Inside the 2010 Leadership Summit, part 2.

The Leadership Summit featured a fantastic keynote speaker, James Kane, who spoke about building and maintaining loyal relationships. You can be find more information about Kane, including his books on the same topic, at www.jameskane.com. Here is his presentation, as reported by Robin Dodge.



As a leader, all you need is followers. But how do you create followers? It’s simple really… just make connections with them. Kane ran through a long list (with slide images) of things he likes and identifies with. Where he lives and has lived, what jobs he has held, what he likes to read, listen to, and watch, even his home phone number, address, and social security number (all flashed very briefly on the screen). It took about 5 minutes and at the end he told us that he knew we already thought this was one of the best presentations we’d ever seen (which was true). Now how did he know that? Because we each connected with him in some way in those 5 minutes, whether it was with his favorite book or his hometown or the songs on his ipod. Our brain is hard-wired to make connections with people, so we almost can’t help it.

Loyalty is an emotion. It evolved because when humans work together, our lives are easier. In our first few years of life we can’t live without other humans. Our very survival depends on each other and thus our brains have evolved ways to discern who to trust.

There are 4 relationship levels. A small portion of our relationships are antagonistic. These are the relationships that are so negative you’re willing to tell people about it. The next level is transactional, which are relationships based on some kind of payment or agreement. Kane cautions all of us to make sure we aren’t reading more than we should into our transactional relationships. The next level is predisposed. These are transactional relationships with lazy participants. They are the relationships that exist solely because it’s harder to change and the status quo is just fine. The top level, and the second smallest portion of our relationships, is loyalty. This is the same as love in personal relationships.

The motivation behind decisions are almost never money, but rather they are always about who makes our lives better. Satisfaction means nothing when it comes to loyalty. For example, dogs are loyal but cats are satisfied. You can scream at your dog and he’ll still be devoted to you. Do that to a cat, and it probably won’t come home that night.

There are 3 things the brain has to identify for loyalty: trust, belonging, and purpose.
Trust consists of competency, capacity, character, and consistency. But you can’t focus on trust alone, because it’s expected. Purpose includes vision, fellowship, and commitment. Belonging is much more involved. It includes the following:
1. Recognition: Am I unique, or just a number? Think about all of your working relationships. Do you know everyone’s name? Do you know what they do? What are people saying/thinking about you? We can’t assume our best customers are loyal, they might just be predisposed.
2. Insight: We must figure out why people are doing what they’re doing.
3. Proactivity: This goes beyond transactional. Solve other people’s problems, figure out what others need, and don’t just focus on what you need. What data can you collect to solve their problems? Our brains make shortcuts so if somebody makes our lives easier we will keep them around.
4. Identity: We need to find connections. Get to know people and share with them.
5. Inclusion: we like to be asked to be included.

When we compare in-person vs. virtual relationships, in which case is it easier to do all of the above? We might assume that it can only be done in-person, but actually it CAN be done online. Amazon is a perfect example of this. It has recognition, proactivity, and transparency. Amazon KNOWS WHO I AM.


How are we fostering loyalty in our organization? What can we do to learn more about our members and focus on their needs? Are we conveying a sense of trust, belonging, and purpose? All of this can be as simple as making connections with people, and that’s what the SLA-SCC is all about. If we all keep these ideas in mind as we network and attend SLA events throughout the year, we will be rewarded with mutually beneficial and loyal relationships.