What makes us happy?
In 1938, Harvard researchers initiated a decades-long study to determine what factors contribute to human happiness.
The researchers gathered health records from 724 participants from all over the world and asked detailed questions about their lives at two-year intervals.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not career achievement, money, exercise or a healthy diet. The most consistent finding over this 85 year study was positive relationships.
Positive relationships make us happier, and help us live longer.
If more people understood the impact of positive relationships on their lives, they would think more carefully about who they mingled with and to prune those relationships that did not have a positive effect on their lives.
Everyone needs someone they can turn to when life gets scary, someone who challenges them, someone to confide in, a soul mate, someone with whom they can be intimate, someone who is wise, and someone who makes them laugh.
When we think of relationships, we tend to think of personal relationships, but given how much time we spend at work, we should also consider whether we have these types of relationships at work (although probably better not to have someone with whom to be intimate at work!).
If you find that there is no-one at work with whom you can laugh or turn to if things go wrong, maybe this is why you are not happy working. May be you have not invested enough time with your colleagues to get to know them so you don’t know who you can rely on and for what.
Being head of a small group at Simmons & Simmons, and the only partner, I did not have anyone in my group with whom I could confide about work matters or challenges, but I did have partners with whom I could confide. Philip Vaughan, who has since passed away, was one such person. One day, during a partner's away days, when I was going through a particularly unpleasant time during a divorce, he asked if I was ok. We left the conference for a coffee and I poured my heart out to him. His expertise was not family law or divorce, but he was a litigator. He came up with a straightforward solution which resolved my concerns and benefited the whole family for many years to come.
Partner’s away days are similar to networking. There are speeches, dinners, drinks and chat, but rarely do you learn anything about what your colleagues from different departments do for their clients, so not much cross-referral of business gets done.
A friend from the real estate department, at Simmons, Carol Hewson has said to me on several occasions that she was surprised that, given how many of the firm's clients had offices, little real estate litigation was cross-referred to her and her real estate colleagues from other sectors of the firm.
Away days for the senior staff of an professional organisation are essential to bring the firm together to discuss the brand vision and mission, and to update on progress and direction. But more could be done to cross-refer business from one sector to another.
In my thirty minute workshop on business development I explain why it is so difficult to cross-refer business from one sector to another and through your network. As a psychologist I drill down to the basics of communication; and in particular the innate fear of the influence of strangers and the five steps to remedy them. I have then used this research to define a methodology to communicate your message without resistance.
Rather than listen to outside speakers, I suggest in my workshop that professionals from the same organisation learn about Client Mapping and then break out into groups of 6, to share and record a case study. These break out groups are called Marketing Clusters.
Let’s take Carol as an example. Her ideal client could be the owner of a shopping centre involved in litigation over an aspect of the development, which resulted in a dispute over who was responsible for the additional expense and delay. What other professional services could this client need from the firm? Perhaps the owner required succession planning advice, commercial advice for the company, tax guidance, real estate counsel, and banking expertise.
Professionals from each of these sectors could form a Marketing Cluster, and each would share a three-minute case study on what problems Carol’s client could encounter and how they would deal with it.
These case studies are recorded and upload onto the Caroline’s Club digital platform where it can be accessed and shared with a link to Carol’s profile where anyone wanting to find more about what Carol did for her clients could also find links to her podcast, blogs and other recorded case studies.
Carol could also use these marketing links to a QR code and use this instead of a business card to convey what she does for her clients.
If you would like to know more about Caroline’s Club leave a message or contact me on 07979 188 288 to book a FREE 30-minute presentation and tour of the Club’s platform. It will tell you can build deeper more meaningful relationships with colleagues and contacts which can be used to cross-sell, network and build trust with clients.