I first heard the phrase from a millionaire investor who has burned more bridges with colleagues than a retreating army. At the time it made sense.
I’m a softie at heart… the proverbial nice guy who tends to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. My millionaire coach encouraged me to embody, as she did, the hard-nosed business person who never takes business personally. “It’s not personal… it’s just business” she would say upon summarily dismissing a business partner.
I learned many wonderful things from her about investing and managing my business. But this “It’s not personal” stuff never quite sat right with me… and now I know why.
The Truth: It IS Personal Today
As any business working in the Internet world today, you need to understand that everything you do or say IS personal. One word… one innocuous statement… can make or break an entire marketing campaign.
You may find, as Southwest Airlines or Amazon did recently that a rumor can spread quickly. A simple “business decision” can be quickly misunderstood and spread far and wide in entirely the wrong way.
Amazon, for example, had to quickly squelch rumors that they were removing gay and lesbian titles from their shelves. If not for the prompt response of their social media team, things may have gotten a lot worse. They quickly realized that a simple business decision (they weren’t removing, but rather re-categorizing) had turned into a PR nightmare.
What if they had said, “It’s not personal” to their worldwide community? Oh, my… you can only imagine the horrors financially. The truth is that it IS personal.
Social Media Has Changed Everything
The smallest issue can blossom into a hyper-galactic mess in a matter of minutes. I don’t care how amazing your products or services are (and neither do your customers). If people feel the least bit slighted, put down, condescended, or minimized by something you said or even implied, word will spread faster than melted butter on your best slacks.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have tight business contracts, use smart business processes, or do any of the other things that are good business sense. But when you’re dealing with customers, colleagues, joint venture partners, or even competitors, it’s not “just business” anymore. It’s personal.
People DO take things personally, especially online. More than ever people expect to be treated with respect and dignity, even if you think they’re not worthy of the slime they slid in on. Your vocabulary word for the day is this…
VALUE
Whether you’re Tweeting, blogging, commenting on another person’s blog, or even promoting your latest brilliant invention, what you do must be infused with value… and by ‘value‘, I mean value in the mind of your prospects , customers, and anyone else paying attention to you.
And face it… telling someone to get over themselves because “it’s just business” doesn’t exactly add much value to their experience of you, does it?
Think about it. Then let me know your thoughts.
