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9 questions to assure you truly understanding what you see and hear!
Your Awareness Aptitude
9 questions to assure you truly
understanding what you see and hear
6 Aug 2007
Obviously last Wednesday, August 1 got everyone’s attention when the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. We offer our condolences to those families with losses.
My daughter called me later that evening and indicated
everyone was fine on their end. The son-in-law and grandson
were fine. They had headed to the Twins Game that evening,
stopped for some snacks, then decided to take University
instead of 35W and the bridge.
Upon hearing about the bridge on the radio, they went to a
parking lot with a high view and could see some of the
carnage. No one is sure if they would have been by, on or
past the bridge when it collapsed, but glad they made
another choice.
What is really interesting is how our politicians and
government leaders have now moved infrastructure repair to
the front of the discussion, even over Iraq!
So what is the connection to you as a manager or a
salesperson?
What is meant by “Your Awareness Aptitude”? Read on to find
out .......
I want to start this out with an example.
An Amish boy and his father were making their first trip to
a large mall. They were amazed by everything they saw,
after all it was the first time they had seen most of this.
What really intrigued by the two shine silver walls that
moved apart and then back together again.
“What is it?” the young boy asked.
The father, who had never seen an elevator, responded,
“Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I
don not know what it is.”
While the boy and father stood watching in amazement, a
very large and older women went up to the wall, pushed a
button and stepped into the small room behind the sliding
walls.
The father and son watched as the walls closed, the numbers
on the dial above the walls went up in number, stopped and
then came back down to 1.
The walls opened up and out walks a very attractive 20 year
old women.
The father said quietly to his son…. “Go get your mother.”
Now every one of us knows what an elevator is and that it
moves people up and down large buildings. Yet imagine being
someone who sees it for the first time and is trying to
understand what is happening!
Obviously the father and son had a very limited
understanding of something we take for granted everyday.
Because of this they come to a very erroneous conclusion
that it changes how people look!
Now we can laugh at this and see the humor in their
assumptions. Yet are we doing the same thing when we listen
to our customers or employees? Are we fully aware of
what is being said or done?
Here are some quick questions to ask ourselves to check our
Awareness Aptitude:
Take your last conversation with an employee or last sales
call, how would you answer these questions? How many might
be a challenge?
The real point is that we should be able to address all
these questions to some degree of accuracy!
Now you’ll note we put average as the ability to address 4
of the 9!
The reality is that most people, even leaders, managers,
politicians and salespeople are not always aware of all 9
points!
Why not? Because we have never really been trained to do
so! Did you get listening and observing skills in school?
In collage? In your last company training?
Yes, every program and seminar you have been to talks about
listening and maybe observing, but do they actually give
you the tools to be a better listener or what to listen for
or observe?
My guess is probably not!
To cover these 9 questions in the balance of this article
would be nice yet not realistic. What I will recommend is
jotting these 9 questions down and being aware of them in
your conversations over the next couple of days. See what
happens to your observations and listening because of them.
Just last evening I realized how not having these in front
of me caused a significant miscommunication!
I wonder if our politicians and leaders had always aware of
these 9 in their conversations over the past decade, if a
bridge in Minneapolis might have had a different outcome?
When counseling with managers and salespeople, I often ask
them these 9 questions in reference to an issue they are
dealing with. Guess what the results are! Yep, they realize
they really do not have a complete understanding of the
other parties view or context!
What happens though is they can now go back and approach
the situation with new insight and new objectives. When
they do, the results will usually be different and more
positive for both parties!
As a sales professional, this should be our main focus, to
get as great an understanding about our customers as we
can. As managers the same applies to our reports and how
they see the world.
Let’s avoid being the father and son and assuming outcomes
based on erroneous input and references. Let’s instead ask
the right questions and get the full view of the other
party. Then we can truly start making a great difference
for our team and customers!
Want increase your “Awareness Aptitude”? The Leadership
Strategies program will move your awareness forward. You
can get more information here.
http://www.busarconline.com/Competitiveedge.html
We will tackle the 9 questions over the next few articles,
be sure to be here!
Till next week, work on one of the 9!
Harlan Goerger
National Director of Training
© Harlan Goerger 8/2007
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