UNDERSTANDING > RELATIONSHIPS > TRUST
A key theme resonating in conversations I’m having at the start of this year is the power of UNDERSTANDING.
Business moves at the speed of TRUST.
Trust is established by building RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships come from the desire to, as Master Stephen Covey put it, “listen with the intent to understand, not to reply”. When we take time to understand others, that creates relationships. Relationships enable trust to be built and then deepened.
Once we have trusted relationships in place, business moves so much faster and with less friction.
What might this look like and how can you make this happen for you and those you lead in business? Two stories to help you:
“This one is for Tom”
As an example of business moving at the speed of trust, at one critical moment a number of years ago I was able to confirm a multi-million dollar deal simply because the person representing me was able to say to the provider “this one is for Tom”. The provider knew me and trusted me so knew that the request I was making (and the price I was asking for) was one they could agree to right away, saving much stress, time and also cost in making the deal happen.
What was this about? It was from one of my past experiences, in building a special risks insurance programme in the Caribbean. This was underwritten by the Lloyds market, but, as with any market, Lloyds is made up of human beings, in this case, expert underwriters who deeply understand risk. I spent a lot of time both in and around Lloyds listening to understand how it works from brokers and underwriters, as well as taking those experts around the Caribbean to help with their understanding of the risks “on the ground”.
Over several years I had focussed on UNDERSTANDING, so building RELATIONSHIPS, and creating a space of TRUST. All of this investment in time and focus created the space where a major deal could be done with just a simple phrase “this ons is for Tom”. which meant a lot as it was deeply underpinned by a trusted relationship/
Creating understanding from “kick-off” meetings to start 2023
So, what can you do to help create “business moves at the speed of trust” moments in your business?
Well, many business leaders run meetings to start their calendar year. Yes, they will have detail around teh business, operational results, budgets, goals, objectives etc. These are all important, but I also encourage you, when designing your event and agenda, to focus on one more thing. Yes, focus on UNDERSTANDING.
If you choose to do this, key is to focus on creating the right environment for people to really talk and get to know each other, both understanding what they are focussed on around their area of the business, but also what makes them “tick” what drives them, motivates them, energises them. Given the right amount of time and environment, you may also find conversations may go deeper, you can find what they love, what they fear, what are their deeper drivers and even blockers.
As a fine example of creating the right kind of environment for this, one of my all-time favourite events for this was a number of years ago when Dr Carrie Goucher took around 15 entrepreneurs and mentors up a snowy mountain in snowshoes for around 24 hours(see Carrie’s guest appearance on #WhatComesNextLive for more of her thoughts o meetings and human interactions).
I had never been on snowshoes before, but it simply had us walk, normally side by side in pairs, up a mountain, giving many hours of conversations with different people, all amidst a magical background of snow and mountains that inspired conversation. Years later, I am still in contact with several of my fellow “SnowHowers” and have built one or two significant relationships of meaning to me.
UNDERSTANDING > RELATIONSHIPS > TRUST