Are You Missing Your Own Reflection? | SMALL BUSINESS
making previously ideal responses no longer applicable or relevant. Thus, we need to assess what has changed with our customers each and every time we see them so that we can respond to the current environment. For example, a family illness, loss of a contract, storm damage locally, or perhaps to a relative’s property far away, may influence the decisions your customer will make, your supplier’s ability to deliver, or your employee’s job performance. If you were to try to sell anything other than emergency supplies to a customer right after any of these events, you’d probably be unsuccessful. You might be better off just making a social visit, asking how you can help, and saving the sales call for another day. One way to assess the best action to take at a given time, which I have mentioned in a previous RISBJ article, is to ask your customer or supplier, “How is business?” (which I learned from Bill Matson, currently Chief Human Resource Officer for Analog Devices) to open your conversations. Another way might be to ask employees, “How is the family?” Third, it reminds us that oftentimes the way people respond to us is reflecting right back at us the attitude or behavior we displayed, even though we may not realize it. People are not perfect mirrors and should not be perceived that way, but our customer’s, employee’s, or client’s behavior is likely to be influenced by our behavior. If we appear to be impatient, they may be more impatient than usual. If we appear to be sympathetic, they may be more sympathetic. If we appear to be likeable, they may be more interested in working with us. So, whenever we are engaged in a discussion with someone that doesn’t seem to be going as well as we might like, let us pause for a minute and ask ourselves what we are doing to contribute to the less than ideal communication. Then, let us try to change our behavior and see if it changes our customer’s, client’s or employee’s behavior. After all, we cannot change anyone’s behavior except our own, but we can certainly influence it by the way we act and the environment which we set up. The same principles apply at home, too! Our goal is to conclude every conversation with everyone we are communicating with looking forward to the next conversation (and working with us again), because they consider that we are really trying to help them.
Dr. Ronald G. Shapiro Independent Consultant in Human Factors Learning & Human Resources Thanks to Dr. Margarita Posada Cossuto for helpful comments and suggestions
www.risbj.com | volume two issue five
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