Eric is a great resource for growing as an internal leader… He cares that his clients succeed.
Exiting at Someone Else’s Floor
I met a businessman at 8:50 a.m. after a seminar. We started a conversation that continued on the elevator ride down. However, he was exiting on the sixth floor, while I was heading to the lobby. I had a 9:30 meeting, but we were in the middle of talking. So, I stepped out on the sixth floor with him. Five minutes later our conversation was over, and I was again heading down on the elevator, this time by myself. I made my meeting with two minutes to spare.
An email showed up in my box later that day from that same man. He wanted to talk about hiring me as his coach. When we got together, he said “By the way, I wanted to tell you what got me interested in working with you. When l got off that elevator, most people would have just waved and said call me. You cared enough to step out with me in order to finish our conversation.”
Performance Principle: Occasionally, we all need to exit the elevator on someone else’s floor. We live in an efficiency-obsessed culture that focuses on squeezing as much as possible into each minute rather than getting as much as possible out of each minute. We need to take the time to finish conversations, to ask others about themselves, and to show genuine interest in what interests them rather than focus solely on what interests us.
People do business with people they like. People like people who take an interest in THEM. Take five minutes to show an interest in someone else. Get out of the elevator on their floor. It’s a better way to live life whether or not the person ever responds to you. And often, the interest you show in them will result in their being drawn to you.
Questions to Consider:
- Who is one person that needs a little bit more time from you?
- How can you show genuine interest in this person?
- When will you do it?
