In this issue, we are looking at Guy Kawasaki’s bestseller of the year, Enchantment – the Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. It is not a book about manipulating others to follow your way; it looks more to winning others over by “enchanting” them, by having them see the positive attributes in you or your business that are honest and committed. Kawasaki is one of the early team members of Apple and has since written a number of successful books on technology and new approaches to doing business. He writes that enchantment is really about causing a voluntary change of hearts, minds and actions. In order to enchant people, you have to understand what they are thinking and feeling.
In dealing with others, be they customers or employees, you have to assume that you have something in common. You have to be able to convey your passion. One of the first chapters is devoted to achieving trustworthiness, an important factor in engaging your customers and employees. Kawasaki writes about the importance of being a mensch; in other words, to be a decent human being in dealing with others, including business. In this category, he includes such qualities as treating those who have wronged you with civility, suspending blame when something goes wrong and asking “what can we learn from this?” Competency also ranks highly in promoting trustworthiness, and Kawasaki uses NPR’s Terry Gross as an example, since she embodies a blend of empathy, warmth and intelligence. (We particularly liked the Terry Gross reference, because she is a local here in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area!)
Lastly in achieving trustworthiness, Kawasaki writes of promoting yourself in a positive light and encouraging your customers to use your product by the promise of the future good it will provide. Kawasaki also believes in telling your story. Customers will be drawn to you more by knowing your aspirations and your personal stories of failures and successes. Enable customers to try your product and do not overwhelm them with too many choices. Kawasaki encourages companies to “show” customers what they do or what they have by demonstrations, tours, etc. In doing so, you are showing your company’s magic. Push and Pull technology are also highly featured in this book. Push technology is the technology that pushes out your message, such as Twitter, where an unlimited number of followers can read your message. Pull technology, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, pulls people onto your page to read your message.
With all of these forms of social media, you have to engage quickly and often. You have to also be conscious of always providing value to ensure the trust of those who are reading your information. Kawasaki gives a large amount of detailed information on how to optimize your use of social media. This book is worth a read for anyone interested in the future of business and looking at business from outside of the box. It is a book about finding and defining your vision, however large or small, and encouraging others to be “believers” with you in achieving your goals.
