A.K.A. Arrogance Detracts From Expertise
I’ve seen a lot of this going around lately. It’s a viral outbreak that doesn’t have a place in social business.
Before we can begin we have to give some meaning to the idea of social business. I found a definition that I liked particularly well on the Social Business Forum. It reads:
Social Business is a recent but popular trend revolutionizing the way companies function and generate value for all the constituents (stakeholders, employees, customers, partners, suppliers).
The premise of this mini-series is that the vitally important third group in that definition, the customers, often get the shaft – whether intentional or not – from the “experts” with whom they choose to do business.
Because I Said So syndrome is insidious, incredibly contagious and something we all need to battle every day. I see it manifest itself in a variety of forms, creating a laundry list of symptoms, including:
There are a host of other symptoms and offshoot illnesses that accompany Because I Said So syndrome and they can easily get out of control and morph into even stealthier sickness if we’re not careful.
So, how does a social business practitioner fend off the syndrome? That’s what we’ll be discussing all week. But above all, the basic precaution is to remember that social business is about the conversation and the relationship. Conversations are two way, at least, depending on the number of parties involved. Listening should, at the very least, take up 50% of your time as a participant in the conversation – often more. And relationships are built on mutual respect, not the flaunting of one half of the relationship’s supposed expertise and attributes.
More on the subject tomorrow…hope you’ll come along for the ride!