What Donald Trump could learn from Michelle Obama when it comes to managing relationships
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 Donald Trump loves to talk about relationships. Way back on June 23, 2015 MSNBC ran a story about Donald Trump’s many questionable ‘great relationships’.
Fast forward to June 2018 where President Trump wrapped up his short visit to the G7 summit in La Malbaie, by stating that his relationship with the G7 countries was a 10 out of 10, and blasted reports of rifts between the U.S. and the world as nothing more than “fake news.” He added that he gets along well with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But simply saying that you have good relationships, is not good enough. You must work on your relationships, and you must earn them.
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 The Relationship Centered Model examines the six key relationships that every organization should be focused on. It draws the parallel that managing these six relationships can be compared to a juggler keeping all six balls in the air at once. If there is too much focus on one ball, chances are the juggler will drop one or more of the others and the whole act will fail.
Trump has failed to recognize the importance of the broader relationships he should be concentrating on. Instead, he has dropped the ball by narrowly focusing on his core voter and media base, much to the detriment of all others.
In comparison, as the Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago, Michelle Obama acknowledged the importance of managing relationships. Throughout her number one best seller Becoming, the former First Lady makes numerous references to how managing relationships, whether it was with the community, media, donors, voters, politicians of every stripe, or other levels of government, contributed greatly to her and her husbands’ successes. In one pointed reference to community relations on page 285 of her book, she states, “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”
Community relations involves establishing a two-way rapport with the community, raising and maintaining the organization´s public profile and ensuring broad public input into the decision-making processes, to build buy-in and support for decisions made.
The federal government places considerable importance on building relationships and engaging with citizens. Ministers are held accountable for constructive dialogue with Canadians, civil society, and stakeholders, including business, organized labour, the broader public sector, and the not-for-profit and charitable sectors.
Unless your community relations’ objective is to remain unknown, which is not recommended, the first order of business should be to raise and control your own community profile. This is important for two reasons:
- If you do not control your own reputation, you are leaving it up to someone else to do that for you or let others do that for themselves. In both cases you run the risk of someone misinterpreting your organization, or worse still, painting a negative picture of your organization. This will just make it more difficult for you to achieve your community relations’ objectives in the future.
- Increasing the community’s awareness of your organization helps you address point number one, but also raises your profile in the community so that when you have something to say, people will listen.
 Ideally, community relations should be ongoing. The longer the process lasts, the greater the opportunity to form a constructive relationship with your community and the more your ongoing efforts will be successful.
To learn more about managing community relations, and to take a quick 5-minute self-assessment to see how your organization fairs when it comes to managing community relationships, go to:
https://relationshipcenteredmodel.com/the-6-relationships/community-relations/
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At Harley House Consultants Inc. we believe that effective communications involves meaningful, constructive and thoughtful engagement with internal and external stakeholders. You have to be strategically positioned to provide timely, complete, honest, open and sincere information about the policies, programs and services of the Government of Canada.
For more information about how to improve the effectiveness of your consultation and communications strategies:
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