You’ll Catch More Flies (and Sales!) with Honey

Do you feel overwhelmed with everything you have to do and it’s affecting your mood? Are you short on patience with people at work or at home? Do you have others around you who are frustrated with what’s going on?

There’s a simple tweak you can make in your approach that will instantly get you better results. I was reminded of this on a trip to Mexico a few days ago with my husband.

The resort we stayed at was awesome, however it was CRAZY BUSY – we were catching the tail end of Mexico’s spring break and the front end of a three-week festival where bus loads of families would arrive at 6 a.m. creating overlap between them and when others checked out – so double the people!

The staff were busier than ever. There were longer lines, food was cold at times, it was hard to find a seat, and as a customer it wasn’t the relaxing atmosphere we had hoped for.

And, in the end we were happy customers and had an awesome trip. On the last day, I reflected on what made the difference . . .

In the midst of the chaos, every single staff member was friendly, calm and had a smile on his or her face. Even when someone was getting angry at them or they had so many requests coming at them.

If you  want to instantly boost your result – whether it’s to increase sales, customer satisfaction, employee engagement or even your own productivity – the simple tweak you can make in the midst of stress is to . . .

Set a positive tone no matter what’s going on or situation you are heading into.

Taking a difficult situation and making it better by turning adversity into a more upbeat, positive opportunity, instead of being bogged down and stressed, comes back to setting a positive tone, whether it’s with your team, customers or kids.

And, modeling the behaviours you want to see in others helps them to make the best out of it as well. You don’t want your customer or colleague to be short with you, so give the same courtesy.

Here are four simple ways to set a more positive tone in the moment.

Be kind. You know the old saying, “you catch more flies with honey”? You’ll better influence others by treating them with empathy, kindness and compassion. Find courage in yourself to act and uphold these values even when things are hard.

Seek out the good around you. Gratitude puts the focus on what you are receiving, benefits and good things around you to build resilience and better respond to stress and what’s not going well.

Smile. Yes, even if you don’t feel like it. This sends a signal to your brain that can kick start a happy feeling. Act like you do when you feel happy, and it will help put you in that state.

Appreciate people. Let people know they matter, all the time. With your customers, employees, spouse, kids and anyone you are connecting with, cheering them on and letting them know how important they are is essential to succeeding in every area of your life. Especially since so many people feel unappreciated, you’ll stand out and it will make a difference.

When you are positive, you are more productive, energetic, resilient and innovative (the benefits are many!).  Essentially, the better you feel, the more effective you will be in boosting sales, improving customer experience or employee engagement – whatever result you are working toward.

So, next time you find yourself in a challenging or frustrating situation, be intentional to set a positive tone and see the result.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

What Next?

You can sign up for Stacey's masterclass, The Confident "No" here.

Stacey L. Olson is a Leadership and Certified Positive Psychology Coach, has 15 years of corporate experience and has gone through her own transformational change from burning out to balanced in life while performing at a high level (both in her corporate career and own business). She works with professionals who want to work less, live more and be their best even with all the demands, high expectations and messiness of everyday life. Stacey is the founder of The Balanced Leader™ program and offers executive and leadership coaching, workshops, and speaking.