Utilizing A Humanistic Approach to Create Successful Relationships in Business

By Gary De Rodriguez

Successful relationships are the secret to a successful business. Every company, big or small, must maintain a relationship that offers a win-win for both parties. These relationships can be with clients, partners, colleagues, employees, friends and family. Most importantly, the relationship with oneself must also be one of great personal connection to really succeed at any aspect in life.

I recently gave a talk to a group of about 300 business owners. I asked the group how many of them had experienced business failure. Half the room put their hand up. Of that number I asked how many felt their business failed because of money issues and about 20 put their hand up. Then I asked how many failed because of bad relationships. The rest put their hand up.

Let s face it; success in business IS about building successful relationships. Relationships are the cornerstone of all successful ventures and good communication coupled with rapport skills are foundational. Learning these introductory steps to creating a successful relationship is a necessity for any business owner and employee. How does one learn to communicate? NLP training. In today s society, where people respond based on emotion and impulse, it is important to learn how to convey the right message through your own body language and emotional responses.

Managers at all levels have to remember that when an employee walks through the door in the morning, they don't automatically turn off who they are. They bring their life with them. Consequently, a difficult relationship with a spouse can turn into difficulty with a boss or co-worker.

It is vital for businesses to understand this. What causes a business to increase or decrease its bottom line is the ability to create a culture to which people want to belong.

I see a business like a human body. It takes just one virus to enter the system and it can destroy the system. It is the health of the individuals which make up the health of the organization. If they are individually healthy then they create a healthy whole. If they bring into the organization a mindset of blame, victimization, poor communication and relationship skills then they create a cancer like attitude that can spread through their team.

Companies invest millions of dollars in great sales systems or marketing strategies, but forget that people implement the systems while carrying all the imprints from their past with them into the organization. To find a solution, organizations necessitate teaching their employees life skills, as well. People walk into a company with all their historical mindsets that unconsciously play out in the workplace dynamic, which may or may not benefit their work situation.

Through NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), we can give individuals mindset strategies for change and companies strategies to help their people. Individuals who desire success require confronting their own beliefs about themselves, equipped with the tools to change them to effect success.

One of the places we start is to find out what limiting beliefs stop a person from having a mind set for success. We live in a world of unlimited possibility and potential, yet, people only see what is possible for them under their own belief structure. We won t take action to explore how to have success if we don t believe we can.

One of the principle skills required is the ability to assign a different meaning to things. For a salesperson: is a no the perfect opportunity to find a "yes" somewhere else or a reason to be totally discouraged? You must learn not to bring the past into the present and let it colour the way you perform. When you reframe something using NLP training, you can change how you feel about it and have the emotional freedom to create a different response to a no in a sales situation.

Reframing is truly empowering. For someone who has experienced rejection traumas personally or in business, having the courage and knowledge to change those emotions from a negative charge to neutral means those limiting experiences lose their power over you. This allows you to walk into a fresh sale situation or a new relationship without dragging the baggage of the past with you.

If a salesperson walks into a room and has desperation in their mind it will reflect in their body language and the client will sense it. 55% of the meaning interpreted from our communication is our physiology, and our body doesn't lie. Our unspoken communication gives away much more than what we speak. People buy the product, but they also buy you. They buy the relationship. If you convey desperation, and are desperate to sell, the client knows your interest is more in the sales commission than in your service to them as a client.

NLP has a wide application not only for sales but management and leadership development as well. One of the most important things for any leader is to cultivate a clear code of honour, or ethics, which are in line with what is most important to them. A leader must define their core values and live by them in order to gain self empowerment and congruency which will result in receiving respect from their teams. Once you identify your core values and align your thought, word and behaviour to them you become the congruent leader your teams will respect and follow. How you speak, and how you act, confirm your values. You become someone - an individual with credibility and personal power.

Our values include qualities like love, honour, integrity, good health and courage. A leader will weaken their personal power when their behaviour is misaligned to their core values. Conversely, what makes people powerful leaders is their own code of honour lived with consistency.

I believe people like Oprah and Donald Trump are in tune with their core values, though they might be very different from each other. You could, of course, include people like the Dalai Lama and Gandhi on that list, too. What about Angelina Jolie for the attention she has brought to Darfur, Bob Geldof and Bono? Their actions are congruent with their core values making them respected and influential people.

Leadership and sales success begins first with a success mindset which supports the entrepreneur to take congruent actions in their business relationships, building their emotional genius, their own self esteem and their power to influence. You can reach this success but taking a humanistic approach in your business and life. NLP Certification training is the first step in understanding how to communicate to create an authentic relationship with others.