Results Through Relationships: Building Trust, Performance, and Profit Through People

Chapter 9. Give More than People Expect

Want to learn something that is well within your control and that yields bottom-line business results?

Develop the consistent habit of giving more than you currently give.

Cynics and contrarians snap at this statement like a squirrel pinned in a corner and say, "If you're giving because you're told to, it doesn't work and it's manipulative."

Newsflash: Yes it does work! It's not manipulative; it's a brilliant behavioral strategy. Giving is making an investment in relationships just as physical fitness is an investment in your physical and mental well-being. Think about the times you don't feel like working out, but you exercise anyway. And how do you feel after your workout? Great!

Giving is an exercise. In romantic relationships and personal friendships as well in your business connections, we'd all be big liars if we didn't say there are times when we don't feel like giving or helping, but we do it anyway. And how do you feel after you give? Great!

My opening argument for this chapter is that you may have things backward. People feel a certain way and their behavior follows as if they don't have a choice. I challenge you to do the opposite. Commit to your behavior and earn the feeling of gratitude in your own investment simply because you did the right thing. Oh, and this behavioral strategy is almost a mathematical probability for making more money, expediting trust, and improving the work-place performance of those around you. Let's find out ...