June Connections video: This is key to moments of connection

I don’t know about you, but when the pandemic started and we all went into isolation, I experienced a pretty wide variety of emotions.

At first, I thought the lack of connection was kind of a bummer — but after a little while, I started to really embrace it. I loved the feeling of working remotely and having more solitude during my days.

Did you feel that way, too?

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way, though. People are once again craving deeper connections with their internal teams, their clients, and their professional network.

In recent years at Syte Consulting Group, I’ve been exploring the concept of “giving eyeballs” — that is, giving focused, eye-to-eye attention to the people we connect with — and the benefits are enormous.

In today’s video, I’m giving you a few of my tips for “giving eyeballs” in a way that truly matters for your people.

Watch the video:

Hi there! Erin Koss, CEO at Syte Consulting Group here with you today.

Welcome to the month of June! Summer is almost here. I know we love this in the Pacific Northwest so very much and it’s a time to reconnect with friends and family and get outdoors.

For us in a way that it is so meaningful. We are ready.

There’s something else I’ve been thinking a lot about recently as we’re kind of coming out of the heavy lift of the pandemic is this thing that I call giving eyeballs.

It’s a term that I came up with when I was on a river trip several years ago with some women doing some just personal work and reconnecting with nature and being together.

I’ve really sunk into and thought about this concept a lot since then and the idea is there are times in our lives when we’re so busy and we’re doing so many things that we forget to just take a moment, stop, and get eyeballs to eyeball with.

This is a meaningful way to just pause and really look deeply into somebody else and be present with them. I’ve thought about that a lot recently at work with our own team and with our clients. When the pandemic started, we were all in isolation and we thought that this is really a bummer. Then we started to go, wow. This is kind of nice. I’m by myself. I get a little more space. I started to really embrace it, frankly, and feel like, gosh, I really loved the distance a little bit.

I’ve talked to a few people that have felt a similar way. We were starting to do so much work remotely, which in our business ended up saving clients around $2000 to $5,000 a week in travel expenses. They were like, wow, this is great for us too, right? The wear and tear on our team was less because they were home with their families more.

All of that started to feel good for a while. As the pandemic wore on, we started to come out of that, we got used to that new normal. I started to realize it didn’t feel very good and I wasn’t connecting with people like I needed to, even though it felt good to have some space.

My body and my mind were feeling like when I did get little moments of connection. Out in the world, I was energized and elevated in a way I had forgotten about and I wondered how is that showing up for you.

How is that showing up for you? I would just be so interested to hear how you’re managing that with personally and with your teams and family but back to getting eyeballs. The encouragement I want to leave you with today is where in your life as things get busy.

Going into the summer, you think about the people in your life like family, friends, neighbors, or those across the country where giving my eyeballs could be really meaningful. This is possible over Zoom or in-person, so I think either work but it’s that deep intention of seeing somebody else and remembering how important it to do so. I can tell you that at least for me when I get on the other side of giving eyeballs to somebody with the intention of it being meaningful and supportive to them. Giving you eyeballs means that you mean so much to myself, my firm, and the people who are here with every day.

Thank you for that. Go out and get give somebody eyeballs and let know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you!
Have a great day!