How to Win Friends and Influence People: Week 17
Principle: In order to get cooperation, you must let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
To set yourself a part from other photographers, it all depends on your mindset. When your mind is focusing on serving your client, you make you and your work distinct from others. Personally, I believe this even makes us considerably better photographers, business partners and people as a whole. With that in mind, when we become servants, we sacrifice some pride and we have to become flexible. We have to learn to work with people and we have to adapt in order to serve them best. This means that we need to be willing to let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
Dale Carnegie talks about how to facilitate a productive, efficient, and creative environment, we must be willing to let the other person feel the idea is his or hers. There are a three ways that I have taken note of in order to accomplish this:
1. Ask questions to faciliate where the thoughts are directed. It is not about convincing them to do what you think they need to do. Our mindset needs to be focused on seeking to understand.
2. Once you start the questions, you can insert some suggestions. Do this to try and gage what it is they are looking for.
3. Finally, ask for their ideas and let them create with you. You are not the sole creator in this project. You are collaborating with your client.
These three steps are key to maintaining a creative environment when meeting with potential clients and looking into new assignments. The basis of this is having an attitude which seeks to understand and serve. When we are focused on serving rather than making a name for ourselves, the atmosphere of the discussions change.