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Business relationships: A man and a woman shakes hands over a business desk.

Strengthening Business Relationships: Creating Strategic Alliances and Building Trust, Online Course

Cultivate stronger connections to drive organizational impact and achieve your goals.

All Start Dates

  • Time

    11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET

  • Length

    3 consecutive Fridays

  • Cost

    $2,700
    Programs fill quickly — free cancellation up to 14 days prior

  • Registration Deadline

    May 1, 2025

  • Time

    11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET

  • Length

    3 consecutive Wednesdays

  • Cost

    $2,700
    Programs fill quickly — free cancellation up to 14 days prior

  • Registration Deadline

    September 23, 2025

Overview, Strengthening Business Relationships Training Program

For senior leaders, building and sustaining high-impact relationships is critical to driving organizational success. Leadership thrives on alliances founded on trust, mutual benefit, and positive outcomes. However, the complexities of today’s business environment — marked by hybrid work models, shifting customer expectations, and diverse stakeholder demands — require leaders to adopt sophisticated approaches to relationship management.

This program is designed for experienced professionals and senior leaders who oversee key relationships, whether with internal teams, cross-functional collaborators, or external partners. You’ll explore strategies to foster trust, loyalty, and influence while aligning relationship-building efforts with broader organizational objectives.

Drawing on neuroscience and industry best practices, the program delves into innovative methods for cultivating trust, navigating complex stakeholder dynamics, and expanding professional networks. You’ll also learn to recognize and address small, subtle behaviors that can unintentionally break trust, ensuring your alliances remain strong and productive.

Through actionable frameworks and real-world applications, you’ll learn to enhance collaboration, improve communication, and strengthen internal and external partnerships that yield measurable results. By the end of this program, you’ll return equipped with actionable strategies to elevate your leadership impact, strengthen your most critical internal relationships and external partnerships, and create meaningful value for your organization.

Who Should Register for the Strengthening Business Relationships Training Program?

This program is designed for experienced professionals and senior leaders who want to build and sustain high-impact relationships within and outside their organizations.

Ideal participants include:

  • Seasoned business leaders, executives, and senior managers who oversee cross-functional or external relationships and want to enhance their ability to foster trust, loyalty, and influence at all levels.
  • Functional heads or directors across disciplines such as marketing, operations, finance, HR, and beyond looking to align business relationships with broader organizational objectives.
  • Experienced professionals responsible for navigating complex stakeholder dynamics or growing client-facing partnerships to advance organizational and personal success.

Benefits of the Strengthening Business Relationships Training Program

Strengthening business relationships is key to your success. By developing a trusted network of peers, colleagues, and customers, you can accelerate your career growth in your organization.

During this interactive online program, you will gain the skills needed to forge strong alliances. You will learn how to:

  • Leverage neuroscience insights as you create and develop business relationships
  • Deepen your understanding of trust and adjust your behavior to establish and build trust with your network
  • Boost your charisma and its impact on others
  • Refine specific speaking and listening traits for more effective communication
  • Formulate a strategic and tactical plan to strengthen and expand your professional network, supporting your advancement within your organization

Participants will also earn a Certificate of Completion from the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, further validating their expertise.

Curriculum

The curriculum in this interactive online program involves short lectures, guided break-out group activities, and group discussions to explore topics such as:

  • The criteria that determine your career success in your organization
  • Why professional relationships matter even more today, and how your behavior impacts these relationships
  • The root causes of trust and how can you affect them
  • Creating a strategic plan for increases in responsibility and delivering meaningful value for your organization

During this interactive course, you will develop your skills using new techniques to broaden and deepen your relationships, encourage productive friction in your organizations, enhance your leadership presence, and create a personalized action plan to amplify your impact on your organization and advance your career.

Costs

The cost for this online program is $2,700.

May Schedule

Week 1

  • Business Relationship Universal Truths
  • Human-to-Human Trust

Week 2

  • Urgent/Important Matrix and SWOT for your career growth
  • Your Network as your Career Asset

Week 3

  • Charisma and Communication Effectiveness
  • Trusted Allyship
  • Your action plan

October Schedule

Week 1

  • Business Relationship Universal Truths
  • Human-to-Human Trust

Week 2

  • Urgent/Important Matrix and SWOT for your career growth
  • Your Network as your Career Asset

Week 3

  • Charisma and Communication Effectiveness
  • Trusted Allyship
  • Your action plan

Instructor

  • John Westman

    John Westman

    John is a practitioner and teacher of professional selling and sales management at Harvard Extension School and Boston College. He has led commercial efforts—including strategy, sales management, marketing, business development, and strategic partnerships—resulting in improved business results for market-leading and start-up healthcare companies.

Instructor

  • John Westman

    John Westman

    John is a practitioner and teacher of professional selling and sales management at Harvard Extension School and Boston College. He has led commercial efforts—including strategy, sales management, marketing, business development, and strategic partnerships—resulting in improved business results for market-leading and start-up healthcare companies.

FAQs

Why is it essential for leaders to establish strategic business relationships?

Today’s leaders must motivate and inspire their teams while navigating the challenges of a fast-paced, increasingly digital—and virtual—business environment. Driving innovation and stimulating change to stay competitive requires establishing strong relationships, building trust, and creating strategic alliances. Without the leadership skills to cultivate these critical relationships and alliances, leaders may find themselves unable to leverage their teams and organizations for short- and long-term success.

How will this business relationship training program help me advance in my career?

The curriculum in this business relationship training program will offer leaders new techniques and methodologies to help them make the most of their teams, work with challenging people on highly visible projects, and manage perceptions in order to lead with confidence. Building strategic relationships and improving your ability to create trust will help set you apart from your peers and enable you to advance your career.

What skills or experience are needed before enrolling in this business relationship training?

This program is ideal for anyone who leads a team, develops relationships with clients or customers, or relies on others for innovation, productivity, and success. While there are no prerequisites or required skills for this program, participants are encouraged to have a background of at least 5-7 years of leadership or management experience.