Recently,
Brigham Young University released the results of a study on social isolation. If you are socially isolated (ie lonely or don’t feel you have friends you can call on) the risk of death goes up 32%!
That is one reason H2H is becoming so important in business.
Most of us spend most of our time/lives at work. It’s where we meet most people and interact with others. It’s where most of us grow and develop. It’s where we can blossom or be crushed.
At a Digital Marketing conference at the end of last year, the audience was very young and super technical. One of the ‘geriatric’ speakers of the group, he was about 30, stood up and said it was great to have B2B and Bot2Bot and all the other fancy new terms for the way we do business. But…he went on to say (much to my joy!) that despite the digital age, the most important thing in business is H2H. Human2Human. I added Heart2Heart and Honor2Honor.
There are too many studies to list that describe the positive impact of social connections for humans and we are all humans, despite what you think of certain people!
And humans operate on …wait for it…FEELINGS!
If we feel and believe our boss/leader/manager cares for us, is interested in our growth and development and believes in us, we will work our hardest and most diligent to be worthy of that care and respect. You no doubt will have heard people don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses? Why is that? Because they don’t feel good about themselves, or challenged to be their best version, or they don’t feel safe or cared for…so they cause problems or they leave.
In terms of sales, if we care about bringing humanity back into every interaction we have with others, everything changes. When our focus is to connect, genuinely and authentically, with others and to be interested enough to really find out what they are looking for, and then to work with them to provide solutions for their issues, we make lots of sales! It’s not rocket science but we make it much more complicated than it needs to be!
If you are a leader, how do people feel in the environment you are largely responsible for creating? Do they feel safe and cared for and challenged to grow and develop? Do they feel that H2H factor?
To quote from a recent Fast Company
article “Functional efficiency optimized; the human experience diminished. Everything is efficient, and everyone is miserable. America, and many other countries, experience an Easterlin Paradox, where income per person has doubled since 1972, but happiness has fallen. Most employees are disengaged.”
Disengaged usually means socially isolated. Oh oh!
Here’s a couple of quick tips to improve your H2H connections.
When I speak on relationships I often suggest that partners ask each other “what do I do that makes you feel that I love you?’. It’s a very enlightening question if you ask at the right time and listen really well. Obviously at work you can’t do that! LOL.
But…you can ask “what do I do that makes you feel I really value the contribution you make to ….the team, my role, the organization (insert appropriate words)”. You might be very surprised at the answers and at the increased enjoyment you have at work and better connections and relationships.
Secondly, you can connect with two ‘
joy buddies’ (#joybuddies)! Joy buddies are people that can be your resilience buddies or accountability buddies. Just talk to them once a month (or more often if you wish to live longer!) for 20 minutes and check in with each other to see how you are both
feeling. Discuss aspects of yourself you wanted to develop and check each others progress each time. OR just do joyful things together, that are positive and don’t involve running others down, remember you are putting humanity back into business!
Build your relationships at work, operate from your heart and be willing to be more open, authentic and vulnerable. Not unsafe vulnerable but allow your humanity to permeate the environment. It’s not hard to do, it’s in your heart already.
Operating H2H helps you live longer, be more engaged, have more joy and fun, especially should you choose to accept your mission….find 2 joy buddies today and start the H2H journey for yourselves.
Zooties,
Amanda Gore
