In this episode, we are going to be talking about the power of the greeting, how you can build rapport with only a little bit of effort, why you need to prioritize spending time greeting people and how it is going to help you as a leader and you will see some incredible results.
Prefer to watch the video, Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T015Q98pnWw
The Power of the Greeting
It is often talked about in leadership that we need to prioritize relationships. Building good relationships with our teams and our people is crucial to having them want to trust us, know us, like us and follow us. I think most leaders understand this but one of the common bits of feedback I get from a lot of leaders is that it takes time to build relationships. Sometimes we are so under the pump or we are so busy and do not get the time to spend with our team, building that relationship the way that we need to. I understand this. I am a leader of an organization, I get busy and sometimes I do not get the time I wish I could have with my team.
“Bite Size Conversations”
One of the things that I have learned over the last few years is how to build relationships in bite-sized pieces. You do not have to deep dive every time you have a conversation with somebody. Sometimes your conversations can be very short and to the point. What you will find is that if you consistently engage with people in these bite-sized moments, over time, you will deepen the relationship.
Let me explain this to you. One of the practices that I have adopted in the organization that I lead, which is a Church- a not-for-profit charity- is that the first hour of my morning when I am in the office is all about going, seeing and saying hello to all my staff and volunteers. So all I do is simply put my stuff in my office, I do not sit down at my desk, I do not open my emails or anything like that. I just go from office to office greeting people. I will usually stop long enough to say “Hey how are you ? What’s going on with you today ?” I might spend five to ten minutes, sometimes it is only two or three minutes, they do not have to be long interactions but what I am doing is just touching base with each of my volunteers and staff members to let them know that I actually care about them.
Learn People’s Names
One of the things that you need to do is learn people’s names. When you are talking to people or when you are greeting people make sure you know their names. The power of knowing someone’s name should not be underestimated. When people hear their name it shows them that you care about them, it shows them that you see them as an individual. You will find that they want to respond to you when you learn their name so that is the first thing.
Ask How They Are
The second thing is asking how they are, inquiring about their personal well-being but there is a little trick to this. When inquiring about their personal well-being you have to stop long enough to actually hear from them. Most people will want to share something with you whether they are not well or they have got a family member that is not well or maybe they are doing great or going away on a holiday, whatever it is they are going to have something they want to share with you.
A lot of the time what we do is we use, “How are you” as a greeting and we never stop long enough to hear the answer. If you can get into the habit of stopping, greeting somebody by name, asking them how they are and then waiting to hear the response, what you will find is that it shows the person that you are greeting that you actually care about them. It shows that you are not just doing a throwaway greeting but you are actually stopping long enough to say, “Hey tell me about you.” Over time, these brief interactions will build a bigger picture of the people that you work with.
Every time you talk to them they will share a little snippet of information and the more often you do it the bigger the picture you get about them. They will tell you about their weekend, they will tell you about their children, tell you about their upcoming holiday or their sick grandma, whatever it might be and this helps you to build a bigger picture of the person. So every time you greet them you can say things like “Hey how is that situation you told me about yesterday ? Did you get a result?” or “How is your mom doing, I heard she was sick?” By doing so, you are asking meaningful poignant questions about their well-being.
John Maxwell says “They won’t care what you know until they know how much you care”
This is a really easy way to show that you care. When you greet your people on a regular basis, when you know their name and you ask them how they are and wait long enough to hear the reply, you are showing them that you care about them as individuals and that you want to know more. The more you build that trust with your people the more they will share with you and the more they will grow to like you.
Very regularly since I have come to this organization I have people saying to me, “We love the way that you just come and say ‘Hello’ “. When I first started, I was not trying to do anything special. I was just trying to get to know everybody but the feedback has been overwhelming and people have really responded and said, “Hey we love that you come down and spend a couple of minutes with us and talk to us.” The result is that it has helped to build loyalty within the organization, it has helped to build trust between me and the people that I lead and it has helped me to get things done a lot quicker and a lot more efficiently.
When you have got a team that is behind you and trusts you, they are not going to resist any changes or the things that you are leading them towards as often or as ferociously as they might if they did not trust you. So do not underestimate the power of the greeting. Take half an hour out of every morning to just walk around, talk to your team, get to know them, greet them, listen to what they are going through and you will find that it builds great relationships. Over time it builds great trust and it will make you a far better leader because you will have influence, you will have their backing and you will have their support.
I hope that was really helpful for you, remember if you want to dig deeper on leadership I have got an online leadership course called “Leading for Success” and that takes a deep dive into how you can be a more effective leader wherever you are leading. Check out the link in the description below and if you are viewing this for the first time hit subscribe and then you will actually get to see what we are doing each week and you will be able to share it with others who may benefit as well.
If you would like to learn more about effectively growing in your leadership, why not check out our FREE Goal setting guide. See below for details.
5 Steps to Set Goals that Work https://leadcommunicategrow.com/free-goal-setting-guide/
Online Leadership Course: https://calmer-classrooms.thinkific.com/courses/leading-for-success
