Having read a great article titled "Want to master the art of negotiation? You need emotional intelligence" by Helen Brand (CEO of ACCA) via CityAm this morning, it reminded me of a number of posts Passle have produced around humanising your digital content.

Helen uses Theresa May negotiating our Brexit deal as an extreme example of using empathy as part of the negotiating process. To get her deal through, she must listen to her constituents and colleagues, produce something that engages them and deliver it in a meaningful way. Influence and deal-making is not just the domain of global politicians and policymakers. It applies to most businesspeople in their daily roles, where they have a small number of key clients and customers to influence. 

The ACCA research, mentioned by Helen - "The Future: Drivers of Change and Future Skills", identified that finance professionals will increasingly need a broad blend of capabilities to succeed. These being - Intellect, creativity, emotional intelligence, vision, experience, mastery of the digital world, and technical and ethical skills. These are the seven key sought-after skills employers are seeking today and for the decade ahead.

So how do you evidence your emotional intelligence and empathy towards your clients or prospects needs? Especially outside of a 1-to-1 personal interaction.

The most engaging evidence we see produced relates back to people sharing their personal experience and evidencing their deep understanding of what their clients are probably experiencing. 

Here are our 3 key tips for producing personal content:

• Think about which companies and the people you want to influence
• Write about a solution to a challenge important to them. You can discover these by checking out their posts, tweets, likes and shares on LinkedIn
• Lastly and most importantly, share to your social networks