This article contributed by my special guest, MJ Gilhooley.

The importance of maximizing technology, rather than hiding behind it, is worthy of note in today’s tech-crazed business culture. Regardless of our server size or our dashboard widgets, blogs and blackberry’s, enduring business is still the result of key, well maintained human relationships.

While the argument remains that our podcasts, social media and iphones allow us to connect with hundreds more contacts a day, multiploying our circle of business relationships far beyond the days before our cyber world, the majority of these contacts remain purely secondary relationships.

Key Relationships 

Most entrepreneurs or small business managers can easily name the key supportive partners involved in their first significant deal or their long-term, tried and true, industry connections.

From brief surveys, one can gather that it is indeed these individuals, the ones we have shared personal information with and arranged some sort of regular, meaningful conact with outside of the strict business context, that havea proven to be the most personally and financially rewarding. They are amongst our primary relationships. It is they, not the chat rooms, that we turn to when the hounds are at the gate.

Technology is a boon for business to the extent it works in concert with these human relationships, anchored in mutual respect. While building cyber communities that support our business objectives is a clear and positive for most interests, we must tread carefully if in so doing we, even sligthly, sacrifice the maintenance of carefully built ties.

Protect Your Key Relationships 

To review whether you have a long list of secondary relationships or a small treasure of primary relationships, compare your key business contacts against these five signs to measure how well you are prioritizing your core, long-term relationships.

1. There is room in the business relationships for human error and correction. If a business relationship is over as soon as one miscommunication occurs or one slight delay on a timeline is missed, this was a secondary relationship and it wasn’t worth even the smallest investment to develop.
2. While blogs and some corporate cultures allow for “same minded” platforms, it is , after all, the ability to learn from and appreciate the differences in another that builds a lasting relationship. If you are meeting regularly and sharing both personal and business insights even though your interests and opinions might be quite different, you are probably enjoying a primary relationship.
3. If one person in the relationship holds the belief that he or she can dismiss, without consideration, the input of the other, you are in the middle of a transient secondary relationship.
4. When an associate considers family emergencies a liability to productivity, this tie is indeed secondary and valueless in the long run.
5. When your business associate understands that your biggest deal of the year or a critical transaction are in serious peril, they will cancel plans and re-prioritize his or her day or week in order to help untangle the snags as needed. This is a primary relationship. You may have a hard time finding that through your corporate blog.

Key relationships are worth their weight in gold.

They go so much farther than the occasional e-mail or game of golf. Winners in business get this and would not think of making a life changing business decision without running by one of these trusted sources.

They don’t seek to find their “people” only through technological outlets. In this age of collaboration and mergers, knowing that you are forging forward with at least a few primary relationships is key. But don’t take it for granted. It has to be a conscious, thoughtful process focused on mutual esteem, core values and a solid sense of humor.

MJ Gilhooley, runs Gilhooey Consulting Inc. out of Ohio, USA. When she is not speaking or running seminars, she juggles two young boys and a busy PR marketing agency. She has published hundreds of articles in both academic and industry trade magazines. Her firm develops  creative integrated materials and strategies designed to help businesses grow. She is active in many non-profits involving the homeless and at risk youth. Learn more about MJ at www.gilhooleyconsulting.com.