Get Your Team and Customers Raving About You!
Get Your Team and Customers Raving About You!
- Dan Brent Burt
(1952– ) popular lecturer, author of several books on selling
I recently discovered I’m not 19 anymore. My old soccer club was holding a reunion five-a-side tournament and they were bringing back many of the past players – it’d been 10 years since I played. I soon remembered what it feels like to use muscles I’d lonnnggg forgotten about. An hour and a half later, I made a tackle and hurt my ankle quite badly. Game over.
I hobbled off to the hospital. There I received a pair of crutches and advice to stay off my foot till my next appointment. The next day I was to leave to speak at a conference in Whistler B.C., so the timing of my incident could have been better. The idea of navigating across the country on crutches wasn’t particularly appealing.
To my surprise, though, the trip was GREAT! Air Canada whisked me past the check-in line and arranged transportation to my gate in one of those neat little golf carts. Passengers offered to help with bags, people held doors open for me. At the conference people got me food from the buffet line, hotel staff ordered me ice-packs, and everyone along the way offered me a seat. An interesting bonus was the liquor many of the delegates tried to ply me with to dull the pain (I’m such a lightweight)!
Throughout my trip I was acknowledged and respected. DESPITE my discomfort, I felt super.
I think crutches are like babies and puppies: they help create an instant relatedness with others. Somehow they say it’s okay to let down our guard. The ”appropriate” everyday ways we relate to our roles of customer/supplier, boss/subordinate, stranger/stranger are temporarily forgotten and we simply connect as people.
That connection is missing far too often today with our team and our customers. In fact, I think many of us are thirsting for it. And when that connection happens, people take notice. How would you feel if people sincerely inquired about you, genuinely offered help, or even… continued great conversations with you in crowded elevators?
You don’t need crutches to do it.
Coaching Fieldwork:
I’ve long believed that our impact as people and leaders is a function of the relationships we have around us. Building those connections with our team, our customers or even our families doesn’t have to be a big deal or take massive effort. It can be found in the simple things.
Our biggest obstacle is often how we view our relationships or the situation. In the story above, the crutches gave people permission to reach out. I felt great as a result of it.
If you’re looking to increase your impact, there are some other ways to view the world (without the crutches) you might find useful below. Read one. Bring to mind a situation that’s relevant, then read it again and ask yourself:
1. If I adopted this, how would it change the way I’m responding to the situation?
2. How might my new behaviour, change the way others respond to me?
Here are the views.
• Your boss/subordinate is actually doing the best they possibly can with the information and skills they have in the moment.
• We all appreciate support in some form even though many don’t ask for it.
• Prospects you meet are actually old friends you haven’t seen in ages.
• The world is a friendly place (not a hostile one).
Try one on for a week and see what happens.
Get Your Team and Customers Raving About You - To learn more about this author, visit Jamie Broughton's Website.
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“The better you relate the more you will make.”
- Dan Brent Burt
(1952– ) popular lecturer, author of several books on selling
I recently discovered I’m not 19 anymore. My old soccer club was holding a reunion five-a-side tournament and they were bringing back many of the past players – it’d been 10 years since I played. I soon remembered what it feels like to use muscles I’d lonnnggg forgotten about. An hour and a half later, I made a tackle and hurt my ankle quite badly. Game over.
I hobbled off to the hospital. There I received a pair of crutches and advice to stay off my foot till my next appointment. The next day I was to leave to speak at a conference in Whistler B.C., so the timing of my incident could have been better. The idea of navigating across the country on crutches wasn’t particularly appealing.
To my surprise, though, the trip was GREAT! Air Canada whisked me past the check-in line and arranged transportation to my gate in one of those neat little golf carts. Passengers offered to help with bags, people held doors open for me. At the conference people got me food from the buffet line, hotel staff ordered me ice-packs, and everyone along the way offered me a seat. An interesting bonus was the liquor many of the delegates tried to ply me with to dull the pain (I’m such a lightweight)!
Throughout my trip I was acknowledged and respected. DESPITE my discomfort, I felt super.
I think crutches are like babies and puppies: they help create an instant relatedness with others. Somehow they say it’s okay to let down our guard. The ”appropriate” everyday ways we relate to our roles of customer/supplier, boss/subordinate, stranger/stranger are temporarily forgotten and we simply connect as people.
That connection is missing far too often today with our team and our customers. In fact, I think many of us are thirsting for it. And when that connection happens, people take notice. How would you feel if people sincerely inquired about you, genuinely offered help, or even… continued great conversations with you in crowded elevators?
You don’t need crutches to do it.
Coaching Fieldwork:
I’ve long believed that our impact as people and leaders is a function of the relationships we have around us. Building those connections with our team, our customers or even our families doesn’t have to be a big deal or take massive effort. It can be found in the simple things.
Our biggest obstacle is often how we view our relationships or the situation. In the story above, the crutches gave people permission to reach out. I felt great as a result of it.
If you’re looking to increase your impact, there are some other ways to view the world (without the crutches) you might find useful below. Read one. Bring to mind a situation that’s relevant, then read it again and ask yourself:
1. If I adopted this, how would it change the way I’m responding to the situation?
2. How might my new behaviour, change the way others respond to me?
Here are the views.
• Your boss/subordinate is actually doing the best they possibly can with the information and skills they have in the moment.
• We all appreciate support in some form even though many don’t ask for it.
• Prospects you meet are actually old friends you haven’t seen in ages.
• The world is a friendly place (not a hostile one).
Try one on for a week and see what happens.
Get Your Team and Customers Raving About You - To learn more about this author, visit Jamie Broughton's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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