Relationship building is key to any one's success. The ability to connect and leverage relationships with people is at the heart of any idea, initiative, action, or endeavor. Relationship building begins with caring about people and caring about people begins with having a natural curiosity about others, their life, their strategies, and how they might interact and engage with you and your ideas, plans and dreams. By putting the "other person" first you position yourself for success. There is an old adage that goes: " Help other people achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours". This is because in the act of helping others you create a cause effect relationship that is reciprocal and feeds back energy, resources and action to your own endeavors, dreams and ideas.
Today, too many people believe that an email or Instant Message constitutes relationship building or relationship maintenance. This form of communication is efficient and in many ways it helps us to quickly communicate and contact our Friends, families associates, and customers. However don't fall into the trap of defaulting to email and IM alone. Regularly reach out to your contacts with a phone call and whenever possible a personal visit. For many of us our best talents are engaged when we are in front of people, when they have the opportunity to feel our sincerity, first hand, and when we can explain our ideas and offerings with more clarity and in more detail.
Relationship building is an opportunity to harness the power of many people who can support your ideas and help multiply the number of "impression points" on a real life basis. Just as you need impression points on your website, or on your idea, you need real, live, devoted, passionate, believing people to carry and sustain your message. Don't default only to technology as a "short cut" when you know that people and good relationships with people is the power behind you.
Today, too many people believe that an email or Instant Message constitutes relationship building or relationship maintenance. This form of communication is efficient and in many ways it helps us to quickly communicate and contact our Friends, families associates, and customers. However don't fall into the trap of defaulting to email and IM alone. Regularly reach out to your contacts with a phone call and whenever possible a personal visit. For many of us our best talents are engaged when we are in front of people, when they have the opportunity to feel our sincerity, first hand, and when we can explain our ideas and offerings with more clarity and in more detail.
Relationship building is an opportunity to harness the power of many people who can support your ideas and help multiply the number of "impression points" on a real life basis. Just as you need impression points on your website, or on your idea, you need real, live, devoted, passionate, believing people to carry and sustain your message. Don't default only to technology as a "short cut" when you know that people and good relationships with people is the power behind you.
2 comments:
I recently had the good fortune to participate in British Airways current marketing campaign aimed “to keep entrepreneurship alive and kick up fresh potential for economic growth in the U.S. by focusing on tangible, human connections as a crucial driver of business.” Entitled “Face to Face” the premise is that quality face time in relationships is critical to its growth; that it is from human connections that business flows.
While acknowledging that the wide variety of technology offered in the business arena is useful to get a dialogue started, long- term relationships are more usefully cemented with face-to-face contact.
Furthermore, meeting in person affords one the opportunity to assess visual cues offered unwittingly, something missed in the email or phone exchange. Also, to witness someone in their world or business context is to see a more complete and worthwhile picture, allowing for more realistic, rational and informed decisions aiding negotiation and the sealing of the deal.
One has to look no farther than the personal arena and the ubiquitous use of online dating to witness the truth of this campaign. People hide behind droll usernames, perpetuate superficiality with emoticons instead of emotions, doling out a modicum of personal info in measured beats, often totally losing the dynamic nature inherently present with in person encounters. Truth can be altered, ignored and avoided, not a good starting off point for any meaningful endeavor.
A key element to the success of the gathering I attended in London was the spirited presentations of the especially gifted speakers who combined a genuine sincerity and optimism to create this dynamic face to face.
It is useful to review your sage advice to not rely solely on email and other forms of technology more than as a starting off point as all kinds of relationships can be solidified through a meeting. For all your readers, I can further suggest perusal of the Harvard Business Review report “Managing Across Distance in Today’s Economic Climate: The Value of Face to Face Communication” found on the very useful resource of their website.
In closing, I would dare say that it is from forming real human connections that all things worthwhile and enduring flow.
I seem to be feeling a need to revisit this idea of “face to face”. In recounting the particulars of my recent trip to London to my colleagues, I found myself speaking passionately about attending a production of “Troilus & Cressida” at the Globe Theatre.
For any of you who have never had this experience, it comes highly recommended and I take a moment here to elaborate. This theatre is dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare’s oeuvre with performances mounted in a faithfully reconstructed theatre on the site of the original Globe in London.
On this particular visit, I sat in the gallery which, although more comfortable, can’t compare to the “groundling” experience of standing for more than two hours directly in front of the stage. You heard me correctly those of you who are whimpering that standing for two hours is inhumane and maybe, mildly un-American. It is an awesome experience and a privilege to experience live theatre as Shakespeare intended it. Some years past, it was my serendipitous decision to purchase groundling tickets while in London with my family to see the production of “As You Like It”. None of us had any inkling of what to expect, so luckily no one protested. With this fortuitous lack of expectation, our ultimate expectations were exceeded by the brilliance of the performance and uniqueness of this experience. To say that we had the experience of a lifetime is no exaggeration. Even my husband, who skimmed at best the Moliere required reading at the Lycee Descartes in Phnom Penh, was spellbound and suggested buying a copy of the play at the intermission. Our mutual enjoyment of this evening became a particularly fond family memory.
This was, in sum, “face to face” at its most magical. Standing as one does directly in front of the stage we are privileged to see the actors up close – every word is magnified as we follow the facial expressions, body movements and repartee with the crowd. Action moves at times from the stage to the groundling area and the crowd gets swept up in the action. If you don’t know, actors need to be trained to use their physicality much as dancers do. Shakespeare’s comedies, quite bawdy and raucous, combine both words with body movements to great effect and amusement. Groundlings ARE face to face with the actors and feel as such every movement, nuance and gesture. The language literally comes alive.
This is to me a metaphor for the power that can be experienced when we take ourselves out of our comfort zone to experience human connection at its best. Don’t miss this opportunity if it presents itself, dear readers. Get thee to the Globe theatre anon!
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