Summary: "...transparency and modesty - qualities that are immensely more attractive than intelligence." Getting Naked, page 199 It used to be that, "he who held the knowledge held the power". Google changed that. If you have an internet connection, you have access to limitless amounts of data - more "knowledge" than anyone could possibly need in a lifetime. What used to be scarce, and therefore valuable, is now available in abundance. The world-wide web democratized information. But there's a new scarcity and, as Patrick Lencioni brilliantly outlines in Getting Naked, it's one that, when harnessed, can be incredibly powerful and lucrative. If you, or your company interacts with a customer base, you inherently know what we've been talking about for a while - that low prices and a quality product no longer guarantee success. Customers have more options than ever, and they're using this leverage to look for something more. They want an experience. An interaction that goes beyond a simple transaction. They want to build relationships with their brands. We're entering a world of professional intimacy that harkens back to the days of "Small Town USA", days when the neighbourhood butcher knew not only what cut of beef a customer preferred, but the names of their kids as well. We built relationships with our vendors and customers because we inherently knew that people do business with people they like. People they trust. People they know. In Getting Naked, Lencioni teaches how to exemplify the one core trait that builds professional relationships faster than any other. Golden Egg Get Naked "Without the willingness to be vulnerable, we will not build deep and lasting relationships in life." Getting Naked, page vii Vulnerability. Removing the armour of infallibility, and getting real. Getting Naked is a book about the very real value of breaking down the walls so many of us put up when interacting with our customers and, instead, connecting with them on a human level. It's a book about being comfortable being wrong. About worrying about the customer first, and our own ego second. Lencioni explains that there are three fears that hold us back from being vulnerable (aka "naked") in front of our customers: Fear #1: Fear of losing the business Fear #2: Fear of being embarrassed Fear #3: Fear of feeling inferior While all understandable, living within these three fears all be ensures that your relationships with your customers will never transcend a basic transaction. Through the process of overcoming these three fears, we elevate ourselves above the "transactional relationship" with our customer, and into the vaulted air of "trusted advisor". Whether your "customer" is an outside client or your boss, if you're working, then someone is paying you for your time and overcoming these three fears can dramatically improve your professional life. The following two GEMs are but a taste of all the practical solutions found in Getting Naked. GEM # 1 Enter the Dragon "Starting with the CEO, they went around the room and told him what they thought his most valuable attribute was for the team, and then they went around and told him the one thing they thought he should work on." Getting Naked, page 94 There's an expression in the improvisational acting world (improv) known as "Enter the Danger". In improv situations, sometimes a player will do or say something bizarre; something totally at odds with the rest of the situation. As one of the other players in the scene, you have a choice to either embrace the outburst and run with it (entering the danger), or to ignore it and steer the scene back to more familiar territory. You can imagine which option leads to richer scenes. As human beings, our tendency can be to try to gloss over things that make us uncomfortable. When experiencing unappreciated or unproductive behaviour in a staff meeting,
