New names all around! After years of being happily married, I've adopted my married name, Mann, in business as well as in everyday life. That sounds so silly, but a woman goes through serious hoops in her personal life to change her name (DMV, passports, bank accounts, credit cards, on and on); then add to that the professional changes that have to be made! A career was built on "Christine Johnson", all my online connections have been Johnson, but the stars have aligned saying it was time to make the change!
The stars that aligned indicated the need for a shift in our business focus and company name. Let me explain.
1.
Business focus - we still coach individuals and organizations in the development of leadership skills - we've worked with terrific and valued clients and that won't change. But more and more, I've seen a need for a more narrow focus on relationships in the business world and in our personal selves. For years I've observed that people have let the importance of strong business relationships slide in favor of just getting through the tasks of day - the heavy crunch of the day is overwhelming and many don't think there's the time OR the need to focus on relationships.
From my own leadership experience, developing strong relationships at work became paramount. Allowing trust and mutual respect to grow between team members and myself improved the work environment - spending time together, talking about concerns, asking questions, looking for ideas, offering suggestions - all ways of connecting that took lots of time from our day, but all ways to CONNECT. Working with team members isn't necessarily about liking them, but it is about developing mutual respect for better business results in a productive work environment.
I could talk endlessly about the how's and why's of developing stronger relationships at work, but my point here is that I see less of that happening than I used to and it comes at a cost.
The emphasis I'm putting on relationships has resulted in a new self-development resource that I'm proud to introduce and call:
Getting to Know Yourself...and Others™
A Self-Study Program for Building Stronger Relationships
I've utilized two of our most powerful learning resources, created a 70+ pages self-study guide and incorporated a FREE 30 minute consult to debrief the entire experience. I love this program - it's designed to focus on knowing yourself, learning about others and then putting it all together to strengthen relationships. Do check it out!
2.
Change in business name - You Never Stop Learning has been our tag line for years and it made sense to couple that with Getting to Know Yourself...and Others™ - because we never do stop learning about ourselves - the trite phrase "a work in progress" does apply!
The web site is revised to highlight the relationship emphasis.
What I like about the emphasis on
building strong relationships is that we're not just talking about work - the interactions we have outside work at home, in the community, with extended family and neighbors - they all add such richness to our lives. If we can fuse the knowledge of our "self" with what we can learn about others, those interactions can change our world!
Keep reading: our blog at YouNeverStopLearning has an archive of personal growth entries and will continue with relationship tips. Join me there.
