I reached home late yesterday. My son was waiting for me to come home so he can show off what he did the day and spend sometime with me, playing and simply chilling. I was tired and so distracted. While I was talking to him, I was also distracted and not fully with him. He was able to sense that and tell me to stop everything and be with him for sometime.
My wife has caught me many times fiddling with my phone while talking to her.
I understand that this is a cardinal mistake that I do when it comes to developing a strong relationship.
People generally like to have our complete attention when we are with them. I am working on developing my ability to implement the rule of one – One thing at a Time, One person at a time, One task at a time, one device at a time. I know that me being obsessed with technology will take some time to get over.
When you think about it, we do the same mistake all the time in our business as well.
If we are in marketing, we talk to customer segments, usually not defined tightly enough.
If we are in sales or customer service, we are always looking at the next customer in line.
We are always in a hurry. I think there is a lot of benefit to be had, if we slow down and give our complete attention to the person in front of (on call or chat) with us.
People notice when they get such attention, as it is so rare.
People reciprocate by giving their complete attention and share themselves fully and if they find true engagement, they go out and talk about their experience.
When you give attention is when you get it.
Attention is the most important currency in the always busy, always connected world and if you have the attention. Once you have this, you need to make the most out of it by being completely engaged and not squander it away.
So, how do you ensure that?
Follow the “Rule of One”
The Rule of One:
At any given moment, you will only attend to one customer, one task or one interaction.
Online marketplaces and big data has allowed a lot of tech savvy organisations to even look at creating a market of one. But that is a discussion for another day.
