Business People Skills: Do You See Essential Ins & Outs? #peopleskills
by Kate Nasser | 5 Comments »
Business People Skills: Can You See Your Ins & Outs? Others Can!
Business People Skills: Welcome In or Stay Out? Image by PSD via Flickr.
Business People Skills: People Can See If You Are Letting Them In
Many actions tell people if you truly want to connect with them or keep them at a distance. It matters in leadership and teamwork. It very much matters with customers. What signals are you sending? “Yes, let’s work together?” or “I’m not so interested.”
Have any of the following behaviors hurt your business people skills? They are easy to check and to keep in check. The effort is well worth it. Success comes with others — not alone.
- Mentioned in 2 minute video above.
- Mentioned in video above.
- Mentioned in video above.
- The need to be right. When people must have last word on everything, they come across as insecure, even arrogant. They are also sending the message — stay out! Closed-minded portrays as closed off. How do your business people skills portray you?
- Too much talking or too much silence. When people talk and talk and talk, it paints them as self-absorbed. It also communicates “stay out”. Too much silence can paint the same picture and send the same message. Many mistakenly believe that silence shows incredible interest and welcomes others in. Yet, silence isn’t always golden. It can also seem like disinterest. Seek balance. Engage in dialogue.
- Lots of absolutes and generalizations. Absolutes are rarely true. They often discourage discussion and connection. Generalizations about people also shut out connection and learning. Treat each person as the unique individual they are. Learn about them. It says “Let’s engage.” That portrays great business people skills.
- Being distracted & multitasking. When people don’t give their full attention, the message is partially — stay out. No matter how great the claim about their ability to multitask, the message they are sending is far from welcome. If you give partial attention, you are communicating a “stay out” message. Apologize for being distracted and refocus. That says “I welcome you in.”
- Immediately redirecting people to written material. I’ve seen this frequently in online networking. I receive a LinkedIn invitation to join someone’s network. I initially look at the person’s profile to learn more about them. If I accept the invitation, I send a thank you message highlighting something from their profile and asking them some questions to learn more. More than once, I got this reply: “The best way to learn more about me is to go to my website.”
Really? Instead of interacting and learning about each other? The business people skills message was: “I don’t want to interact.” Then why invite people to join your network? Do you want to welcome people in or keep them out? Engage in discussion to network and uncover new business opportunities!
When a situation calls for extreme caution, it’s wise to be slow to trust. Yet closed off with no trust can’t reveal whom you can trust. Business people skills can light the way and do just that!
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Related Posts:
Avoid These 8 Common Causes of Business People Skills Mistakes
Career Success: Are You Rockin’ w/ These 13 People Skills
12 Signs You Have to Be Right! on Alli Polin’s Break The Frame blog.
©2014 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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I would add reading the body language for signals to adjust your interactions to customers. Some sales reps annoys customers by chasing them while shopping. Some customers might view this as a great customer service. Others might consider it very annoying.
Read their body language and then choose your offering 🙂
It was wonderful seeing you in the video Kate 🙂
Khalid
Well I have certainly met those sales reps Khalid … and I agree that reading body language takes people skills to a much higher level!
Thank you for expanding this discussion,
Kate
First of all, thank you so much for linking to my post on being right. It’s definitely a people behavior that pushes people away… love that you point us towards a more positive people skill of being open minded.
Also, in your video, you made an excellent point on being more negative than positive. That ties into believing that you’re always right. When you’re the only one that’s right, ultimately you turn a negative lens to everyone else’s contribution and input. I’m with you, arrogance, more often than not, is ultimately a mask for insecurity.
Definitely a must share. Thanks, Kate!
Very grateful for your comments here Alli — especially about the “negative lens”. Especially grateful that our posts connected in time and I could share your link in this post.
Best to you!
Kate