Tracy was the best hand in the company. She could multitask, tackle any issue, and complete her work on time. She was perfect and everyone in the company was in awe of her. Yet, she had problems connecting with people. She came across as an unapproachable person and had a self-built wall around her that seemed difficult to break. Tracy wondered why she had no company for lunch or why she was seldom invited for parties. The answer was simple. Tracy could not CONNECT with people! She could not build a rapport with her colleagues and friends.
There are many individuals like Tracy who find it difficult to connect with people. It has been found that people with least knowledge can come up trumps in building an instant rapport with others. If you just surf around your social media friends’ circle, you will see some people having infinite number of friends, whereas others may simply have a handful. Now, if you peep into the personalities of those who have a large friends’ circle, you will notice many of them having similar traits that win them so many friends.
Why do we need to connect with people?
When you connect with people, you only have benefits in both your personal and business fronts. Man still craves for support and concern, especially in difficult and happy times. No one likes to rejoice alone. Or for that matter, cry alone. You need someone to share your tough times as well as good times. If you make a connection with people, you will notice that you will be the first one to receive any news from your close connections. This can prove beneficial from a business point of view, as you will be the first one to know of any crisis hitting the company and maybe nip it in the bud if possible. When you connect with people, it gives you a personal high that makes you feel special and wanted. This can act as a great stress buster and you remain cheerful throughout your life. Connecting with people is the best way to handle complex situations and come up with an ideal solution.
How to connect with other people?
This question can be answered in the rhetoric. By this, I mean all you do is SIMPLY CONNECT! It is actually easy if you just change some of your habits consciously and work towards making a great connection with people. There are some astoundingly simple ways of connecting with people with a wee bit of effort from your side.
Acknowledge a Person
To connect with people, the first step you need to take is to acknowledge their existence. It so happens that in our own worries and busy rigmarole, we tend to forget the presence of someone else in the same vicinity. This can have a negative impact as it sends wrong signals to the other person. It is many a time unintentional as we are engrossed in doing our work. A simple nod or a smile can weave magic and connect strongly to people. If you are in an office, acknowledge your colleagues constantly, put in a word or two of light banter and you connect to all of them with a magnetic force. The same holds true with neighbors and family. Simply acknowledge their presence and you see them bonding positively with you.
Show Genuine Concern
When you express your concern about any issues regarding an individual, make sure you are genuinely interested. If you simply fake it up, chances are that this will backfire. You need to be real and transparent while dealing with someone’s emotions. Only then can you reach out to them and connect. Wipe out any façade from your identity and come out as a genuine and real person who cares for everyone. This automatically makes you very approachable and you will see multiple connections with hardly any effort.
Give Unconditional Support
To keep your connections strong and long-lasting, you need to offer unconditional support to people. When you help a person who is in dire need and then expect nothing in return, you have made a permanent connection for a lifetime. Without you asking, that individual will always be ready to help you out when you need his or her services. Now let’s take a hypothetical scenario where your boss has forgotten his keys and needs to go urgently for a meeting that is more than 40 miles away. You see him frantically reaching for the phone, wringing his hands in frustration and wondering how to reach the venue. Here is a great opportunity for you to connect with your boss. Gently ask if he needs any help and volunteer to bail him out by offering your services. The result…you have made an unbreakable connection with your boss! Such opportunities keep coming our way. We need to keep our eyes open and read situations and see whether we can be of any use. The only thing to remember is to give unconditional support.
Be the First One to Volunteer Help
Being alert pays handsomely if you want to connect with people. When someone needs help, it is often the first one who volunteers, who is remembered for a long time. The brain registers incidents and forms some unforgettable memories. First impressions leave imprints for longer periods. So, just keep looking around you and see if someone needs your help. Be quick enough to become the first one to volunteer help. This will make the other party extremely grateful to you and you will have made a great connection.
Understand Feelings
Man is an emotional creature. He goes through a myriad of feelings all through the day and throughout his lifetime. It makes sense to understand one’s feelings and see that you don’t rub salt on anyone. This means that you need to grasp the delicacy of a situation and then make your move. You need to respect others feelings and use discretion to handle a situation. This will send the message across that you are a true supporter and a true friend who wishes the best for any individual. This automatically helps in strengthening any connections that you have made rather than weakening them.
Reach Out
Whenever you see someone in difficulty or in need of some support, REACH OUT! Go all out and offer your time, help and services in case they need them. Reaching out to people helps in connecting with them as they know you can be depended upon whenever they need you. This makes people remember you all the time, especially in difficult times.
Provide Space
If you want to connect to people, you need to give them space. There is no need to overdo things and become a nuisance. You need to be dignified and give them space, sending strong signals that you are always there when you need them. This can be conveyed through subtle gestures and few syllables that express your solidarity in a firm and definite way.
Accept and Respect
The best way to connect with people is to accept them the way they are and respect them as individuals. You need to show that you value their friendship totally and you don’t want them to change in any way. The bonds that you form with the policy of “Accept and Respect” will be for a lifetime and you can rest assured that you have the right connections.
Final Thoughts
The best way to connect to people is to listen to them, give them your time and send the message across that you support them unconditionally. Life is short and it depends on how you want to live it. Going by my personal experience, I can assure you that life seems much brighter and fuller when you connect with people and show your genuine concern and appreciate the connections. Tracy has adapted this and she is now always surrounded by a bunch of friends and colleagues. You only need to see it to believe it that Tracy now goes about with a spring in her step and is happy all the time. Her secret… She has learnt how to CONNECT with other people now as never before. With a little effort, you can do too!!