Trusted

The human approach to building outstanding client relationships in a digitised world

Lyn Bromley, Donna Whitbrook

• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781910056745
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Rapporti con i clienti
• Index: Business

•Are your people sabotaging your business by delivering poor service and failing to build trusted relationships? •Does your pricing come under constant question?
•What is it that makes good organisations world-class?
In a world of increasingly digitised interactions, connecting on a human level is more valuable than ever. Being competent and doing a really good job is simply not enough. Today we must have the ability to create impact and maximise our personal presence in order to be positively memorable. Being a brand ambassador for our business and being able to engage with others confidently in order to build successful, professional relationships is key to outstanding performance.
By focusing on the skills that affect the client's experience and the company's ability to deliver excellent service, your organisation can gain a competitive advantage. You will benefit from improved profits, higher employee retention, a better reputation and sustained growth.
Discover the 'T-Spot' Model, and learn how to beat the 'credibility thief' while our 'credibility sleuth' helps you to find the improvements that will transform your business.
Trusted is full of inspirational ideas, top tips and insights from our experience of helping our clients to deliver service excellence and become world-class organisations.

Our own experience and research has shown us that in order to build outstanding relationships and deliver outstanding client service, we must first manage our mindset.

Most people do not manage their mindset—they are not aware that it can even be managed. But the most successful leaders, sportspeople and clinicians know that managing their mindset sets them up for success.

‘Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.’ – Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

The culture of the organisation we’re working within can also influence our mindset. Processes that do not allow employees to feel trusted and valued can have a significant impact on mindset. Whether people are trusted or treated with suspicion, they will live up to the expectation.

‘Beliefs drive attitudes which affect behaviours.’ - Unknown

Growth mindset

Dr Carol S. Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University and leading researcher in the field of motivation, has spent decades researching achievement and success, and has determined that there are two types of mindset: fixed and growth. She also determined the power of mindset and the profound affect it can have on our lives.

Prior to her research, she held the belief that we couldn’t get smarter; whatever we were born with was what we had. Through her research, she has discredited her original belief and proven that we can become smarter.

Do you have a fixed or growth mindset?

People with a fixed mindset:

• believe that intelligence is fixed and their qualities are carved in stone

• avoid challenges

• give up easily

• don’t see the value of effort

• avoid negative feedback

• are threatened by others’ success, and

• shy away from challenges for fear of being exposed.

People with a growth mindset:

• believe that intelligence can be developed and their qualities can be cultivated through effort

• embrace challenges—in fact, they relish challenge

• see effort as a path to mastering a skill

• learn from criticism

• incorporate learning and get inspiration from others’ success, and

• believe that we don’t all have the same talents and abilities but that we can all grow through hard work, mentorship and perseverance.

Depending on which mindset we operate in, we either narrow our world or widen it. Those with fixed mindsets narrow their world to appear as though they are achieving, whereas those with growth mindsets open up their world so they can look for opportunities and challenges, allowing them to grow.

Many people have elements of both mindsets, and different mindsets for different areas. For example, a person could have great social skills but think she is incapable of standing up and delivering a presentation for a group. Someone could have a great business mind but think he is unable to master new gadgets.

Beliefs are powerful. We do have a choice; we can change our mindsets if we want to.

What you can do to move to a growth mindset

• Raise your awareness—simply understanding that you have two mindsets enables you to challenge your thinking and can produce incredible results.

• Acknowledge that we all have elements of fixed and growth mindsets—don’t beat yourself up; it’s what makes us human. By embracing this, you can start to notice how often your fixed mindset creeps in. I (Lyn) think I can’t sing, and I (Donna) think I can’t draw. In reality, we know that if we were motivated to overcome these limiting beliefs, we could enrol in singing and art classes, and we know we could improve. Our motivation to do so is clearly low; otherwise, we would already have taken steps to rectify these perceived shortcomings.

• Become aware of triggers—know when your fixed-mindset persona shows up.

Perhaps at a networking event you meet someone in your industry who appears more confident and polished. How do you feel? Do you shrink in comparison, and is your mind telling you that you can never be as good?

How about when you lose a prospect during a pitch—do you blame yourself? And does this knock your confidence and ability to win future pitches?

How do you handle it when you receive a complaint? Do you become defensive?

Maybe you’ve received negative feedback during a personal development review. Do you feel uncomfortable and maybe choose to ignore the feedback? Do you dislike your manager a little for giving the feedback?

Or perhaps a colleague has been praised for doing something well. Are you looking for ways to discredit what he or she has done to make yourself feel better?

• Name your fixed-mindset persona—this might seem a little odd, but bear with us. It works well in practice.

We were talking about pricing with one of our clients (a high-end business, so not the cheapest in their sector). A senior employee argued that they would not attract new business as their price point was too high. Her fixed-mindset persona, whom she had named Margaret, had taken over. Her tone changed and so did her style of communication, which became very direct. When challenged, she became even more direct and defensive. Another senior colleague in the room responded, saying, ‘When Margaret comes out in this way, it impacts the group’s ability to move forward with the discussion because she is so closed off’. Another colleague bravely spoke up at this point: ‘When Margaret comes out, I feel that I can’t get my point out and I just fall silent. This is Violet, my fixed-mindset persona. She shrinks and feels intimidated and tongue-tied’. These revelations allowed the group to continue the discussion. Once they understood each other’s triggers and personas, they were able to move past them and identify the real barriers to winning new business.

• Educate your mindset—once you have identified your triggers and have named your fixed-mindset persona, take your persona on the journey to grow your mindset. Later in this section, we will explore a number of ways you could do this. For example, you could find a mentor to support you, work with a coach to help you develop, ask for constructive feedback (perhaps 360-degree feedback if you’re a manager), listen to what your clients say about you, or work on positive affirmations and visualisations and on removing limiting beliefs.

Managing your mindset is not a one-off event. It takes time and continual effort to flip the switch from fixed mindset to growth mindset. But once you’ve done so, seemingly insurmountable challenges will be easier to navigate.

How you can inspire your team to have a growth mindset

• Promote problem-solving when failure occurs.

• Praise teamwork and effort, not just outcomes.

• Lead by example: walk the talk.

• Encourage the team to share and talk about how they have overcome challenges.

• Show vulnerability as a leader and allow team members to show vulnerability too.

• Celebrate team wins—again, not just the outcome but also the process.

• Encourage and empower the team to ask better questions.

• Place a high value on learning (for everyone, including leaders).

• Encourage the team to obtain feedback from clients and promote peer-to-peer feedback.

• Coach employees on how to benefit from feedback.

• Encourage staff to embrace new challenges and to step outside their comfort zones.

• Encourage healthy and open debate and conflict. This avoids groupthink, where everyone agrees with an egotistical leader and nobody is able to challenge his or her viewpoints.

Can you identify whether your mindset is fixed or growth in different circumstances?

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control and express your emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

Emotional intelligence, also referred to as emotional quotient (EI or EQ), is broken down into four categories:

• self-awareness—your ability to perceive your emotions and understand your tendency to act in certain ways in given situations

• social awareness—your ability to understand others’ emotions (what others a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Welcome
• Introduction
• 1 Mindset
• 2 Communication
• 3 Interaction
• 4 Behaviour
• 5 Professional image
• Moving forward
• Bringing Trusted to your organisation
• Acknowledgements
• References and research
• Recommended further reading
• About the authors