Building Business Relationships: Autonomy and Professionalism

Selling a product, a business, or an idea starts with selling yourself. As the face of what you’re representing it is your duty to leave a good impression. This is done through building and maintaining relationships. A business relationship is not too different from any other relationship, it requires effort to grow, and most importantly space. Space in terms of physical space yet also space to operate independently.

This topic is interesting because it works in two different ways for client relationships and cohesion within an organization. The first being language and even physical space and the second being space from authority.

Scenario: you are meeting with a client (think of it as in person or on a call) you have the material which you want to deliver to the client to show what you offer. The client has opinions as well, most likely they have reviewed points they want to bring up to you (which you should be ready to answer). Now, during this interaction, you’re listening to the client's concerns and you have an answer to every one of them. 

Do you butt in with your solutions? No, you listen and give them the breathing room to express everything. Giving them space to speak gives you time to absorb everything and think of a proper response. Stay composed, maintain a respectful distance, and trust that you will have your opportunity to speak. Not only will this be beneficial from a sales standpoint, but it will also demonstrate that you are an effective listener. This will ultimately build a level of trust with your client.

The same principle applies within an organization, leaders must recognize the times when their teams need to sort something out or have the time to complete a task on their own. These are little details that will go a long way in relationship building and demonstrating autonomy to subordinates. Finding the balance involves self-regulation and trust, whether you are in a sales position or a leader. You need to regulate yourself to understand what the situation calls for.

Here’s how you can get started: 

For Clients

• Communicate Expectations: Start the relationship off with honesty and transparency by discussing the frequency of communication, meeting protocols, or what your work together is intended to accomplish. Vice versa, allow your client to voice their needs and requests for your cooperation. 

• Regulate Your Schedule: Don’t bite off more than you can chew by making promises to clients without checking the status of other tasks. Of course, it can be tempting to agree to simply please the client at the moment but this will create problems for you later. 

• Maintain Perspective: When brought concerns, changes, or feedback, always be in a position of high ground where you can evaluate the situation logically. Especially in times where your client may be reacting abruptly, remain composed.

For The Organization

• Designate Meeting Times: It is natural for organizations to want status updates as frequently as possible. What’s important to remember is that if a significant amount of time is spent on meetings, not enough time is spent on carrying out tasks. Plan ahead and set a briefing meeting and then status updates reasonably spaced out to give teams breathing room. 

• One on One Touch Base: With the success and advancement of an organization, leaders must value time where they can directly speak with employees. Whether this is done in the manner of a performance review or an informal check-in it should be made a priority. Taking this time allows subordinates to voice their thoughts and feel valued. The leader can then decipher what action needs to be taken to maintain an effective work environment. 

• Plan for Contingencies: Risk mitigation should be a staple in task preparation and meetings. Now it’s important to recognize that this does not mean focusing solely on what could go wrong. It simply means being able to pivot if diverted from the planned course of action or presented with challenges.

• Prioritize Quality: This may seem like a given but there is a dichotomy when it comes to producing a volume of work and the quality of that work. Recognize that the quality of work you do is what will lead to repeat business. Be resourceful with tasks, don’t settle for a task just so you can start the next one. 

Conclusion

Managing a level of professionalism in and out of an organization is what attracts business, they’re not buying the product, they’re buying you. Trust and credibility are what must be established before a client even considers what you offer. 

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

 

 

 

The Art of Letting Things Go: Double Edged Sword of Ego

The ego lives in every one of us, it is the reason we get up in the morning and the driver of nearly everything we do in the day. Ego is important, too much ego is infectious, especially when working alongside others. The dichotomy of ego is created through a lack of control over it within ourselves. We may not even realize when we lose control over it, yet when collaborating with others, egos can clash.

In this situation, even leaders need to be able to follow, put pride aside and evaluate what’s best for the team. This is a critical trait of effective leaders, leading a team requires being attentive but it does not mean calling all the shots. Now, ego can be a good thing, it drives us to hold ourselves to a high standard and seek out achievements. It is the balance of the good and bad that comes with an ego that must be established, which will make you highly effective in anything you do.

Often, ego gets in the way when differing opinions arise which unfortunately is inevitable in any setting of discussion.

The dilemma is that in some cases, the higher-ranked person may want to make their power known and overrule disagreements. The situations vary, the common theme however is that incentives driven to feed ego are sometimes not even necessary tasks to carry out or are simply overkill. These situations are a means of proving your worth to yourself at the risk of hurting the team or even your reputation as a worker. 

We want to be effective team leaders/members but we don’t want emotion to inhibit our decision-making. To mitigate this, let's look at what we can do:

Have An Open Mind

Open-mindedness is a characteristic that will serve anyone not only in their career but through any decision-making situation. Being open-minded is the ability to detach from the situation and look at it logically to determine the best course of action. Now you may believe that you are open-minded, invite new ideas to the table, and hear people out, yet you still find yourself in conflict with others.

Anytime you find yourself here, you must assess if your feelings are from a standpoint of business or ego. You might be surprised to find that majority of the time, the ego tends to take the win.

Choose Long-Term Gratification

Putting your ego in check typically involves sacrificing the sweet taste of victory. Let’s say you led your team on a project for a major client. You put in countless hours with them, fine-tuned some details, and implemented your thoughts to inspire their ideas. The client comes back and is thrilled with the work, your boss congratulates you but you insist it was the team's doing, you just simply helped. This is an example of putting your ego in check to ensure the satisfaction of your team.

In turn, this will translate to consistent effort and improvement in your team and even attract talented people who want to work for you. In essence, the gratification will come, not immediately but it will be much more rewarding long-term.

Be Supportive

Ultimately when working with others, putting your ego in check requires assessing the needs of the team and adapting to them. To be an effective leader, follower, or co-worker you have to use your resourcefulness to contribute to the task. Sometimes all it takes is understanding someone else’s point of view. For instance, you may have subordinates who express concerns over operating procedures you’ve instilled for a task.

Instead of responding “this is the way we’re doing it” you take the time to hear them out. You realize that you may have overlooked areas that would create difficulties in the process. You thank your team members for the advice and they now feel valued and pleased to work with you. In these cases, you can realize flaws in your leadership style and a common flaw is being resistant to change. 

Conclusion

It’s natural to want to be the best, be right, and reap the rewards as soon as possible from the work you do. This can stem from a lack of confidence or self-esteem and now the need to assert yourself in something fills those gaps. It is in these times that we need to step back, re-evaluate the situation, and most importantly, check our ego.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

 

 

 

The Importance of Adaptability: What Allows Startups to Succeed

It is widely renowned that a successful business is typically established on 5 pillars: the business model, the concept, the people in the organization, profitability, and timing. With these well-established, any business can successfully take off and change the world right? This is a common misconception that many businesses run on and sometimes are brutally awoken by reality. The missing ingredient here is adaptability to consumer interests. 

Start-ups have to realize that trends change and sticking to the same model can narrow their window of opportunities. It is common for companies to focus on the purpose they’ve served to earn their success. However, as history has shown us, companies unable to remain purposeful in years of change become irrelevant. Some examples of this can be seen by Blockbuster, Myspace, Toys R Us, Nokia, and the list goes on.

Researchers found that 65% of companies fail within their first 10 years in business. Why do they fail? It is often because they lack a plan for the future of the industry they’re in or simply cannot keep up.

A company can be incredibly profitable yet in a matter of months, its profitability can quickly fade if unable to adapt to the ever-changing markets. For this reason, companies must spend time analyzing consumer trends and preparing to adapt to the new trends. Now the question is what are trends companies should look for to be prepared?

Let’s look at what to consider:

Who Is Your Audience?

In recent years, millennials (born from 1980 to 2000) have dictated consumer trends immensely. The average yearly spending of a millennial is nearly $60,000 and 91% of them prefer to shop online. What does this mean for retail workers? If only 9% of the largest consumer base prefers to shop in a store, could stores become obsolete in the future? Generations come and go, and so does their influence on the economy.

Millennials are the largest consumer age demographic in the United States (the country with the largest consumer market). Companies should frequently review the trends of the audience they’re targeting, chances are millennials will be involved in this audience. Marketing teams must meet to discuss strategies in appealing to the audience, also to decipher where they can best reach them. 

Sales Process Involvement

As an entrepreneur, you delegate tasks to individuals throughout the organization which is the right thing to do. However, the one area a business leader must not detach themselves from is the sales relationship with consumers. Actively engaging with your customers provides the highest level of insight into changing consumer trends and values. This is especially useful for smaller companies. As the leader of the organization, maintaining a direct and positive relationship can lead to repeat business. 

You Never Know Enough

It doesn’t matter how successful you or your company are, you never know everything and should never have an attitude that demonstrates that you think you do. “Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on” - Steve Jobs. Always being open to new ideas, trends, discussions, and changes is a tool that will carry businesses through even the toughest of storms. Leaders should make it a priority to never become complacent and always look for new ways to inspire.

Conclusion

Success can have its downsides if handled improperly, specifically if the success is viewed as the end goal. No matter what anyone has achieved, it is impossible to achieve the highest level of perfection. Organizations and leaders should aim to set the bar higher, look for new ways to provide value, and never fall into the trap of comfort.  

Written By Ben Brown

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ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.