Nov 18, 2009

When You Truly Understand Engagement

What is engagement? ...a question which I get asked often and this week I have truly understood the meaning of the word. For those who don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I have not being posting or editing podcasts as my nana had a massive stroke and I have been at her bedside since last Friday - not sure at the moment who looks worse me or her!

But during this time I have realised that engagement is just about two words....time and caring. The nurses have been wonderful here at Scarborough hospital, not because they have loads of money to spend on making us comfortable, not because of targets, not because of goals but because they provide time and they care. 

It is a wonderful lesson for business...it is not what you spend in terms of money on people which creates that emotional engagement it is the power of words, it is the willingness to invest time. What are the little engagement tricks?

  • People remembering your name, remembering personal facts and talking to you about them.
  • People coming and asking if there is anything you need, anything that will help you.
  • People listening to your concerns even when there is nothing that they can do to stop nature taking its course
  • People smiling and making you smile....even in these traumatic hrs laughter is a wonderful stress reliever.
  • Friends making 3 hr round trips to bring you clothes..not because they have to, but because they want to....

I always get annoyed when people say there is no budget to spend on "engagement"...you don't need a budget, you need a heart and you need a passion to want to connect with people....as Nana herself used to say

"Money buys things, your heart creates relationships"

18 Nov 2009 23:30:13 | Employee Engagement

2 Comments

wedding favors

"engagement" means a commitment to something. For example, if you solve a business problem, service problems for your prospect and stay within budget, will you earn the prospect's commitment? Don't assume this is so until you state this rule of engagement and the prospect agrees.

Posted by: wedding favors | Nov 20, 2009 at 04:26 AM

Promotional Products

That is a great article, time and care. The more I think about those two words, the more I realize that they are very applicable to engagement. Well done, keep up this good work.

Posted by: Promotional Products | Nov 27, 2009 at 08:28 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
The True Meaning of Life Learning happens, not only through reading and in classrooms, but in everyday life. This week I have had boiler problems (insert your own joke here!) and today a wonderful British Gas engineer came out, as always I got into conversation with him and found he had traced his family tree. At this point he said something which made me take stock of leadership, of marketing, of branding...well of life. He said "When you look back at your family tree, it is not what they did, it is how they lived which teaches you the most" There were three lessons for me You can learn from reading, from teaching but we should never forget how much we learn from life itself. Learning is about listening and understanding. We learn more about ourselves, our products, our services by the 'how' not the 'what' but our time invested is often spent the opposite way round. We talk about what went wrong, what lessons have we learned, what do we need to differently....we also need to look at the how...to truly grow and learn. If we are open to learning...we can learn from each person we speak to, each person we meet. Life is short. When we deliver real meaning to the world, we have looked at both the what we can do and how we can do it. Learning isn't about facts in a sense, though they are important, learning is about how to apply what we have learned.
PREVIOUS POST
Heart to heart - why its good to feel in business Communication has always been the lifeblood of society and the need for communication never changes. Look at me tonight sat by Nana's bedside in hospital and every now and again despite her massive stroke, her eyes tell me she needs love, she needs comfort, she needs me to hold her. Her tool is not social media, it is her eyes than convey that emotion in a way which creates engagement. Communication is vital and social media has in many ways made communication easier. My worry though is two-fold Because there are tools to make it easier, that does not make communication better. In fact I would argue that social media has almost commoditised it...to create a premium you must invest time and energy into not just the tools - but the message and the emotion. The tools - be it social media, letter, advertising, or even eye contact from a sick bed - doesn't matter....what matters is 'how you made me feel' I think people think of it more as e-motion...as in must move towards electronic messages, than emotion which is about engagement. Why? Sitting here I think the hardest part is ensuring that you speak from the heart to the heart. You need to be brave enough to feel in the modern business world and I, for one, know that the more you feel the riskier it is to be hurt.....but just like the love between two people - if you don't risk being hurt, you will never be loved and.. If you don't feel in business then people will feel no loyalty to you

Anna Farmery

Social Marketing Architect, Speaker, Author and in spare time completing PhD on the future of the social business model

The Typepad Team

Search

Become a Fan

Connect with me on

Recent Comments