Fight Human Nature, Assume Positive Intent...

I never cease to be amazed at how many people think other people are out to make their lives more challenging.   I tell teams regularly, "People do not wake up in the morning thinking of ways to make your life harder."   Yet, we all seem to think that, or like to use that as a crutch or excuse in times of trouble.   Even knowing and understanding the power of assuming positive intent, I find myself being suspicious of others' intentions before recognizing where I am going and course correcting myself towards trust and positive intent.

Recently, I ran into a great podcast, "Trust vs. Suspicion" by Andy Stanley, that in a way talks about this concept.   He describes the relationship between trust and suspicion and gives some guidelines on how we can change our mindsets.  One of the things I personally found interesting was his example from Patrick Lencioni book "The Advantage", where he talked about how human nature naturally leads us to be suspicious of someone's intent.   Specifically he talked about what Lencioni referred to as the fundamental attribution error.

"The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute the negative or frustrating behaviors of colleagues to their intentions or personalities.  On the flip side, attributing your own frustrating or negative behaviors to environmental factors."  

- Patrick Lencioni

To put it in a real world context, imagine you see your co-worker constantly getting up to take personal phone calls while working a project with tight deadlines.   You may immediately attribute that to their intentions or personality; for example, they may have a lack of respect for their peers and the organization, or you may think they are looking for ways to leave the organization or do not care about the deadlines in front of you.   All things you've made up because you have decided to be suspicious of the individual's activities rather than just trusting them and assuming positive intent.   On the other hand, if you were taking those personal phone calls, you would not necessarily see an issue with it because you knew you were working late and just wanted to make sure the family was okay or just needed to make arrangements so things were taken care of while you worked on the deadline.   You instantly believe you should get that benefit of the doubt from others, but you do not extend that belief to others.

The key here is to recognize that you are doing this and work to change your mindset.   Start looking at it from the other's perspective and trust that they have positive intentions.  Give them the benefit of the doubt that you feel should be afforded to you.

"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at will change" 

- Wayne Dyer

Andy Stanley goes on in the podcast to talk about how organizational leaders should handle this once they recognize this is part of human nature.   I thought he made a great point: make it explicit, talk about it as a leadership team and decide to fill gaps with trust and not suspicion.  As he said there is no win organizationally filling gaps with suspicion, but there is a huge win in filling it with trust (even if ultimately proven wrong in the end).   Being intentional about the way you want your organization to think and act is critical.  

Although my work environment largely has a culture of assuming positive intent, it's very easy to get away from that way of thinking in tough times.   We understand that it can be a difficult journey fighting human nature, so if we see our peers stray or start going in a negative direction, we do our best to not feed the fire but to provide words of encouragement or guidance to each other so we can course correct ourselves and get us back on the better path.

If you are a leader of your organization, your organization's culture (assuming you've been around a few years) is largely a make up of how you work and communicate.  You want to definitely build up an environment of trust first, assume positive intent first, and ultimately it will lead to less drama within your organization and in turn better focus and better results.

Make all your relationships, "Clients For Life"

A number of years ago, I attended a seminar where the speaker talked about the client for life triangle.   It's a fairly simple concept, but as with a number of simple concepts around leadership, it can have a big impact on you and your organization if done well.

Here's the triangle:

Client For Life Triangle

At the bottom of the triangle is your client base.   These are the ones that you interact with on a regular basis; they maybe external customers or if your leading operational teams (e.g. IT, Accounting, Maintenance, Security, ect... ) they could be other internal customers.   Either way, they are the ones that you and your teams strive to support on a regular basis.

In the middle of the triangle are your key clients; these are the ones that drive your business.  They help you understand what direction you should be moving in and they are the ones that may be more demanding of your time.   It's possible that you may also be dependent on these clients for continued growth and success, and losing them may prove disastrous.

As a goal, you should know where your current clients fit in your triangle, and you should strive to get them to the top of the triangle and have them categorized as a client for life.   Having a client for life means that you've become a trusted advisor for that client; you've been able to turn the tables, and now they rely on you for guidance and direction.   They will be your biggest advocate to open doors and opportunities for you.  Best of all, you'll become a part of their inner circle, you'll be consulted on decisions before they happen so you can tailor exceptional solutions for your clients, and they'll come to you before problems arise so you can work on tackling them before they become larger issues.

Before I provide you some insights on how to convert those key clients to clients for life, keep in mind this doesn't have to be a business specific engagement.   All of us have "clients".  The term "client" can be applied to friends, your family or your team.   I personally try to strive to apply these insights to every interaction.  This is because at the end of the day I want to be a trusted advisor, I want people to come to me before larger problems occur, and I want to be able to work with them to develop exceptional solutions to hopefully make them even more successful.

"Coming together is a beginning.   Keeping together is progress.   Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

It's not going to be easy to establish someone as a client for life, and your journey doesn't end once you get them there; you need to continue to grow that relationship day in and day out to keep it sustained.

It all starts by showing them that you are in it for the long term relationship and not the short term gain.  In all of your actions you need to show that you are willing to put your clients' interests in front of your own.   This may mean recommending solutions that don't necessarily benefit you, but in the long run have the greatest impact on that customer.   Remember you're in it for the long term relationship, not just the short term..

Once you start to do these things, you then need to show your client that you are genuinely interested in them and their business.  Give them your attention, listen to their needs, don't interrupt them, and hear them fully out.   It will make a difference.  Earlier I spoke about how your client could be anyone, so imagine now that your employee is your customer.   They have come to your office to talk to you about a problem, but you sat there and told them you were listening to them, but were glued to your computer answering emails (multitasking).   How do you think that employee feels?   Are you coming across as genuinely interested in them and their business?   I don't think so.   The same goes for internal or external customers; focus your attention on them and don't let distractions get in your way.   Everyone can tell if you're not genuine.  Even if you think you're the best of actors, actions speak louder than words.  All great actors slip up, and the moment your client believes you have an ulterior motive for what you do, you've just lost that client forever.  

Other than what's already been mentioned, there are two additional key principles in trying to establish clients for life, both of which build upon a number of the prior relationship points.   The first is you need to work really hard to understand your customers' underlying interests, not just their wants.   Be proactive, suggest solutions to your clients, listen to their problems and help them see the possibilities.    It not only shows you're genuinely listening to them, but it shows that you care for their best interest in front of your own.  In my job, I do this day in and day out, I'm always trying to find opportunities to get more ingrained in the day to day experiences of my internal customer.  This allows me to see opportunities for improvement, bring them up, suggest solutions, and ultimately show them that I am looking out for their best interests as I partner with them to make their vision of what's possible a reality.

That is where the second principle comes in: be reliable, do what you say you will do.

If you want to be trusted, be honest, if you want to be honest, be true, if you want to be true honor your commitment.

- Anil Sinha   

I don't think I can stress enough how important it is to make your commitments.   But, if life happens, communicate early and often the issues you've encountered, the hurdles that now exists, and your plan to get back on track.   Be true to yourself, and don't over commitment.    Everyone understand life happens... but don't let it be a surprise and be on top of it, own the struggles, and show your client you're doing everything to make the situation right.

The client for life triangle is a great way to look at the relationships you have established to date, determine where they fit, and help you formulate a plan on how you can change the relationships you have from either clients or key clients to clients for life.   There is significant time, especially at the beginning to get this right, but over time it can become a habit, and just your normal way of doing business.   Trust me, as a leader you'll be better off investing into your clients; after all, its our clients, not just ourselves who determine how successful we can be.