Happy Sunday Everyone:
The Golden Rule is the principal of treating others as one’s self would like to be treated. How do you honestly hold up to that?
I don’t mean for this to be some pie in the sky conversation about how we treat people. I mean this to be a thought provoking exercise in how we make people feel when they’re around us, and when they work with us, and how that might impact us for the better if we thought about it a little more than we do. I’m bringing this up based on two events that have taken place in the past week. One was asking a coaching students to provide me a detailed flow chart of how he handles incoming opportunities i.e. leads, and another was something that happened to me, which I’ll explain later.
My student, who I like a lot, gave me a very detailed process flow of how he and his team handle an incoming lead. Nowhere on this flow chart was there “immediately pick up the phone and tell the business partner THANK YOU for this opportunity”. So we drilled down further and I asked “if I called your leads and asked if it was it a great experience, what % would say “amazing”…he was very honest and said 10-20%. This guy runs a very good business and makes a very good living, so if that’s what he’s saying, I’d challenge all of us to be honest with where we stack up. One thing I’m realizing is it’s much easier to coach on process i.e. make X calls, meet X amount of people, create a flow chart for X process, track results based on X numbers…..it’s much much harder to coach on emotional intelligence, but that’s the part, for me at least, that makes it all worth it, and what so many of us are missing most of the time. There are 100’s of books on emotional intelligence and I haven’t read one of them, although I probably should, and I will now that I write this. In my rudimentary understanding of emotional intelligence, I’m just going to go with the Golden Rule for now. That seems like a good starting place.
Golden Rule benefits.
1. Let’s just start with its the right thing to do. I told a gal yesterday at a store while Christmas Shopping “hey, just so you know, you did a really great job, I appreciate it very much”….she lit up like I had made her day…Small secret-people like to be acknowledged for a job well done. I had my quarterly team meeting last week, when asking what I can do to be a better leader one team member said “tell us we’re doing a good job more often”….lesson for me, don’t get “used” to people around you doing great work, they all deserve the attention more often.
2. Conversion ratio i.e. how many leads turn into clients, goes way up when the Golden Rule is being thought about often.
3. Referrals-more leads come in when clients are treated the way you want to be treated. Try being the client and see how it feels, I think you’d be a little more scared than you might imagine.
4. you run a purpose driven business vs. a process driven business. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t run a business without process, but if you’re thinking about the golden rule in combination with process, you’re crushing it. So much more fun.
5. people want more of you when you implement the golden rule. I’d rather be too wanted than not wanted.
6. Clients and business partners can feel it. If we’re thinking about it all the time, chances of someone feeling like a person vs a number, goes way up.
7. we personally get better every day when thinking of how we’re treating people and if it’s in alignment with the golden rule. It literally changes the decisions you make and how you communicate w/ those around you.
Using the Golden Rule as a bench mark for your business and how people feel working with you will keep you in business. You can’t fake it either. As I get further along in my journey on this subject I find myself asking “is this person trained or is this genuine?”. Being trained is great, but being genuine is a whole different level that training can’t replace.
I honestly can’t get the other story out without sounding like a blow heart so I’m going to skip it for now. Net net-I’m getting a very cool opportunity to speak with someone because of the golden rule, it works. That is my overall point.
Have a great week ahead. My sincere hope is you’ll spend some time thinking about the Golden Rule this week and reaping the rewards that come from practicing it.