Stop Networking and Start Building Social Capital

The trusted connections one has built up over time are known as “social capital.” It acts as a human library of resources we can access anytime to gain or share information, knowledge, advice, and introductions. Social capital is a result of long-term, continuous relationship-building and one of the most powerful resources a person can have. You build social capital by always putting the other person’s goals first and foremost in every business relationship.

Lewis Howes, author of The School of Greatness, refuses to network. “I just connect and add value,” he says. “Networking is more transactional. It’s more focused on getting a result for yourself as opposed to thinking of how you can be of service to the other person in front of you that you meet and genuinely have interest in their needs as opposed to your needs.”

Connecting is about finding out what the other person needs and how you can help. According to Keith Ferrazzi, “The words networking and networker can suggest a self-serving purpose: that you’re in it to see what you can get out of others. A connector is reaching out to form an alliance with the other person, offering to be of service first and foremost. Networkers like to work the room and collect cards, but those cards don’t really mean much if the other person isn’t willing to take your calls because all you did was schmooze and move on.”

The late great Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, said it best, “If you are able to figure out how to be truly interested in someone you meet, with the goal of building up a friendship instead of trying to get something out of that person, the funny thing is that almost always, something happens later down the line that ends up benefiting either your business or yourself personally. Stop trying to “network” in the traditional business sense, and instead, just try and build up the number and depth of your friendships, where the friendship itself is its own reward.”

Digital Intelligence Up, Emotional Intelligence Down

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Because of the digital revolution, many members of the younger generations lack the necessary people skills of previous generations. Yet they are now leading start-ups that have developed quickly into leading companies. This will only accelerate the growing number of relationship-disadvantaged businesses.

In a TED Talk, hospitality entrepreneur Chip Conley addressed this phenomenon: “I believe looking at the modern workplace, the trade agreement of our times is opening up these intergenerational pipelines of wisdom so that we can all learn from each other. Almost 40 percent of us in the US workforce have a boss that is younger than us and that number is growing quickly. Power is cascading to the young like never before because of our increasing reliance on digital intelligence. We are seeing young founders of companies in their early 20s scaling them up to global giants by the time they get to 30. And yet we expect these young digital leaders to somehow miraculously embody the relationship wisdoms we older workers have had decades to learn. It’s hard to microwave your emotional intelligence.”

Make no mistake, the declining social skills in our society, is the responsibility of businesses to fix

This is not an innate skill employees start their careers with. In order to compete, it comes back to relationships—building strong, solid, trusting relationships based on emotional connection, compassion, and empathy. Obviously, though, this all depends on having employees whose skills are adapted to the Relationship Economy.

*Related – The #1 way to Teach your Employees to have Incredible Customer Empathy

Mike Rayburn Performing at the 2021 Customer Service Revolution

We are so thrilled to announce that Mike Rayburn will be speaking at this year’s Customer Service Revolution. Mike Rayburn is back! One of the highest rated presenters we have ever had at the Customer Service Revolution. Mike teaches innovation, change and peak performance using world-class guitar and humor to create a transformational experience and generate exponential results. He has headlined Carnegie Hall, Las Vegas, and performed more than 5,000 presentations in 20 countries on five continents.

Rayburn is a music/internet pioneering entrepreneur, feature artist on Sirius/XM and Artist in Residence at High Point University. His more than 1000 corporate clients include most of the Fortune 100, 500, and the top five, including multiple presentations for Walmart, Exxon, Wells Fargo, Lincoln Financial, UnitedHealth, IBM, Siemens, Verizon, Ford, Nationwide, MetLife, PepsiCo, Chevron, Sony, Allianz, and Liberty Mutual.

PODCAST Episode 045: Creating a World Class Internal Culture

Chief Revolution Officer John DiJulius of The DiJulius Group talks with Jess Pischel, Customer Experience Consultant for The DiJulius Group and Dean of the Customer eXperience Executive Academy. John and Jess talk about how critical it is for companies to focus on creating a World-Class Internal Culture. This culture should be communicated from not only leadership to employees but employees to employees and department to department as well. Listen to Podcast 45.

Register for the 2021 Customer Service Revolution Oct 5-6, Cleveland Ohio

We are offering both in-person and virtual options for the two-day 2021 Customer Service Revolution. For the ultimate experience and peace of mind of our in-person attendees, we will take every safety precaution. As a result, we will be limiting the number of in-person tickets that we can sell. Our virtual tickets will also provide access to every speaker that the in-person event will.

Your future success will be around the customer experience strategy and the percent of customers you create that cannot live without your company.