David Bradford and Carole Robin’s top tip for growing closer? Deal with conflict productively and be committed to each other’s growth
The ability to create strong relationships with others is crucial to living a full life and becoming more effective at work. Many of us, however, struggle to build solid connections, or are unable to handle the challenges that arise when we grow closer to others.
Recognising the importance of forging deep connections with others is the focus of the most popular elective at Stanford Graduate School of Business for decades: Interpersonal Dynamics, better known as the “touchy feely” class.
David Bradford and Carole Robin have taught interpersonal skills to MBA candidates in California for a combined 75 years on this course and have coached and consulted hundreds of executives. Now, the two have teamed up to write Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues, published in 2021.
Bradford shares that while his students were very bright, with straight As, they also believed that they had to pretend to be something that they were not to be influential leaders. In their book, Bradford and Robin write: “We’re so used to disguising ourselves to others, that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.”
