Vista en Español
Being “great on the job” has more to do with communication than just about anything
else. Well, maybe a few engineers would
argue that point. But I would say that
even an engineer has to state their case.
Technical prowess goes unnoticed unless the engineer can explain the
value of his work. Great communication
can move things forward, heal the inevitable wounds and build an environment of
trust and confidence. Take a look at the
below book summary and you’ll get the picture of how Jodi Gluckman sees the
importance communication in the work place.
Jodi Glickman, communications consultant and author of Great on
the Job, once applied to Cornell’s Park Leadership
Fellowship program, a $72,000 two-year scholarship for Cornell’s Johnson
Graduate School of Management. Glickman was not
offered the scholarship. Undeterred, she phoned the director of the program to
lobby for the award; the next day the program director personally called her to
offer her the fellowship.
Glickman’s life story, which includes time spent as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile and as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs,
is filled with many remarkable triumphs of communication (including ranking
first out of more than 300 Goldman Sachs associates in communication). With
straightforward two- or three-step strategies, Glickman tries to share the
fundamental secrets of her extraordinary communication skills.
For example, Glickman offers the following three-step strategy for managing
expectations:
Step one: Ask for timing/expectation. Get the details, ask for time to
think about it, then either confirm the assignment with the manager or move to
step two.
Step two: Be transparent about your workload. If the timing or
parameters aren’t doable, explain what’s on your plate and ask for time to come
up with an alternate timeline. Don’t accept an unrealistic deadline.
Step three: After serious consideration, present a detailed timeline and
action plan for completing the project.
Many of Glickman’s strategies include “example language” —
hypothetical conversations illustrating the strategy at work. For example, the
following dialogue illustrates the three strategies (shown in brackets) for
asking for time off at a particularly inopportune time:
Susan, I’d like to talk to
you about taking the weekend of July 4th off. My closest friend is getting
married in Maine. [Highlight the Issue]
I wanted to let you know
early so that we can plan accordingly. I will take care of everything I need to
in advance, and I’ll make sure that the team knows exactly where all of my
pages stand. [Cover Your Bases]
Do you think that will be
a problem or can we make it work? Is there anything else you’d like me to take
care of in advance? [Get Buy-in]
The G-I-F-T
Four themes run throughout the book that, according to Glickman, are key to
effective communication. These four themes are summarized in the acronym GIFT:
Generosity. Sharing information, sharing credit, and keeping others’
agendas and schedules in mind will go a long way toward smooth communication
and cooperation.
Initiative. Asking, “How can I help?” is not actually all that
helpful, Glickman argues. Give people choices so that they don’t have to dream
up answers on their own.
Forward Momentum. This is Glickman’s phrase for nurturing and
maintaining relationships that may prove to be vital in the future.
Transparency. More than just a question of honesty, transparency means
volunteering difficult information, whether it’s alerting people to problems
and mess-ups or acknowledging when you don’t know something, writes Glickman.
Be Strategically
Proactive
Transparency is key in many of the strategies in Great
on the Job. It’s also vital to be strategically proactive,
Glickman writes. Excelling at the work you are given is not enough to advance.
Success depends on proactively learning new skills, assisting others and
knowing how to diplomatically redirect unwanted tasks (by accepting the task,
but emphasizing that you are interested in more challenging or valuable
assignments).
In the second part of the book, readers learn how to “move up the learning
curve” by managing expectations, and knowing how to ask for help and
feedback. “Stay out of Trouble” is the third part of the book, and
includes advice on how to raise a red flag and manage a crisis.
The final chapter is on selling yourself. And there is perhaps no better person
to give advice on selling yourself than an author who only needed a casual
conversation to vault over 10 competing classmates and land a prized
internship.
Think about one of the great coaches you’ve been involved with. This could have been in sports, at work or at home. As you bring this person to mind, think about what you noticed about them that made them great in your point of view. You may have noticed that they were motivational, positive and action-driven. If so, you’re not alone. These are the qualities we look for in coaches.
Think about the last time you were talking to someone and they were paying attention. They seemed to be interested. They were “connected” with you and “in the moment”. This is to say they were actually listening. If you’re lucky enough to have had that experience recently, how’d that make you feel? I’ll bet most of you are saying things like “honored”, “respected”, “cared about”, “relieved” or even “shocked”. I get that. And anyone that has an audience of one or more gets it, too.
Being in the search profession for so many years has put us in the front seat on a daily basis to organizational challenges and conflicts. Here’s a story about two parties on opposite sides of the divide between sales and manufacturing and how they learned to help each other succeed by walking in each other’s footsteps. We’d like to share it with you.
