Do you ever ask your clients “How am I doing?” Your question could relate to project delivery, client satisfaction, and responsiveness to their requests or anything else that impacts the outcome of the project or the quality of your relationship. I strongly recommend you stay in contact with your clients on a regular basis to ensure you are meeting their expectations and are reaching the expected outcomes. If there is misalignment, you will be able to address the issue before it ruins the relationship. The next time you interact with your client try listening to your Head, Heart and Gut to really hear what the people are saying to discover how they feel at a deep level.
I have developed a simple “human connection” model using the Head, Heart and Gut analogy to help people connect with their clients, colleagues, partners, friends, etc. Here’s the summary of the human connection model:
The head works on logic such as facts, figures, data and other objective factors.
The heart is addressed through emotions such as feelings, touch, relationships and subjective factors.
The gut responds to instinct, intuition and other subtle and often unconscious clues and signals.
It is important to listen to the messages or information all three sources are providing. For example; when you ask your client “how am I doing?” They may say you are meeting all the deadlines and staying on budget (head) however some of their employees don’t feel they can speak openly and candidly to you (heart) and have concerns about the long term relationship because they don’t believe you are in alignment (gut).
Think of a personal situation where facts or information seemed to be pointing towards success but at an emotional or intuitive level you had serious concerns. Did the project finish well or was your gut feeling accurate? How about this scenario. You get a stock tip from a friend and everything sounds great until you find out who the players are and their reputation for shady deals. You become emotionally unsettled and have a bad gut-feel and don’t invest because you don’t trust them.
According to research by Nielsen, 92 percent of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than all other forms of marketing. The same study found that less than half of all customers consider traditional paid advertising to be credible. It’s safe to say that the head, heart, gut connection has to be very strong before people will endorse someone.