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The Power of Connection with Rik Rushton
With Rik Rushton, International Speaker, Life Coach and high-performance sports coach
It’s ironic isn’t it? At a time when we have never been more connected with technology, many of us actually find talking to people or finding the five seconds of courage to ask for the business terrifying. International speaker and high-performance sports coach, Rik Rushton however is here to help - he really knows how to communicate, one conversation at a time. He says, “The quality of my life's going to be dictated by the quality of my connections."
Based on his years of working with individuals, corporations and multinational companies, he has penned 'The Power of Connection' to share his thoughts on how everyone can improve professional performance, personal relationships and their outlook on life in general.
Tune in before the broadcast
Rik says, “There are no successful hermits. We all need other people, and success is not a solo performance." Being yourself however is not always the right fit when attempting to communicate with a wide audience. He says, being yourself is “...fantastic but that's going to connect you with probably two out of every ten people you connect with, on a daily basis, because not everyone's like us. I found we had to be a little bit like a chameleon. Not to be less authentic, but just to change the way we communicate."
He adds, “We've got to tune in before we broadcast. Not everything is Triple J, not everything is FM Hard Rock - some of it could be Talk Radio AM, so we've got to be aware of how the other person wants to have the communication exchange, and it's not always the way we prefer it. So I'm a very fast talker, I use my hands a lot, but some people we speak to speak very softly. So I speak like a double espresso, they speak like a double decaf, and somewhere in between there we've got to find that common ground, build a reality bridge. I want to connect with everybody, not just those who are just like me."
Adjust your personal programming
To be able to find the right way to communicate it may be necessary to adjust your personal programming. Rik says to focus on understanding who you are talking to. Find out what matters to them and on what basis have they made decisions. Rik advises rather than going to a listing presentation and saying, 'Hi, thanks for the opportunity to be here. I'm number one by RateMyAgent' or, 'I'm number one by REB's Top 100', go in and say, 'Lee, Robyn, thanks for the opportunity to be here today. This selling process that you're about to go through has very little to do with me, even less to do with our company - it’s got everything to do with you two and what you're trying to achieve. So help me understand here, what are you trying to achieve with this move?' Then they tell me what they're trying to achieve with the move, and I'll say, 'Ideally, what would you like to get out of today's meeting? And ideally what would you like to get out of our relationship going forward if I was to be your chosen agent to move forward?'
It is these kinds of conversations that establish rapport. Rik says, “Once you've got rapport you open up far more doors."
Listen and be silent
Rik is emphatic, “When you go through a fast food drive-thru you give your order. The first thing the person on the other end does is repeat back to you what have you just ordered from me, so I can deliver it to you. I think real estate's not too dissimilar to that. I don't want to dumb it down, I'm talking about smartening up. The client will tell you how to get their listing, if you're actually listening. They don't want to hear where you're stuck up in REB's top 100 or RateMyAgent - they already know that anyway. What they want to know is, are you someone? They don't even want to know what you do, they just want to know, does what you do work for us in our situation at the moment?"
The power of please and thank you
Being sincere and nice to everyone is noticed. Rik says, “When someone tries to connect with me or they want to sell me something, or want to get in business with me, or want me to invest in their company, or want me to train their people, the first thing I do is I take them somewhere. A café, a restaurant, or somewhere - because I want to see how they interact with third parties. So if they're nice to me 'cause they want to do business with me, but they're rude to the waiter - they're not a nice person. So I just find always saying please and thank you, the power of gratitude, tells us a lot about the people that we're trying to connect with."
He adds, “There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and it takes one to say thank you. So who could you say thank you to today? I had a mentor who said, 'If you just took five business cards and find five people to thank before you left the office... Just do that, and if you do that five days a week that's 25 a week, that's 100 a month. That's over 1000 a year if you work 10 months in the year. Five thank you notes a day, that would be very easy to do'. Also easy not to do, but easy to do. So I'm very big on saying thank you. I have to thank my parents for that; they taught me to always say please and thank you."
Improve the quality of your connections - Buy Rik's Book
Rik Rushton The Power of Connection: How to Become a Master Communicator in Your Workplace, Your Head Space and at Your Place ISBN-10: 0730349470
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Connection-Become-Communicator-Workplace
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