Thursday, October 27, 2011

Rediscovering the Human Connection


I believe change in the sales world is right around the corner.

Once upon a time, before information technology, businesses had to rely on good old-fashioned, face-to-face human contact to build and maintain relationships with their employees and customers. This high level of personal interconnectedness fostered strong corporate cultures. An employee knew his or her company’s story, values, and beliefs—and so did customers. A strong corporate culture, in turn, fostered a sense of corporate responsibility from one generation to the next, a commitment to developing people and their careers.

But in recent years, things changed. As one of our clients put it, “When I was at IBM in the late eighties, the company felt a sense of responsibility to develop the next generation of leaders. Now, nobody does it.”

That change can be attributed, in part, to the advent of the Information Age. I.T. promised to make us all more connected, more informed, more productive. But if I.T. has broadened our capacity to connect, it has also led to a shallower brand of connection. We don’t have to connect person-to-person anymore, so we don’t.

Other changes in the business climate, such as deregulation, contributed to a broader shift in corporate America. The conceptual, right-brain outlook that once guided so many companies to success was replaced by a more myopic, left-brain outlook focused on profits, processes, systems, and technology. Corporate responsibility and personal connection took a back seat to P&L statements. Automated systems replaced people. Numbers trumped values and beliefs.

Even the sales profession, where interpersonal relationships have always been so important, felt the effects. The traditional emphasis on personal, emotional connection got shunted aside by automation, forecasts, and expertise. (We should know; we were the ones who developed the era’s prevailing, left-brain sales paradigm.)

The result? An economy-wide disconnect between companies and their employees and customers. Granted, a few companies, such as Southwest and Apple, managed to buck the trend, effectively communicating their values and preserving their identity. But the business world in general suffered a decline in its collective emotional intelligence.

I believe the pendulum is about to swing the other way. The current financial crisis has served as a wake-up call to corporate America. Businesses have been forced to acknowledge that there has to be a better way. Change is always slow, but the crisis brought the pain necessary to set change in motion. I predict 2012 will be a groundbreaking year, one in which corporate America will begin to raise its collective “Emotional Quotient (EQ)” once again. By looking to other professions and disciplines, we’ll start to relearn the value of working from our beliefs (why we do what we do), rather than from a tunnel-vision focus on profits (what we do). By heeding new scientific discoveries about human behavior, we’ll start to gain a better understanding of why people buy into ideas, how they’re influenced to change. By following the example of companies like Southwest and Apple, we’ll start getting back to sustainable, nourishing corporate cultures. In short, we’ll begin to rediscover the value of human, emotional connection and its capacity to enrich not only our personal and professional lives, but also our bottom line.

-Ben Zoldan