GoHuman Blog

The dot.com meltdowns and unfortunate events that occurred in the early 2000’s created an amazing opportunity for businesses in Silicon Valley. It allowed them to regroup and build cultivating work environments. Given the complications our economy has endured over the past several years, people (most) are much more apt to be part of a team now more than ever. When people work collectively as teams rather than as individuals who are just there to collect a paycheck, productivity increases, morale is heightened and loyalty exists everywhere. All of which are among the top qualities necessary for boosting customer acquisition and retaining and growing the existing customer base.

People crave to be a part of something and want desperately to feel as though they’re contributing to the overall good of something; however, the fear factor is what permeates organizations, these days. That fear can be so overwhelming that it debilitates people’s willingness and ability to create and produce. Ironically, “people” are what keep a business, any business operating successfully. People are every organizations’ number one resource to achieving any goal, hitting a milestone or meeting any objective set. When companies provide ongoing opportunities for people to stretch their minds, enhance their skills towards their own aspirations, they’ll grow like a flower does with the sun and water. What’s more, they’ll end up creating huge competitive advantages for their company, every time.

Service minded individuals are always quick to recognize obstacles within an organization and are even quicker at wanting to remove those obstacles, to ensure they perform at the highest level of productivity as possible. Their intent is to make sure both internal and external customer satisfaction is met.

So exactly how do service oriented people identify and breakthrough the barriers that lie in the way of goal achievement? They build one-on-one relationships by connecting with others at a very basic level of communication and human interaction. They get to know people by asking a lot of questions and listening with intent. They ask others for their feedback on ideas. They ask for their involvement in identifying what’s working, what’s not working and most importantly, what they can do as a team, to improve matters that will allow them and the organization to continue moving forward. Through this type of ongoing communication; trust, respect and integrity are fostered.

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have cross the mountain. The mind does not create what it perceives, anymore than the eye creates the rose.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Communication is key to creating, building and growing relationships, whether in our business or personal lives. We spend our days in various forms of communication to enhance relationships. Everything we say and the actions we take are a direct reflection of ourselves and our businesses.

In business, advertising; a website; making client calls and networking, are all forms of communicating your message to contacts, clients and prospective clients. Having a conversation about your business with someone is a direct opportunity to demonstrate the value and service you provide others, who will want to pay for your product/service and do business with you, or refer you to someone who will. People do business with people they know, they like and they trust.

Communicating the right message and in the right way can be the link to creating successful, life-long relationships with clients, associates or new acquaintances. Being genuine, trustworthy and in integrity to those you connect with shows how much you value the relationship as a solid foundation for you both to build upon and use for improving business.

Your work ethics and communication skills with others not only enhances the relationships you create in business, but also has a huge impact on the personal success you achieve in life.

The gift of “giving” inherently, means you must be open to receiving, as well. Being a good and effective communicator provides many opportunities for rewards, from gaining new clients and more financial stability to new friendships that are life transforming. By routinely communicating with clients and contacts, you’re building relationships that will support every aspect of your business and personal life.

Companies who deliberately create a culture to work with systems and allow themselves to see the underlying system beneath everything create a wonderful mind-shift.

Every system is perfect for what it produces. Once your mind shifts to see the perfection of every system, you’re in a clear enough state to produce new systems that provide different results.

Even in situations when customers are upset, it can be said that a perfect system was used to anger the customer. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to like or tolerate the system that produced this particular result, in fact, applying this type of system thinking to anything you don’t like allows you to immediately correct it: “We have a perfect system for producing poor quality product, low margins, low productivity, high employee turnover,” and so on.

Declaring the existence of a system, allows you to avoid the habit of blaming other people for things that go wrong. Nothing can ever be improved or corrected that way. You’ll always get what you’ve designed a system to get and therefore, the solution to any ongoing problem is to design a new system. This is referred to as “systems thinking,” which is a higher order of thinking than we normally use. Once the mind shifts to systems, everything begins to change for the better.

Many companies have ongoing problems with politics, ego and insecurity issues of certain managers. Such companies assume they’re always going to have these issues and chalk it up to the price of working with people!  Not true. One company, Microchip, proclaims that politics, ego and arrogance are “NOT ALLOWED.”  How so? Because they deliberately created the culture they wanted. When it’s crystal clear that something isn’t allowed, people just don’t do it.

I love the quote by Nathaniel Branden where he speaks of how empowering it is for us, when we possess a high self-esteem…..

“The higher your self-esteem, the more inclined you are to treat others with respect, since you do not perceive them as threats. The higher your self-esteem, the more joy you experience in the sheer fact of being, of waking up in the morning, of living inside your body.”

Knowing the kind of communications that raise your self-esteem and the kind that lower self-esteem can be a wonderful guideline to how you live each day. Because then you can shift from one to the other, instantaneously!

Whenever your spoken messages, email messages or voicemail messages life another person’s spirits, you will raise your own self-esteem. The illusion that you’re living in isolation completely dissipates. When you enjoy assisting others, you don’t mind going against the flow and being your own person either. The objective isn’t to “please” anyone but rather serve them. You become more self-reliant by not always trying to fit in.

Self-esteem comes from the optimism you generate inside of you, not from taking on the pessimism of others. Trust yourself to always see the gift inside of every problem and create your own independence.

GoHuman supports local businesses and communities through a unique integrated approach to distributed ownership and responsibility. One of the ways we help is by bringing together like-minded companies who are working to achieve the same goals in their communities.

The Seattle Umbrella is Seattle’s only “Local Certification” service. Committed to promoting a sustainable and environmentally friendly local community in Seattle. Once your business is certified local, The Seattle Umbrella is your source for promotion to a highly targeted audience of people who genuinely want to support local business in Seattle.

Use their logo to gain recognition as a local business, as a marketing point, and as a statement that you support your community. Local businesses are the backbone of our community, and they are working to support practices that keep Seattle green, diverse, and sustainable.

Respond by Friday, June 4, and receive a 20% discount on your Seattle Umbrella membership and 6 months free basic subscription to GoHuman.com.

Whom do you trust most when making a decision to hire someone or buy something?

Most likely, you trust people you know: friends who have given you good recommendations, colleagues who have particular expertise, family, etc.

This type of trust has taken on a new form through the Internet and social media. Reviews for products and services are prevalent on GoHuman and elsewhere. These are useful, to be sure, but are subjective in nature.

GoHuman is allying with trusted organizations that promote local businesses. To represent this trust in a reliable and intuitive fashion, we have added a Trust Badge feature to GoHuman, which allows you to showcase your earned certifications, affiliations, and partnerships right along with your business postings, endorsements, and feedback.

Our first Trust Ally was the Green Business League, that provides Green Business Certification. We are working with several organizations to allow their members to proudly display their Trust Badges with GoHuman.

You can help by telling us about the organizations you trust and want to show off with GoHuman. We’ll work together to provide more exposure for you and all your fellow members.

Ultimately this will help your online reputation, which will lead to more trust, which helps get you more leads.

We’re thrilled to team up with Being Latino to offer one of our GoHuman Flip cams to the winner of their video contest. Just watch the video below for all the info you need to enter. Good luck!

Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain, and connect all people across the global Latino spectrum. Their aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through a formative thought-provoking dialogue and the exchanging of ideas.

Being Latino seeks to be the unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multi-dimensional culture that is Latino. Check out their Facebook page and blog:

http://www.facebook.com/Being.Latino
http://beinglatino.wordpress.com