How Do You Serve Those That You Help?

I am not sure how closely you may have looked at the quote that adorns the Absolute Transitions website this month from Deepak Chopra.  If you look at it closely, you will notice it speaks of a two-person connection, a giver, and a receiver.  When you are asked such questions as “Where do you work?” or “What do you do for a living?” how do you answer them?

Are you an individual that only tells others your position title, the name of the company where you work, and not much else.  Or do you show enthusiasm for what you do?  Do you highlight the customers whom you serve?  Are you able to describe how you help those individuals, (whether external customers to the company, or internal customers that you support across department within your firm)?  Is your listener able to gain an understanding of the challenges you face, the actions you take and the results you look to achieve for others?

We are in the middle of the holiday season in many parts of the world.  Perhaps you are seeing family that you only may see a couple of times a year.  Or maybe you are attending events with individuals from other work environments or companies as part of a celebration sponsored by a professional association or club to which you belong.  These are times of which you can both take advantage and expand your network.  You never know where a productive conversation may lead, (for either you or the person to whom you are speaking).

How may these conversations be productive?  If you only look at the person to whom you are speaking, and have your mind stop at that point, you are overlooking the entire network of individuals to whom that person is connected.  Many years ago, I heard a story in a job search support group of a career coach who encouraged their client to tell everyone they knew they were looking for a position at Time Warner in New York.  The coach said to the client, tell everyone you know, including grandparents and aunts and uncles.  While dubious of the advice, the client said to themselves they would try it.  When talking to an aunt who lived in Chicago, the client mentioned their desire to work at Time Warner.  The aunt said, I believe I can help you with that.  Unknown to the niece speaking to the aunt, the aunt had a bridge partner whose son was a Vice President at Time Warner.  A couple of phone calls later, the niece had an opportunity to interview at Time Warner. Again, it is not only the person to whom you are speaking to with whom you may be connecting, but the individuals they know, and perhaps even the individuals those second connections know.

However, do those with whom you are speaking able to present you, explain what you do and the problems that you solve?  Think about both your immediate family members and perhaps your extended family, (brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces, nephews, grandchildren).  Do you really know what they do as part of their work life?  What are the problems they solve?  Or do you barely know perhaps the name of the company at which they work (if that), and not much else.  If the answer to these questions is I don’t truly know, perhaps some more inquisitiveness is needed on both your parts.

At the same time, again if you can both enthusiastically share what you do as part of your work to help others, perhaps support it with stories (individuals find it a lot easier to remember stories than technical details of the job), that will prompt them to think of you when something occurs in their life that connects you with a person they may be with.  If you are in transitions, growing a business, or looking to grow your network, plant a seed to your willingness to want to continue to get to connect with others.  Those connections could become potential customers, referral sources or resources for you in helping with the operation and success of your business or job search.

As the Deepak Chopra quote indicates, giving and receiving helps to build your connections.  Those connections allow you to help and serve others, stay active in the pursuits you love to do and help you and others to grow.  However, it all starts with you clearly expressing the message of how you help to serve those with whom you connect in your day-to-day activities.  

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