If you want your business to stick around and make a lasting difference, it’s the quality of your connection with others, rather than the quantity, that truly counts.
Research from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) indicates that only 50% of businesses survive beyond the first 5 years. The businesses that do remain successful and grow over the long term, are the ones who build strong and authentic engagement with employees, colleagues, networks and of course current and potential clients and customers.
Engagement not only gives you the edge when it comes mastering the art of selling your products, achieving your business vision and retaining employees, but it is also key to entrepreneurial success.
Keep your business engaged and growing with these 6 key tools:
1. Forget formula
Obsession with having the “right” image and being perfect is one of the biggest ways we reduce authenticity in our connection with others. There is no algorithm or correct procedure to effectively engage. There is no perfect script or right answer. In fact, the more you try to seek the perfect formula, the further away you’ll actually be from meaningful connection and authentic interaction.
Successful engagement is contingent upon letting your true voice come across in everything you do.
Ask yourself, “Have I been trying to get it right instead of being me?” Anywhere you are trying to do it the right way or get it right, you are falling prey to external ideals of what works, rather than being authentic in your choices and doing what works for you.
2. Lower the barriers
Most of us are taught to think that if we so somehow do get in right in the eyes of the external world, we won’t get judged and it will be easier to succeed. However, continually judging and comparing our choices with others creates barriers, because you will hide any part of yourself that you don’t think aligns with these judgements and become less potent as a result. Vulnerability, not perfection, is far more powerful. It is also easier, because to achieve it, you just have to start letting the real you shine through.
When you lower the barriers by removing your need to be perfect and letting go of your fear around being judged, you are freer to be yourself when engaging and acting with others and your business.
Ask this question daily, “If I were choosing what truly works for me and my business, what would I choose?”
3. Don’t give judgment any power
Anything you make significant you will give it power over you. In business and in life, you need to acknowledge that the only thing that can stop you, is you. Most of us are taught to avoid negative judgments and gain positive judgment. But it just isn’t possible — and in truth, it doesn’t matter. Judgment will only stop you if you let it.
Being liked and agreed with is not the ultimate key to success! Being authentic is. And the moment you stop caring about judgment and what others think, people find you more irresistible.
If you do feel judged by anyone, including if you are judging yourself, break the habit by saying: “Interesting point of view they/I have this point of view.” Acknowledge that any judgment you have, or anyone else has, is just one perspective at one moment in time. There is no right or wrong one. Multiple points of view can and do exist about any topic, and that is not actually a problem.
4. Get joyful
Being authentic isn’t a serious business. If you aren’t having fun with you, do you think anyone else will? A positive attitude and demeanor will affect you and those around you. This isn’t about ‘faking’ positivity until you make it. Genuinely undertaken in daily life, being joyful comes through in everything you do and say. Start adding more of what makes you joy. What is easy and fun for you? What do you enjoy? What makes you laugh? What brings levity and lightness to your world? Choose more of it. When you are authentically joyful and having fun with what you do, people want to come to your party, to your business and whatever it is you have going on.
5. Invite people into your business by being interested in them
So much of the time we put the pressure on ourselves to be interesting to others so that they will want to engage with us. There’s an easier way: being interested. Ask about and listen to what matters to others, get to know them and be curious about how they see the world.
Authentic engagement is not just about expressing yourself in a relatable way, it’s about receiving from and listening to others. When someone is curious and interested in you and not about them, have you noticed the effect it has on you? Being interested is what makes you most interesting. If you are interested in others, they will always remember how that felt. Apply that in your business and you will find your interest in others will not only give you valuable insights and information that you wouldn’t have gained otherwise, and it also invites them to curiosity about you and what you are creating in the world.
6. What contribution can you be?
The ability to be both a contribution to those around you and receive the contribution they desire to gift, will dynamically increase your engagement with others, but also inspire trust, innovation, and more. The best way to know how to contribute to others, and what they desire to contribute to you, is ask! Develop a daily mindset of: “What contribution can I be here today — to me, my business, my staff and clients?” This is a way of welcoming inspiration for choices you can take. Also ask, “What contribution can I and my business receive today?” This question opens you to receiving contribution to your business from people, places and avenues you may not have previously considered.
Engagement is a two-way street. It is about removing the limits of judgment so that you are willing to show up and express yourself authentically in all areas of life and business, making the choices that will bring that authentic expression to the fore while empowering others to have the same possibility. If you do this, you and your business will not only be genuinely engaging and more successful, it will also make a difference in the world in ways you never considered possible.
