Think, act, and interact

Every business owner, leader, or professional who seeks outside help (coaching, consulting, and training) really wants one thing: different interactions. Those could be internal, with their employees, between team members, or during internal meetings. They could be external with clients, prospects, candidates, or etc. Regardless, owners and leaders want themselves and their people to have better interactions.

This concept seems pretty simple—pick the interaction we want to get better with. Let’s take sales calls as an example, then do some coaching, consulting, and training to focus on better sales calls.

So, why does this not work? Why do the vast majority of people who invest in outside help not get the results they want? Why are they often frustrated that they did not get the different interactions they were hoping for?

This is all because the interaction is step 3 of getting better. In order for someone to have better interactions, they first have to change their actions. Actions are what and how we do things. The way we ask questions (our tone, body language, and etc.) is a great example of our actions. Our actions will directly affect the responses we get from others, which makes it an interaction.

The concept of changing actions also seems simple. However, there is a huge barrier for people changing actions. In order to change our actions, we must first change our thoughts. Our thoughts are inside of us and truly drive our actions. If thoughts are negative, such as, “This person will never buy from me,” the actions around the sales call will not lead to the interaction desired.

For people to have better interactions, they must first have different thoughts. Those different thoughts will lead to different actions, which will lead to different interactions.

Again, this seems like a simple thing, but most business owners and leaders struggle greatly with this, often because they have never thought about it. They, like most of us, just want to fast forward to the end and hope there is a magic, quick fix.

Unfortunately, there is not a magic pill. We have to do the correct things in the right order to truly get the change we want to have. For this to work best, it has to start with the senior team or business owners. If they don’t change their thoughts, actions, and interactions, the others in the organization will not be able to change theirs either.

A good way to focus on this is with these three words: think, act, and interact. If we put them big and bold and in that order, we can begin to work on them correctly.

Are the thoughts you and your people have helping or hurting the actions of each of you? Do those actions limit or accelerate the interactions you desire? If this is not an issue for your team, then congratulations! You are well on your way to growing a bigger, better business. However, if you do not know with 100% certainty, think about how much it is costing you. If you don’t know or don’t like the answers, find a business growth consultant who can help.