My company, Strategic Communications Group, specializes in message management. What’s the most important component of that? Getting people who are not aligned understanding the importance of building a common ground. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. It’s not too different from politics. Everyone supports the First Amendment. You may not agree with me or my ideas, but you agree I can have a different opinion. Why can’t we take that principle and use it in the office to work together?
If we agree that we all want to succeed and achieve our goals, then discussing how to do this is the next step. So often in politics, nothing is accomplished because we feel no one is genuinely listening.
Sometimes getting the message out in companies feels like that—people are working in silos, and they aren’t really communicating. When this happens, we end up in long meetings with participants saying why something can’t be done. Instead, if they would spend the same energy finding a way to make it work, everyone would leave the meeting poised to generate success.
If we stop disagreeing and start working together, the sense of accomplishment will soar. More important, accomplishment will make your company a star. Work from home (WFH) has made customer service difficult for many companies, but some companies, including a mortgage lender figured out how to make it work. Responsibilities are shared, the customer is kept informed, and mortgages are speedily closed. That’s a lot better than the complaints I hear from people who say even all-cash deals take forever to close.
Whose Net Performer Score (NPS) will rise? Which company will get accolades from clients? Don’t you want it to be yours? Working together to solve problems and please the customer makes all the difference. #success