Enter the New World of business success
It’s time for change.
No more pushing products and services at customers in an effort to meet monthly targets. No more macho, aggressive behaviour pushing employees for results without stopping to think about how to get them. And no more grandstanding about how the customer comes first without stopping to see the situation through your customer’s eyes rather than your organisation’s.
It’s time to step back. Nick Morgan, in his latest book Trust Me – Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, tells us that being authentic in all our dealings with others is the secret of building trust and loyalty. And this starts not with actions, behaviour or words, but with intent.
If you’re trying too hard to be authentic, it means you’re thinking too much. You’re concentrating on how your are behaving and what you are saying. If you’re a company, you’re focusing on crafting the perfect message for the public or your employees. All these ‘up front’ actions will continue to fall on deaf ears if you don’t step back and reflect on your true intention in meeting a client or an employee, or in creating your company strategy.
It’s time for leaders, relationship managers and organisations to look inside themselves and connect with the higher cause that drives them personally and organisationally. Forget about your targets and the pressing need to win more business. Why are you doing this in the first place? What is it about you that you want to give to the world? Why was your company originally set up? What difference does it want to make?
Connect with your intent and the world will see you and your organisation as more authentic, patient and understanding. Only once you arrive at this place can you then begin to build your business based on integrity and trust. And in the new world of business that we must now enter, stepping back and addressing the fundamental issues of intent and authenticity is the only way to create the trust that leads to hard business results.
James Irvine and the Egyii team, Singapore
Tags: Leadership, Marketing, Nick Morgan, Relationship Management, Sales, Strategy
June 17th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
[...] We can’t strategise this by deciding what behaviours we are going to engage in to create trust. We can’t fake it. It comes from our intent. [...]