I was at the Arthur And
ersen Alumni event the other night and had the chance to connect with some of my friends and colleagues from the past (spent almost the entire “90’s with this group of people). What a great event and what great people. I still can’t believe how it came tumbling down – but that’s the topic for another day. But it was fascinating to see how many different directions everyone went, well outside of traditional accounting.
But one conversation was particularly endearing and I wanted to share more about the “process” of what went on because it is key for Leaders in any organization to take note of. There was a lady, we’ll call her Cathy, who started talking to 2 or 3 of us. She started with the usual, greetings, how’s it going, the lousy weather in Seattle, and all the other introductory waste of time’s people start with in a conversation. But when those ran out I simply asked her, “So what is ‘really’ going on in your life that has you totally elated or totally freaked out right now?”
This is where it started to get “real”. She started talking about her job and that it was going well, blah, blah, blah. That lasted about 2 minutes. Then she said, “But right now I am scared to death and feel a dark cloud is hanging over me every day.” You could have heard a pin drop in the little group around her. Jaws dropped, eyes got big, people stopped checking their phones, and all eyes were upon Cathy. She simply started telling us the story of what has been going on in her life over the past few years – the good, the bad, and of course the ugly. Job loss, divorce, cancer, kids – you name it and it felt like she had gone through it.
The specifics might change but all of us have the same “story” in one degree or another – but do we tell anyone? Most don’t. But when Cathy started telling her story – with passion and emotion, the audience was glued to every word. And the audience grew – now there were 5, no 10 people around her. The more TRANSPARENT she became, the more the audience grew and the more intently people were listening. It was the only conversation in the room that had a crowd and the only one, I might note, where no one, and I mean no one was looking at their phone.
Translate this into your business. If you want to create an audience that is “connected” to you because of who you are, you won’t get there by “friend collecting” or “promoting” yourself – you get there because you are more transparent and real than your competitors. Reality TV isn’t the dominant driver of ad revenue on the airwaves for nothing. People want to know whats behind the person, business, organization, association, etc. It has become the new MAGNET to draw people closer and tighter. Playing it “close to the vest” is dead in the new social world. Get over it, there are fewer and fewer secrets out there today – and that’s a good thing.
