Companion to Moving to Outcomes
Let’s start with what would seem like an obvious question—a simplified, but surprisingly accurate, representation of the choice many marketers face today.
Let’s start with what would seem like an obvious question—a simplified, but surprisingly accurate, representation of the choice many marketers face today.
This past spring I spoke to a group of university seniors and graduate students. They wanted to know what they need to be successful when they enter the world of work.
My first answer was the ability to listen because it’s at the heart of influence, creating relationships, dealing with complaints, and demonstrating empathy.
My second answer was process skills—the ability to participate in and manage group conversations. Individuals can improve their influence and impact by sharpening their process skills.
We work on specialized conversations—presentation skills, negotiating skills, sales approaches, conflict resolution. We haven’t been students of how to work with others or how to be great with people by paying attention to how we converse with each other. Nor have we worked on the process skills that are key to conducting conversations in group settings.
In workshops on individual and group effectiveness, I ask people to consider that after mastering their core discipline of accounting or engineering, their next area of focus should be conversation: speaking, listening, social skills, and meeting skills—all of which are at the heart of being effective in an organization.
Here are six reasons why honing your conversational process skills is a worthwhile investment of your time:
Universities have heard the call from large organizations to train students to be able to work in teams. Unfortunately, the response has been to put students on teams, hoping that experience would make them effective working in groups. I’m not so sure it does. Teaching process skills would—especially if listening in an attentive fashion were included
Listening is a master skill for personal and professional greatness..
—Robin S. Sharma, Canadian author
- Paul Axtell, author of Make Meetings Matter: How to Turn Meetings from Status Updates to Remarkable Conversations
Let’s start with what would seem like an obvious question—a simplified, but surprisingly accurate, representation of the choice many marketers face today.