Coaching practices for How to Invest in Relationships
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Invest in Relationships, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- We’ve built so much together
- I spread myself thin trying to keep up with everyone, and I end most weeks drained
- We’ve drifted into roommates running on autopilot
- We default to whatever each of us wants in the moment, and I rarely choose their preference over mine on purpose
- I only ever reach out to people when I suddenly need something from them, and it always feels mercenary because it is
Practices that may help
- Making your investments visible to both partners
Name and acknowledge the shared investments in the relationship — children, history, shared projects — to both parties.
The Investment Model of Commitment: Why People Stay (and Why They Leave) - Apply 80/20 to relationships and energy sources
Identify which relationships energize and catalyze your best work, and invest in them disproportionately.
The Pareto Principle: 80/20 for Personal Productivity - Pro-relationship maintenance behaviors
Actively do things that maintain and strengthen the relationship, rather than expecting it to run itself.
The Investment Model of Commitment: Why People Stay (and Why They Leave) - Willingness to sacrifice: building relationship-oriented decision-making
Practice making at least one weekly decision that prioritizes the relationship over personal short-term convenience.
The Investment Model of Commitment: Why People Stay (and Why They Leave) - Build the network before you need it
Invest in relationships continuously so you have real capital when a crisis or opportunity arrives.
Never Eat Alone: Building a Real Network - The Investment Model of Commitment: Why People Stay (and Why They Leave)
Caryl Rusbult’s Investment Model proposes that commitment is driven by three factors: satisfaction (how good the relationship feels), quality of alternatives (how appealing life outside the relationship seems), and investment size (what you’ve put into it that would be lost on leaving). All three are modifiable — and understanding which is weakest gives a precise target for strengthening commitment. The model has extensive empirical support across diverse relationship types and cultures. - Earn the right to deepen the relationship in stages
Trust compounds over time — start with technical credibility and expand into intimacy as it is earned.
The Trust Equation, Made Practical - Deliberately expand your inner circle
Move team members from low-LMX to high-LMX through intentional relationship investment.
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Made Practical - Investing in people over status
Direct discretionary time and energy toward relationships, not just career and acquisition.
The Good Life: Lessons from the Harvard Study - Give before you take
Lead every new relationship with concrete value before any ask.
The Strength of Weak Ties
Related concerns
- Investment In Relationships
Name and acknowledge the shared investments in the relationship — children, history, shared projects — to both parties.
Making your investments visible to both partners
- Which Relationships To Invest In
Identify which relationships energize and catalyze your best work, and invest in them disproportionately.
Apply 80/20 to relationships and energy sources
- Active Relationship Investment
Name and acknowledge the shared investments in the relationship — children, history, shared projects — to both parties.
- Capitalization Relationships
Name and acknowledge the shared investments in the relationship — children, history, shared projects — to both parties.
- Commitment In Relationships Psychology
Caryl Rusbult’s Investment Model proposes that commitment is driven by three factors: satisfaction (how good the relationship feels), quality of alternatives (how appealing life outside the relationship seems), and investment size (what you’ve put into it that would be lost on leaving). All three are modifiable — and understanding which is weakest gives a precise target for strengthening commitment. The model has extensive empirical support across diverse relationship types and cultures.
- Investment Model Commitment Rusbult
Caryl Rusbult’s Investment Model proposes that commitment is driven by three factors: satisfaction (how good the relationship feels), quality of alternatives (how appealing life outside the relationship seems), and investment size (what you’ve put into it that would be lost on leaving). All three are modifiable — and understanding which is weakest gives a precise target for strengthening commitment. The model has extensive empirical support across diverse relationship types and cultures.
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