We tend to focus on the “business” of our home businesses—spreadsheets and budgets and marketing plans. Even our human relationships can be relegated down to “networking.” In reality, sometimes what is needed in the course of our business day is for us to simply step outside ourselves and share a smile with someone…
I know it sounds simplistic and somewhat Polly-Anna, but smiles really do work. They work for the person on the receiving end and you might be surprised to remind yourself how good it feels to give a smile. Forget the image of the stern and stressed business person as the model for a successful entrepreneur—we CAN have fun, we CAN be friendly and we CAN smile—and our businesses will probably benefit from it.
A genuine smile can defuse a terse and tense interaction with a challenging client, it can warm up a prospect and be the deciding factor that brings them around to your corner, and it can be the very thing that helps you to relax and let go of any fears or tension that you may be holding in yourself as you go about your business. With all of these benefits, why is it that we are not all smiling more?
Can’t get a smile going? Listen to happy music, look at pictures of your kids, listen to a comedy album or turn on the comedy channel for a little while when you eat your lunch. It is amazing how contagious a smile can be once you get it started. I know that there are those times when I am all balled up in my own world and all it takes is one clerk or salesperson to smile and say something pleasant and my day gets turned around. Soon I am smiling at other people and things have flipped from the negative to the positive—all because of a smile.