People skills: Creating a sustainable business

Having good people skills and treating people we work with well is an important aspect of creating a sustainable business. This area, however, doesn’t get a lot of attention despite its presence behind many of our concerns about work and fairness.

You may think because you don’t have staff or work colleagues, people skills is not an area that is important for you. Before you rush off to ring your client, check an order with a supplier or call the bank manager, perhaps you could take stock of all the people who you deal with everyday.

As a soloist, the relationships you have with clients, suppliers, contractors, agencies or government departments could make or break your business.

Here are some recommendations about what you can do to improve your people skills and build a sustainable business.

Building the social capital of your business begins with you

Create healthy, sustainable practices for your own well-being
Are you continually burning the midnight oil? Are you looking after your work-life balance? Are you eating well and exercising or are you sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours before collapsing in front of the TV?

Enjoy what you do
It's now obvious that happiness not only affects your mood but also your health and your relationships. Do you still get the same kick out of your work as you did when you started?

Work to your potential
What are you really capable of? Instead of doing the minimum to get by, give yourself the opportunity to increase your knowledge and skills to meet this potential.

Create products and services that enhance life
When you look at what your clients ultimately gain from using your product or service, is it something that enhances their life or does it create short-term gain with long-term pain? Choose to be part of the solution to people's problems rather than creating more.

Give back to your community
Business success comes through your own efforts combined with the actions of others who champion, refer to and recommend you. Contributing to your community shares your success and acknowledges the roles of others. Donate, volunteer, offer a sliding scale or create opportunities for others. If you would like to read more on this topic, see Karen Morris’s article on why community involvement is important.

When we look after ourselves, create an environment where we can work at our best and actively contribute to our communities, we are developing our greatest resource.

Treat others how would like to be treated

When we begin applying the golden rule of treating others how we would like to be treated then creating sustainable relationships becomes attainable.

Treat all your business contacts with respect and fairness
Do you treat high end clients differently from pro-bono clients? Do you expect your suppliers to drop everything after hours to meet your needs? Are your sales and marketing practices empowering or fear-based?

Say thank you
Thank you is such a simple gesture that rarely gets used in business. When you are impressed with a supplier, thank them. You will stand out.

Support your local business owners
While we all want to maximise profits, often we guarantee future business by working with those who we can build relationships with. Not only are you helping to build your local economic community but when your type of service is required you will be the first one called.

Cross the cultural, gender and creed barriers
Step outside of only engaging the services of those who are similar to you. Enrich your life and business by meeting people you wouldn't normally come into contact with. Sometimes a different perspective is a very good thing.

How important do you think people skills are to creating a sustainable business? Who are your people and how do you treat them? How do you expect to be treated by others in business?

How you treat your People is the second P in assessing your business with a triple bottom line. The first P looks at the impact your business has on the Planet - see my previous article on seven ways to create a sustainable business.

Next we will look at the third P, Profits, and how they can be achieved in a sustainable business.

Trish Weston works with individuals and groups who wish to bring balance, purpose, and peace of mind to their lives. She also loves art, country livin’ and wants the whole world to adopt the four-hour day.

7 comments | Add your own

The DiSC (yes it is a little i) is a useful tool you can adopt when dealing with 'people'. There are many sources to learn about it - just GOOGLE. I personally like the podcasts on the DiSC personality profile distributed for free by MANAGER TOOLS. Heather Smith from Brisbane
Yes Heather, any tool/assessment that helps bring awareness of our own and other's personal styles is great. One of my faves is the MBTI (and its variations). It's great at helping me understand that other people see and approach things differently from me. And with that knowledge I can find the common ground needed to have a great relationship. That said, probably the simplest tool is just doing an assumption check. What assumptions am I making here? What assumptions might the other person be making? Always very illuminating. ;-) Trish Weston from Noosa Heads | Read my articles
I especially like the first point of "Create healthy, sustainable practices for your own well-being" since most of us will go all out to serve everyone else but feel a little guilty taking care of yourself. It's one of Steven Covey's seven habits "Sharpen the Saw".
So what are you doing over the Christmas break to take care of yourself? Rod Sherwin from Melbourne
As ye sow................... pre-dates DiSC, Myers-Briggs etc etc by a coupla' thousand years and is still the benchmark measure! Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles
Exactly Rod! What's the saying... Change begins with me? I was thinking the other day that I just love this time of year because I get to wind down, kick back and catch up with friends. It's my definition of taking care of myself - and having a good time to boot! But does it only have to be at this time of the year? What if that was my benchmark for every month? Could be an interesting experiment for 2008. Anyone want to join me?? Trish Weston from Noosa Heads | Read my articles
I worked for a business for about eight years before the owner retired and sold out. The new owner came in, changed the charge rates and even back charged on the new rates.
Xmas last year and the doors were shut for three weeks but not even a notice on the front door. There was totally no mention of Xmas in the office. No staff gathering, no drinks, no 'thanks for working here'. No nothing. Indeed there was not even a sighting of the new owner.
Next up it was found that he was not paying superannuation as decreed by the ATO. An on-going fight on that one. More recently, just before the election, new owner told the staff that they were going onto AWAs. A statement, not a would-like item. No doubt the aim was to lower wages.
The end result has been a walk out by no less than eight people in 18 months, from an office with six staff members.
The summary is that this smacks of a total lack of empathy and concern for staff members, the very experienced people who bring in the dollars to keep the firm up and running.
Be warned.
Dave Prossor from Melbourne
Treating others the way YOU would like to be treated is no longer good enough. Rather you should treat people the way THEY want to be treated. Keeping that concept firmly in mind creates a true custeomer and employee focus of engagement. Mark Wayland from Sydney

7 comments | Add your own

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