Welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable
Connections, the show where you go beyond handshakes
and hellos to unlock the real power of relationships
in business. I'm your host, Michael Foreman,
and today we're exploring a topic that's changing
the way we lead, serve, and connect, psychological
safety and compassionate communication. My guest
is an expert in creating emotionally safe...
workplaces, and delivering service with heart.
And here's why that matters. The best connections,
whether with coworkers, customers, or colleagues,
only happen when people feel safe, seen, and
supported. We're diving into how kindness, empathy,
and trust aren't just soft skills, they're strategic
advantages in today's business world. So if you're
ready. If you're ready to build deeper connections,
create safer spaces, and unlock the kind of networking
that drives real results, this episode is for
you. I'd like to welcome to the show today, Bruno
Signac. I can't pronounce the last name. I'm
going to have you do it. All right. So I would
just like to welcome to the podcast. And Bruno,
why don't you give us a little about your background.
First, give us the correct pronunciation of your
last name, and then tell us about your background.
Thank you very much. The surname is very difficult.
It's an Italian surname. It's Signaco. Signaco.
And thank you, Michael, for your invite. I feel
very honored to be here. A bit about my background.
I have a PhD in management with focus on international
marketing. I have been advising companies for
more than 30 years on international marketing
and lately over the last few years on compassionate
business. I'm a university professor and best
-selling author. My latest book is titled The
Art of Compassionate Business, published by Ruth
Leach in its second edition, and I'm very hopeful
that this interview will be amazing and insightful.
Thank you very much again for your invite. I
hope it's going to be that way too. Okay, so
let's jump right into the questions. How does
creating a psychologically safe workspace improve
internal networking and collaboration amongst
teams? Very important question. Psychologically
safe workplace, let's define this term that is
a bit technical for some of the listeners. For
example, psychologically safe workplace implies
a work environment where employees can feel supported.
They can express their voice without being ridiculed
or censored. In this workplace, people are playing
a lot of what we call positive side of politics,
non -negative side of politics, which implies
supporting each other. trusting each other, sharing
resources. And in this workplace, you don't see
the negative side of politics, which is one -upmanship,
for example, slandering or any other type of
turf wars, for example. And in this workplace,
people feel free to express their voice. In some
cases, they feel free also to express their voice
in a very innovative way, proposing non -traditional
ideas. And these people feel assisted when they
have any problems. And in this workplace, you...
usually see a lot of activities that are very
supportive, such as coaching, mentoring, training
on the job, shadowing. And in this workplace,
according to research, when you develop a psychologically
safe workplace, employees tend to be much more
satisfied. Customers tend to be more satisfied
too. Why? Because employees that are happy tend
to serve customers more effectively. These workplaces
have also lower stress levels. They have higher
productivity, they have lower absenteeism, they
have lower turnover, and this impacts positively
on the bottom line. Why? Because when employees
are satisfied, they are more prone to give their
best, to work in an unconditional way, and to
contribute to, for example, collective projects
in a much more insightful and meaningful way.
How do you develop these workplaces? First off,
we have to understand that this... Workplaces
are trust -based workplaces. And how do you develop
trust? Trust takes some time to develop, but
there are simple tips. For example, developing
meaningful communication, interaction within
the workplace. which implies in some cases asking,
for example, how colleagues feel. There is an
interesting research paper that observes that
when you're working for a company with your colleagues
and you observe that one of your colleagues is
feeling a bit down, feeling a bit sad or in a
bad mood, by asking a simple question, how they
feel, or, for example, telling them that you
assume that they're feeling a bit not so well,
if you can help them, by this simple interaction.
You can build trust. Why? Because you show interest
in them, you show empathy and you show compassion
for their problems. But also in these workplaces,
people tend to look for agreements within the
workplace that are win -win. This means that
nobody is winning at the expense of others. This
is quite relevant. Why? Because in many business
environments and workplaces that people, in many
cases, try to take advantage with their companies.
take advantage of customers or take advantage
of employees or take advantage of business partners.
And these win -lose relationships or win -lose
agreements tend to break up the bonds with these
stakeholders. Another simple way to develop a
very important trust -based environment in the
workplace will be, for example, nurturing what
I call in my book the qualitative aspect of business.
Because in business there are two main aspects.
Quantitative aspects, what can be measured, such
as profit, market share, productivity, this can
be measured in a very precise way. It can be
counted very precisely. It can be compared, for
example, interannually. But the qualitative aspects
of business are as fundamental as the quantitative.
What are the qualitative aspects of business?
They include generosity, support, gratitude,
care, empathy, compassion. And why these are
so important? When you embrace these values,
when you embrace these principles, you nurture
this relationship with this stakeholder, with
your colleagues, with customers. And we have
to understand that in business, the most important
factor is the building of relationship, strong,
long -lasting relationship with different stakeholders
within the company, employees, management, and
outside the company, customer, supplier, business
partner, community members. So focusing on...
qualitative aspect of business that we call also
relational aspect and quantitative aspect of
business. Many companies focus only on the quantitative
aspect of business. They try to obtain profit,
productivity, market share, in some cases by
all means, to the detriment of the relation.
The days of the quantity is really... passe.
It's the quality of the relationships. You hit
on so many points for networking. Know you, you
trust you, they'll do business with you. It's
the creating the relationships, not just the
clients. So not just the customers. So there's
a whole lot, what you just said, but I have more
questions. So we're going to go into a little
bit further. What role does compassionate communication
play in networking, and how can it be a competitive
advantage in business? Very important. Compassion,
communication, compassion and communication implies
that let's define compassion first. Compassion
is when you interact with others, you understand
how they think, you understand how they feel,
and you try to help them whenever possible, especially
when others face difficult circumstances. For
example, let's imagine that the supplier delays
the delivery of goods to your company. And in
the supplier, you have signed before a contract
with the supplier. If you are not compassionate
with the supplier, you will try to penalize the
supplier for having delivered this good late.
But if you are compassionate, you will relate
to the supplier one -to -one, if possible in
person, you will talk to the representative of
the supplier to understand what difficulties
they face. in this last delivery in order to
help them, because you try to preserve the relationship
and try to brighten this relationship with the
supplier. You don't try to apply, literally define
a print of the contract, because if you do, you
might get the penalty from the supplier, but
you will break up the relationship. You try to
preserve the relational aspect. This is quite
important. There is a very interesting study
that observed that in the health sector, for
example, health care sector, When doctors have
a compassionate conversation before these patients
are to be operated, go through surgery, one minute
conversation, this patient during the operation
process, during the surgery, has less anesthesia,
they need less anesthesia, and they need less
recovery time after the operation. Why? because
they feel less stress, they feel more supported.
One minute interaction only, this means understanding
how they feel, how you can help them, try to
help them soothe themselves. And this is quite
important because compassionate is not only being
nice to people, but it's bringing about a positive
cycle of reciprocity. You try to support people,
you try to understand, you try to connect and
build deep rapport. And in return... You are
more likely to receive a reciprocal treatment.
Why? Because people, when they're supported,
they're more prone to contribute spontaneously
and conditionally. You can afford them to cooperate,
but they're more prone to cooperate when you
try to help them. Because when you help them,
you help yourself. Because everything is interdependent
in business. You cannot succeed without them
and vice versa. Okay. Okay. So you speak about
compassionate customer service. How can that
same mindset be used when approaching new clients,
partners, or networking opportunities? Very interesting.
Compassionate customer service implies that you
adopt an attitude of service. You try to add
value. This means that instead of focusing on
yourself as a seller, as a salesperson, you focus
on them. You are customer -oriented. This means
that you will try first to discover what are
the specific unique needs that they have. not
only need regarding the product, but for example,
what we call emotional needs. In some cases,
this customer to buy the product needs some reassurance.
Maybe you can provide with some guarantee or
maybe they need a trial period. They are not
very sure. So you try to support them, not only
offering the best product that is adequate for
them and might not be suitable for other customers.
And in some cases also implies that you interact.
regularly with this customer, making them feel
positive emotion before they buy the product,
during the buying process, and after they buy
the process. We call this interaction touch points.
Every time that you interact with customers through
emails, phone calls, in person, through the website,
these are touch points. Every touch point should
bring about positive emotions in customers because
when you do, this customer is more prone to feel
satisfied. which is related to positive emotion.
And it's more prone to become loyal, committed
to your company. And it's more prone to the positive
reviews. Instead, one of these interactions,
customer experience a negative emotion, well,
this customer is more prone to leave your company
or doubt or trying to return the product or look
for competing product. So the only way that you
can deliver a very good customer service, a compassionate
customer service is to be very humble. Under
-promise, over -deliver. Under -promise, this
means that you promise less than they expect,
and then you surprise them in a very positive
way. We call it marketing delight in customers
when you give more than they expect. For example,
you are selling, let's say, some like this diaries,
and then you are selling these diaries, and these
diaries are very nice price, very nice quality,
but... You give a pen, a very nice pen, a fine
pen, free. You are giving a gift attached to
this product and you are creating a positive
imbalance. They feel indebted with you because
you have been generous and they're more prone
to respond in a positive way, recommending your
products to others, leaving positive review online.
Instead, some companies act in the opposite way.
They act in a very stingy way. I want to give
the product that will give me the highest commission.
It probably is not the one that they are looking
for, but I want to think about my own commission.
This is an attitude of selling, not... of service
always choose an attitude of service service
implies adding value to customers very good okay
so let's go to a little advice what advice would
you give to someone who struggles to be vulnerable
or genuine when networking very important in
networking networking with any stakeholder or
potential stakeholder could be a business partner
could be a supplier could be an intermediate
like a retailer You have to talk not only about
business topics, but also you have to talk about
non -business topics. You can say, this doesn't
make any sense, because at the end you are networking
with a person, a human being, and the commonality
between you and the other one, the other person
is, regardless of the role, regardless that you
are the CEO and the other one could be a representative
of the supplier and so on, so it's your human
beings. When you connect on a much more human
level, this means that you understand that you
are both human beings with fear, expectation,
aspiration, dreams. And you talk about not only
about business topic, but you talk about at the
beginning, like a small talk or at the end of
the conversation about where they live, what
the hobbies are and so on. You try to connect
on a much more personal level. Many entrepreneurs
in the Far East. for example, Japan, China, understanding
the importance of building personal relationships
first, and then, on the top of this, building
solid business relationships. But the person
comes first. Here in some individualistic cultures
like the United States and the UK, We privilege,
time is money, let's try to close the deal immediately.
We then, in some cases, knowing the person and
take the time to know the person on a much more
humane level. This means that you talk about
business, but also you interpret this in the
conversation, what I call natural conversation,
interpret some topic like, for example, talking
about the weather or the hobbies, try to avoid
controversial topic that could be, for example,
religion or politics, but try to talk about how
they are on a personal level. And this will...
clear any hindrances that are on the way to get
an agreement. And always look for ways to share
common ground. This means that use a lot of words
such as we, our agreement, our common goal. What
I hear in many conversations that they use the
first person of the singular, I, my, me, myself.
This is very individualistic. Say when you talk
about our agreement, our deal, our common goal.
something that are obvious. We are both looking
to develop robust relationships. You talk about
we, and also try to identify their needs, because
at the end you want to develop an agreement,
if this is possible, that is a win -win agreement.
If you don't know what the needs are, and you
only think about your needs, you are more prone
to developing a win -lose agreement, where you
win at the expense of them. But these are short
-lived agreements that cannot prosper over time.
Very good. Very good. And I speak about so many
of the same things because really we both talk
about networking, but it's so similar. It really
astounds me. But let's go on. How do emotionally
safe environments lead to stronger, more profitable
connections, both internally with teams and externally
with clients or collaborators? Very interesting.
Let's talk a bit about a very important phenomenon
described by Daniel Goleman, that is the phenomenon
of emotional contagion. Emotional contagion implies
that when you feel an emotion and you start interacting
with others, supposing that you feel happy, feel
cheerful, you tend to infect others with this
positive emotion and they tend to experience
this emotion and act accordingly. Why this happens?
Because in our brain we have mirror neurons that
tend... help us replicate the emotions that are
of people around us. The opposite happens with
negative emotions. When you experience anger
and you treat people and you adopt an angry tone
of voice and you try to dismiss them and so on,
these people are infected by this negative emotion
and they are less prone to cooperate, less prone
to share with you the resources such as information,
technology. We have to be aware, are we? bringing
about positive emotion in this workplace into
this relationship and why is so important bringing
about positive emotion because according to research
positive emotion expand your brain and help you
become much more creative help you utilize what
we call the internal resources such as critical
analysis creativity and others instead constrictive
emotions for example fear They make you adopt
what we call the freeze, fight, fly mode, where
you tend to be more reactive. You tend to trust
less others. You tend to withdraw, tend not to
cooperate. In some cases, this prompts you to
compete with others instead of cooperating. And
in any relationship, you have a basis of cooperation.
If you are not willing to cooperate, this relationship
won't prosper because all relationships in business
and non -business environment are only prone
to succeed when the needs of both parties are
fully satisfied. If the needs of only one party
are satisfied, this relationship is prone to
fail, not to succeed. Absolutely. Absolutely
correct. What's one thing most people get wrong
about connection, whether in customer service
or professional networking? Very wrong. What
I observe is scripted conversation, mechanical
conversation. Parrot, I call Parrot the style.
For example, I see some company that I feel a
bit of shame from outside when I see this company
that they give script on a piece of paper to
memorize and say, okay, when you meet the customer
or the client, you have to say, hello, how are
you? We have product case. This sounds so mechanical.
You are talking to a robot, not to a person.
And a scripted conversation hinders the spontaneity,
the natural spontaneity that can be brought about
in a conversation. And people feel it. They feel
this impersonal. They feel that this is not natural.
And people tend to withdraw from this type of
sell people or this type of stakeholder. Instead,
when you make the conversation more natural,
which implies including emotion, talking about
personal aspect, but also don't be so... aware
of the timing because in some cases i see also
some sales people that have a quota they have
a quota they say you know what this conversation
cannot last more than five minutes because you
have to close up a six client per hour okay this
means that you're limiting the conversation the
other person feel the pressure of time they cannot
expose their ideas fully so give time for the
conversation to develop be natural be also others
oriented this means that you don't focus so much
on you but also you focus on others try to adopt
a learning attitude. You're not there to close
any deal. You're there to learn from them and
try to see that you can develop an environment
where a beneficial agreement for both can be
unfolding. But don't get so focused on the sale
or get so focused on closing the deal. Instead,
learn from each other because learning from each
other will help both of you arrive at an agreement
that is more win -win. mutually beneficial. Instead,
when you focus only on your needs or what you
will say or how we can close the deal, you are
self -centered. Other people can feel it. So
very important, make this the conversation spontaneous,
natural and non -mechanical. I feel in this case
that artificial intelligence cannot substitute
the natural conversation yet. You can see good
votes, but you feel that it's a bit mechanical,
a bit impersonal. And also... The conversation,
try to make this as expressive as possible, expressing
your idea clearly, but without monopolizing the
conversation and making also your idea very clearly
expressed, including your emotions. All right,
now let's bring this podcast full circle. And
can you share a personal or professional story
where creating a safe, compassionate space led
to an extraordinary connection or opportunity?
Yes, I have a recent example of a company that
we were advising. This company has very bad reviews
online. Obviously, the employees were a bit demotivated
because sales were going down. And what we discovered,
because there is a very important factor, when
sales are going down, there is employee demotivation,
there is low employee morale. In most cases,
there is something about fear. Employees tend
to feel fearful. losing their job or fearful
of not closing sales or fearful of not achieving
the quota or fearful of being penalized if they
don't meet the objective or fearful of being
outpaced by colleagues. So we discovered, and
we were right, there were some pockets of fear
within the company and the fear was so ingrained
and the fear was about, for example, not meeting
the quotas that were very strict and in some
cases unachievable that put a lot of pressure
and didn't allow employees to relax and also
the conversation with customer was so short that
the customer felt a bit forced because i observed
one of the conversation in practice in person
i was so sure that the customer couldn't even
expose their idea it were a kind of constrained
conversation and customers were not given the
opportunity to express their view moreover customers
were treated like little figures in the database
to as a means to make profit instead of being
treating this customer as a real human being
that are spending their hard -won money on this
company potentially and need to be treated with
respect and they need to be recognized in a legitimate
way. So what we did is we understand that the
quota system, closing certain deals per hour
was too strict. Employees felt much more relaxed,
less stress, stress level went down because then
there was a survey. And also we saw that the
conversations were a bit descriptive too, kind
of mechanical, the way the introduction. without
adapting the style to each customer. In some
cases, some customers needed one hour to talk
about this. Some customers needed 10 minutes.
Some customers needed to know more about this
technical specification. So we introduced more
flexibility with the approval of the manager.
The manager was not very convinced at the beginning,
I have to say, because there was a lot of resistance.
But this was possible to introduce. And we gave
a three -month period of time span to see there
was an improvement. And we checked also the customer
review. at the end of the three months. And we
took also the employee morale with a very simple
employee survey. We took also the reviews and
the sales levels. So these were the three indicators.
So employee morale, sales reviews, sales levels,
and also the customer reviews. And so we observed
that three months with these simple changes,
customers were given a lot of time to talk. Employees
will not be penalized with the strict quotas.
Employees were also offering customers products
that were not the most expensive ones, products
that were the most suitable for this customer,
because in the previous system, employees were
pushing the products that were the most expensive
ones, even when they were not suitable for customers.
What made this customer, in some cases, feel
pushed to buy this product, and then they left
a lot of negative reviews. In both cases, we
observed from the first scenario to the second
scenario, improvement in sales. from a significantly
very important percentage we saw improvement
in positive reviews and decreasing negative review
the negative review didn't disappear but they
decreased significantly and we saw much more
employee more higher employee morale and higher
play satisfaction we saw that when you have an
employee that is satisfied is more connected
to customer satisfaction So this means that this
thing was resolved. It's not fully resolved,
but this was only three months span. And we support
this company and keep on using this system and
also introduce some small meetings in between
calls, let's say once a day, at least a midday,
where employees can relax and chill out. and
can talk about not quota, not talk about the
budget, not talk about the plans, business plan,
marketing strategy. They can talk about themselves,
having a coffee with colleagues in the call center
so that they can feel much more at ease and they
can come back to work in the second half of the
day, more revitalized. So this means I know we
need much more personal level because employees
were so burdened with this demand of closing
sales that They felt the stress and they didn't
know their colleagues well. With this little
meeting in the middle part of the day, every
day, Monday to Friday, employees felt more relaxed
and they can connect to colleagues in a much
more meaningful way. And they came back to work
in a less stressed state. And this brought about
better relationships within the workplace, much
more psychologically safe workplace because there
was no fear. And also... higher customer satisfaction.
What was a win -win? There was resistance from
management. I have to observe because they were
not very convinced. Can this be so simple? I
say, it's not so simple because it's a big change.
Appeared to be simple, but was a very significant
change. And I'm very happy that we could help
this company. Good, good. Bruno, we're out of
time, but I'm really glad that you came on the
podcast. If somebody wanted to hire you, get
coached by you, or just say hello, how would
they get hold of you? First off, all these ideas
that we spoke today are compiled in my new book,
The Art of Compassionate Beings, published by
Ruth Leach. In the second edition, more than
400 pages with hundreds of cases of compassionate
organization. They can find me on LinkedIn or
my website, www .brunosignaco .com. www .brunosignaco
.com. They can contact me for services or consultancy
or training related to this topic. Thank you
very much. Bruno, thank you again for coming
on. This is a great time. Thank you. Well, hold
on, folks. Don't go anywhere. Let's hear from
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561 -427 -4888. Well, that's a wrap, folks. A
huge thank you to our special guests for sharing
such incredible insights today. And of course,
a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners,
for tuning in and spending your time with us.
Remember, networking isn't about being perfect.
It's about being present. So take what you've
learned today, get out there, and make some meaningful
connections. If you enjoyed this episode, don't
forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share
it with someone who could use a little networking
inspiration. Let's keep the conversation going.
You can find me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or
my website, Michael. Remember, until next time,
keep practicing, keep connecting, and keep building
those relationships. This is Michael signing
off. Take care and happy networking.