Building Relationships by communicating

supportively Mahatma Gandhi

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it
means getting along with people
- Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi, called the father of the nation by Indians,
was a true leader and inspired so many people to get along
with him on the path of non-violence in the freedom struggle of
India. He was undoubtedly a great leader and instilled
confidence among the people of India and around the world
that a common man can make a difference by pioneering
Indias freedom struggle and bringing the British Empire to its
knees. He achieved greatness by his ability to convince people
and make meaningful relationships with them in order for them
to follow his sayings.
Relationships are important more important than what people
presume it to be. Almost every single entity in the business
and personal world revolves around relationships. We build
relationships by effective and supportive communication.
Gandhi connected with people of all caste, creed and religion
on a personal level by resorting to wear a white dhoti, which
connected him well with people of all walks of life.
Building effective relationships requires time and effort.

The

most effective relations take many forms and are fruitful,

effective and satisfying.

This only occurs when the parties

involved cultivate a level of high trust in their relationships,

also called inter-dependence. Gandhi with his pious principles
touched the common man and inspired them to an extent that
people believed in Gandhi blindly. This sort of faith to be
instilled among millions of people takes a lot of leadership and
communication skills, in which Gandhi excelled. When it comes

to building relationships, communication is a vital key. And one

of the most important part of communication is listening. Most
people listen to give a reply and not understand. This is where
conflicts arise and the relationships fail. Gandhi can be taken
as an excellent example of avoiding conflicts and making really
strong and meaningful relationships. He conversed with
politicians, diplomats and the common people quite easily and
earned their trust and respect on the way to building a solid
concrete relationship with them.
One of the biggest challenges we experience in relationships is
that we are all different. We can perceive the world in many
ways. Hence it is important to accept and celebrate the
differences among people for harmonious communication
leading to a better relationship. Gandhi understood this very
well. He knew very well how to communicate to people from
different class of the society. He knew what their major
concerns were and talked whole heartedly which made them
feel at home. They knew Gandhi was listening and they were
comfortable to open up to him, sharing their views. He focused
on congruent means to support his talk and he made even
more ground in succeeding to build a rapport. He talked
problem oriented and was specific in his chosen matter of
subject, which people could understand.
In the same way it is important that in a business environment
that we could apply these strategies to build a good rapport
with

our

colleagues

and

customers.

The

effective

and

supportive communication becomes all the more important

when we deal with the customers as they are our real bosses
as they can bring down an organization right from the top to
the bottom by simply choosing to not spend money on our
product. In Gandhis words A customer is the most important
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visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are

dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is
the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is
part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is
doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi is an exemplary example to learn how to
communicating effectively to build a solid relationship. Through
his methods, we can learn the nuances of public speaking and
communication in order to form rigid relationships with our
peers.