Overlook your peers at your own risk. We typically invest out time into developing productive relationships with our bosses, our vendors, our customers. We often overlook the value of being just as conscientious cultivating relationships amongst our peers.

Lorraine spent years as the top producing agent in her broker’s office. By nature, ambitious, positive and energetic, she was known in her office as the go-to person for good recommendations. Need a carpenter to satisfy contractual contingency stipulations before a property can close, Lorraine would hand you her list. If a new agent was experiencing problems placing a difficult loan, Lorraine has the numbers to call. So when Lorraine acquired her broker’s license, she had no shortage of productive agents who wanted to be affiliated with her office. No doubt a result of her recognizing and nurturing the value of each individual she encountered in her career path.

It is our business peers who understand best the pitfalls, solutions and strategies of our given field. The same quagmires you slog through on a daily basis, so does your counterpart in the next office.

“….one of the interesting threads we’ve seen in our coaching work is that many executives tend to over look their peer relationships and concentrate more on their relationships with their boss and their direct reports.

A leader’s effectiveness with those three groups – direct reports, peers, and the boss – can be distinctly different. For example, a 360-degree report may reveal that a leader’s boss and direct reports think he’s a fantastic listener and problem solver, while his peers perceive just the opposite.

So often, we think of leadership as a vertical relationship. You manage up or down. Yet leaders who invest in building strong relations across the conference table will be more likely to experience collaboration and get better results.”
(Source)

Networking with your business peer group is a valuable habit to establish. Thom Singer, author of “Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships” has some steps you can take in his piece ‘Do You Have a Peer Group‘.