Over the past year, I have become actively involved with my family in a business that serves the wedding and events industry www.piazzainthevillage.com. The business services families that have a wedding and reception along with business meetings, training, parties etc. We built a 15,000 square foot facility that has a wedding chapel, courtyard and an events/ballroom center for the wedding reception and business event.
The business is fascinating on many levels. For this corporate perspective, I wanted to focus on the "emotional decision" that a bride and her family goes through. This "emotional decision" happens a lot in business but my guess is that we miss it. We miss the emotional decisions made by employees, customers, board members, vendors and even the ones we make ourselves. We shouldn't miss them anymore.
A bride and her family comes to make a decision on where they are going to have the most important day of their life. The bride has been thinking about it since she was a very little girl. The mom has been thinking about it longer than the bride existed. Sometimes she has thought about it since the very day she chose to make her future daughters wedding day different than her own. The father has either been trying to figure out how he would pay for it (weddings are the second largest savings for a daughter after college), wondered about who the guy would be or how he was going to hold it together walking down the aisle. For now we will just leave out of the equation: the grandparents, siblings, groom, grooms parents, etc.
The decisions to be made are multiple (location, photographer, flowers, date, video, dress, tux, gifts, hotels, honeymoon, etc., etc.)and they need to be made far in advance. What makes these decisions even more complex is how much emotion is tied to them. Everyone is emotional and not always completely rational. Everyone has a different reason and a different perspective. Sometimes the smallest thing sets off behavior or reactions that just were not expected or planned for. With all this pressure and stress they still find a way to make it happen, make it turn out how they had "dreamed" and have their perfect day even with all the emotion.
Brides make it happen with the emotion because they have the following:
1, Brides have vision- They know what they want. They have "seen it" over and over again in their heads.
2. Brides work hard (mothers included here...)- Brides get engaged and they get focused. They have lists, expectations and plans. They are purposed and they get to it.
3. Brides seek out experts and references- Brides look to other brides, professionals and all resources that help them find the right solution. They use other peoples expeience to help them.
4. Brides follow their heart- When all is said and done (yes, they must be able to afford it.) a bride just knows that it is the right fit for her, groom and family. She knows it because she has lived and breathed it for so long; she just knows this is her selection.
Our employees make decisions every day about how they are going to work and support our companies and our customers. Front-line management makes decisions every day on leading their teams and their response to customers and upper management. Everyone at every level is making decisions. The reality is that far more of these decisions are wrought with emotion that we fail to see or we were not able to see. It might be problems at home (divorce, sick kids or parents, etc.), politics at work, health issues, past employment experiences, the economy, fear of layoffs, fear of failure to just name a few.
While we might expect an emotional bride; we are often blindsided by an emotional employee or what seems like a irrational decision. The next time it just does not look "right" to you; take a closer look at the emotion surrounding the decisions or behavior. For many unions do not seem remotely rational. Nor do some of the behaviors or decisions made. Maybe is is simply the "emotion" getting in the way.
Take a "bridal view" as shown above. Get vision, Get focused, Get professional help, Get right with your "gut or heat".
If brides can make their perfect day through the emotion; your business can as well.
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