How to create a better work and business culture

Forming a strong connection with those you lead is crucial if you are to have success in your efforts. The stronger the bond, the more likely those around you will want to help you achieve your goals and objectives.

Here are some useful reminders that will help you form those strong connections with others.

1. Know yourself. To connect with others, you must first connect with yourself. Understand who you are and have confidence in yourself to communicate with others. Be willing to be a little vulnerable. It will demonstrate you are human.
2. Be open and sincere. Do not fake it. If you are giving information, be sincere. People will see through insincerity. Humans are better lie detectors than you give them credit for.
3. Know your audience. Invest the time and energy to learn people’s names. Be interested in their histories. Ask questions to discover their dreams. Once you understand them, you’ll be able to speak to what they care about.
4. Practice what you preach. Are you living your message? This is perhaps the faster way to connect with people because it builds your credibility. Without credibility, you might as well talk to a wall.
5. Talk with them where they are. Determine the best place and style of communication for those around you. Expect them to adapt to you, and you will soon be walking alone.
6. It’s not about you. Focus on them, not yourself. The most common problem of inexperienced and ineffective leaders is focusing on themselves and not the audience. Put your people first, and you will quickly overcome this issue. The only way to focus on them is to get to know them. Spend time with them and understand what drives them. Know what their desires are. Invest in your relationship with them.
7. Believe in their abilities. There is a difference between communicating with people because you think you have something valuable to say and communicating because you are talking about something that is important to them.
8. Offer them hope. Hope is when a leader creates a vision of a better tomorrow. If you understand the audience, you can show them how you plan to make their tomorrow better. You can provide that hope.

Leadership is not just about knowing what to do; it is also about communicating what you know with those around you. Communicating is one part of what you say and one part of how they receive it. Fostering a strong relationship with those you lead will help ensure you present the message in a way that, they will receive it, the way you intend.