In this week's video
a couple of surprising lessons I learned
from an introverted direct report of mine
on how to get the best outcome
from meetings with other people.
Hi, I'm Campbell Such
This is Mind Bite Thursday
Your weekly dose of
The Human Edge in Technology
This week
I'd like to share with you
a couple of insights that I gained
that really surprised me
from an introverted direct report of mine
will call him Paul
because well
that's his name
successful guy
team lead
So the two things that I learnt
The first thing was
what happens when
you're talking with someone
and they need to write something down
And the second thing is
what when you ask a question
and someone needs to work through
just what the answer is
So the first one is
The first thing that Paul taught me
was by example.
We’d be in a weekly meeting
that we might have
or another meeting
and we'd be talking
and he’d be telling me some things
that I need to make a note
So I'd start to write it down and
it took me a few times to work this one out
But all of a sudden Paul would stop
I’d realize Paul would have stopped talking
and the moment that I finished writing it
he could see that I'd finished
He’d start again.
He’d just pick up where he left off from.
The key benefit of that is that
it's really difficult to do two things at once
to write, to think about
what you want to write down
and to be listening to someone else.
And so what tends to happen is
you either don't make good notes
or you scrawl … which you can’t read
when you get back to them
or you miss out on some of the things
that have been talked about
by the other person.
So, what Paul taught me
and what proved to be incredibly valuable
which I now practice is
when someone else needs to
write something down
when you're in a meeting with them
just stop talking.
Let him finish
and then carry on
from where you were.
Incredibly powerful
and really useful to make sure
that you get your point across
in that the other person understands it
and they're not only half listening.
The second one is
when I would ask Paul a question
Paul’s an introvert
and he would always take time
to think really carefully about a question
and what I learned was
that the best thing I could do
when I asked the question
was to shut up
just to stop talking
Now, we all know we should be able to do that,
but Paul would take his time to think through
and sometimes it would feel like
it would have gone on forever.
But the amazing thing was I stop talking
he processed
and I just let him think
and then he'd come back with the
most amazing answers, insights,
things that I never would have considered
solutions to problems that
were well thought through
that had constructed in that time
that I let him think
and didn't continue to talk
and interrupt his thinking.
So, a couple of things to consider
and to ponder for this week
One is when you're interacting with someone else
and they need to write something down
stop talking
until they finished and then carry on
because that will help you
get your message across in the best way possible
and be much more likely to be understood
and the message communication clarity.
And the second one is
when you ask someone a question
you can see they need to think about it
till you become aware that they need to think about it.
Just stop talking
let them process it.
Don't be hurried.
Don't be rushed
let them think it through
and then they can come back
and when they do you might be surprised
at the power of the answer in the question
So, thanks to Paul for those insights.
So, I hope it's something that you can consider,
ponder, maybe use
in your interactions with other people
and not just with introverts
that same applies to anyone
when they need to think about something
or when you need to write something down
or they need to write something down.
If you'd like more like this
there’s a couple of things you can do.
First of all,
subscribe to the integration Catalyst YouTube channel.
There's a whole library of videos like this up there
categorized into all sorts of playlists
around human skills
and how you can better grow your career at a higher rate
definitely worth subscribing
and picking up all the new ones
that come through
and looking back through the old catalog
and the second one is
there's I have a bonus gift
a special report called
“How to Communicate with Power and Influence”
It's a complimentary copy
free for you
16 pages that will help you
wherever you are in your journey
whether you just starting out on your career
or whether you're a you've moved on
you really getting some success that
could really help take your
communication to the next level
and feel free to share that with anyone else
you think might get some value for it.
So, that's Campbell Such
Mind Bite Thursday for this week
Over and out
See ya …