During Labour Weekend 2017 I spent some quality time with my son (aged 13 yrs) eating Kentucky Fried Chicken together on Napier’s Marine Parade. It never ceases to amaze me the level of truth that can come from kids (developing young men in this case).
I hadn’t asked Sam for some time who his closest friends are at school…so I took this catch-up opportunity to do just that. When Sam responded with the name of one particular boy, I asked him “why” he felt such a strong connection with this particular fellow.
Sam was forthcoming and “to the point” with his response, being “because he’s kind, he listens to me and he understands me“.
During a lecture today I drew reference to the above experience, and suggested to students that if (as business owners/ managers) they really had their heart and mind set on developing strong positive relationships with most particularly customers and key suppliers then the optimum way of establishing and nurturing such relationships is by showing kindness, respect and understanding. In other words, approach relationship building with an “empathetic” mindset – be able to see/ understand situations/ problems/ needs from the perspective of other people.
A simple recipe to realise satisfaction, that seems to be beyond the understanding of many people. Why ?