Making Time for Conversations Matters!

by John Keyser

Many people in the past week have provided me with appreciative feedback about my recent Ideas & Advice post. I wrote about a friend who has joined a new company in an important position. During his first number of months, he has emphasized having conversations with people throughout the company.  He has learned a wealth of helpful information, gained valuable advice, and has developed widespread, genuine relationships. It’s so true that relationships— especially quality relationships—are everything in business.

We develop quality relationships by having conversations. We don’t do this via emails, conference calls, multi-person meetings and newsletters. Instead we must speak with people 1:1, assuming a genuine and curious posture, asking questions about the other person, and letting her or him know that we care and are listening attentively to understand and learn.

Further, if we have an opportunity to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to ask for advice, ideas, and or feedback, we should do it. Being vulnerable is a sign of strength, will be respected, and paves a path to trust.

Body language is also important. Smile, lean forward, give affirmations, let the person know you are interested and that you care.

And, finally, don’t bore the person with talk about you. Ask about the other person. Shoot to listen 80% and talk only 20% of the time.

Some of the people I heard from said they are inspired by the leader I profiled and they intend to have even more conversations with their co-workers. Others said they wish that my friend were in their company and that they would love to work with him.

We all so busy. Way too busy! Pretty much all of us, whatever our position. So what must we do?

• Develop a system where we spend a lot less time in front of our computers and we must question all the meetings we attend. Are they really necessary?
• Make having quality conversations and relationships a top priority.
• Think of our co-workers are our internal clients.

Remember, solid relationships founded on trust help us get our work done, and done well! Conversations are the work of a leader!