In today’s digital world, it’s possible to conduct all of your business transactions, and many of your personal ones without ever seeing another person face to face. However, just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
As you look for ways to improve your business and your leadership during this year, consider making it a goal to personally connect with more people each day. Consider the following ways to increase your personal interaction.
- Start meeting with customers in person. Of course, it’s not necessary to sit down with customers at every transaction. However, depending upon your business, it may be very beneficial to have regular check ups with clients to go over their overall relationship with your business.
- Start attending more community meetings. Most cities have city council meetings and most cities have a local rotary club that meets in person. Get involved in your community in tangible ways that allow you to meet more people.
- Stop texting. Many of us complete lots of transactions via text. While texting is convenient, it is also a really good way to miscommunicate feelings and subtle messages. Make it a goal to drastically reduce your texts, particularly to customers and staff. While phone calls may not be as good as meeting in person, these are significantly more personal than texts.
Making these three changes in how you communicate with others will allow you far more live connection with people throughout the day. Over time, you’ll see the some of the following benefits for your efforts.
- Clearer communication. You’ll almost certainly have more understanding and less miscommunication by increasing your live interactions. You’ll likely see fewer mistakes.
- Increased sales. If you’re in the sales business, you can count on an increase in sales when you start interacting more personally. Sales is a personal relationship game, so more personal interaction means more success.
- Increased happiness. You’ll most likely find greater happiness and personal satisfaction when you reduce your digital interaction and increase personal connections. We are all social creatures, and, as much as we like the convenience and efficiency of digital communications, we miss face to face connection.
Try more live connections over the next few weeks and make notes of the results. You’ll likely see increased business and personal satisfaction as you get back to more traditional ways of interacting and put digital communications in their place.