Today I want to talk to you about listening.
I remember working with an engineer who felt pretty much standoffish. He did his job but it felt hard to connect with him on a human level. To some of my employees he came off as, “I am better than you.” He would answer every question with as few words as possible and had very little time for small talk.
One day I noticed something on his desk that reference the World Cup in South Africa. I asked him about it, expecting the usual quick response, but instead I couldn’t get him to shut-up. That was a good thing given my previous experience with him. He shared pictures and talked about his love of soccer. In the 5 years that I’ve known the guy this was the first time that I really saw him come alive. If I hadn’t paid attention and commented on the new item on his desk, I would have missed the opportunity to discover something new about my co-worker.
The point is we all have points of passion, things that we can’t stop talking about, things we wish people would talk to us about more, things we wish people would notice about us. These things aren’t always obvious, especially at work.
What happens when we connect with someone on something they really care about? We actually connect. It makes getting work done easier.
Remember you don’t have to leave your job to leave a mark, but you do have to start paying attention to the little things.
This is Mike Ambassador Bruny for Brand Inside a Brand, until next time, keep being a better version of you.
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