No matter what happens with technology, business success ultimately comes down to your relationships – the strength of the ones you build and keep, and how you navigate the tricky ones. Learning how to create stronger, more productive relationships will serve you and your business goals throughout your career.

Relationships matter in business because they are what leads to you being chosen. That choice could be in the context of being chosen for a job or a promotion. It could be that you're chosen as a partner, vendor or supplier. It could be that a consumer chooses your product over someone else's. Or perhaps it's about which employees choose to be on your team and support what you're hoping to achieve (let alone how dedicated they are once they make that decision). Relationships are what get us through the tough moments, and where we turn when celebrating our wins.

Without productive, supportive relationships across our professional endeavors, we will ultimately not have the success we seek. The good news is, we can build relationships the right way from the start, and if they've gone astray, we don't need to give up hope – there are things we can do to make them better.

Lastly, because so many of us have a boss in our job, it's important to look into that specific relationship because the power dynamics are different from many other professional relationships we face. And, of course, because our boss often holds the key to our success in the near-term, if not for the long-term, too.