Connection is Everything
Connection.
It’s a word that has been coming up for me lately – over and over again.
I was talking to a friend whose husband works in sales. His company is known for being, how shall I say this – thrifty – and they are making changes to the ways the salespeople are being compensated. It looks like the idea is to eventually phase out those people and have their customers order everything online. The organization is making decisions based on dollars that aren’t making sense. Their business depends on the connection that is established and cultivated between customer and salesperson. There’s a loyalty that’s built. There’s value added information and services that an online store can’t provide. There’s a relationship that forms over time that says, “You’re important.”
There’s connection.
I received an email response from one of my blog subscribers thanking me for the video I shared on successful teams and for being in her inbox consistently. She told me she’s been following me for a few years and resonated with the work I do around changing organizational culture. She also shared she’s made some changes in how she’s showing up and it’s made a big impact on her team.
She feels connected – to them and her purpose.
Last weekend I watched the movie “The Biggest Little Farm” (a must see for everyone) and while there were many messages throughout the film, there was one that stood out for me:
Everything is connected to everything.
While I know this on an intellectual level, it was illustrated in such a beautiful and sometimes difficult way in this movie about an organic farm in California owned by a couple who had a dream of creating a fully sustainable farm in harmony with nature.
Each year there is a new challenge to deal with, outside of the usual drought and weather-related ones:
- Flocks of birds come to eat the stone fruit in their orchards, ruining thousands of pounds of fruit
- Snails cover the crops destroying acres and acres of produce
- Moles were destroying vegetation and threatening crops
With each new problem, these farmers had to figure out the solutions within the confines of using only what nature provides.
They did their research and found solutions:
- They brought in owls to scare away the birds
- They let ducks roam the fields and eat all the snails
- They brought in hawks to hunt the moles
Connection.
In our daily lives, we’re so busy.
There are work deadlines, projects to pitch, sales to be made, emails to send, teams to be led.
There are kids to raise, meals to make, workouts to do, parents to care for perhaps.
We spend most of the 24 hours we have each day at work.
Are you going through the motions or are you pausing to connect?
Connection.
It’s what every human craves from their first day of life to their last breath.
Connection is what makes everything else meaningful.
P.S. – Do you need help connecting to your team or helping them connect to one another? Teams who share connection are more likely to buy into the team vision, are more productive and get faster results. Schedule a call with me today to hear how creating connection can impact your team’s performance and create the results you want.