Consultants often get a bad reputation. If you’ve seen the popular Showtime series, House of Lies, you can understand why. While we cannot speak for all communications consultants, we’d like to clear the air.
You may have already read Bryan’s post about our core values (if not, do so after you finish this). They are:
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Your work matters
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Leave it better than you found it
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Show gratitude
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Make new mistakes together
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Challenge accepted
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Geek out
How we approach our work doesn’t tell you why we do what we do. Why are we passionate about driving customer closeness through communication?
“When people connect, great things happen.”
Effective communication can help a business thrive. And, it goes even deeper. When people connect great things happen.
Psychologist Leon F Seltzer, PhD wrote an article in Psychology Today titled, “Feeling Understood – Even More Important Than Feeling Loved?” He talks about why feeling like others have grasped your meaning is beneficial to your well-being.
Seltzer describes how we feel accepted and empowered. Being understood makes us feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, and we even understand ourselves better.
There are also signs that it can help prevent depression.
It feels good to help people achieve this level of understanding of themselves and the skills to get other people to understand them. We love synthesizing a client’s thoughts, helping them find the right word or metaphor, and developing a great strategy to share their stories with their customers.
Seltzer wraps up the article by posing two questions:
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Are you doing everything that, potentially, you could do to make yourself understood?
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How well do you understand yourself (your characteristics, values, preferences, motives, etc.)?
We particularly like the first question, because it’s central to how we approach our clients’ work.