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100 (Or So) Ways to Succeed #102
Written by: Tom PetersArticle Overview: Purposefully Practice Listening (And "Hearing")
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Free Download - I Hate MBAs/Redux By Tom Peters |
100 (Or So) Ways to Succeed #102
Purposefully Practice Listening
(And "Hearing")
I'm dealing with a thorny problem. Even thought of calling my shrink—he's my "life coach" as much as my esteemed mental health advisor.
In the end I didn't call him. And you can thank crosstown Manhattan Christmas traffic for that.
I inveterately chat with cabbies—about life, not the weather. This driver-advisor-to-be had been around the circuit a couple of times, as, indeed, I have as well. I laid out my issue pretty damn directly. All issues are the same—in the end, relationship issues (see above). His thoughts were "obvious" (all useful thoughts are, in retrospect) and really turned my thinking on its ear.
On the one hand, I was making idle chatter, as I am wont to do; on the other hand, I really wanted to get his reaction. His take on human interaction is likely to be more profound than mine—given his natural laboratory. I'm almost loath to admit it, though I don't know why, but I actually jotted a couple of notes on my Amtrak ticket stub while he was talking. I gave him a healthy Christmas tip, but the fact is that his advice was priceless— or at least a lot cheaper than my psychiatrist's invoice.
In the last couple of weeks, I've talked about Dave Isay's book, Listening Is an Act of Love, and cool friend Matthew Kelly's The Dream Manager. Both are books about stories and listening and hearing. As is my little "Manhattan Cabbie's Tale." If relationships are "everything" (they are), then listening-hearing-story collecting is Tool #1. Stephen Covey and others are wonderful instructors on this topic. I will not attempt to copy them. My suggestion is simpler: During this holiday season, you'll likely go to cocktail parties, open presents, attend family dinners. While not aiming to spoil your spontaneity, I'd suggest that each of these occasions is an opportunity to purposefully practice listening-hearing-story collecting. I have no tricks, except to say tune deliberately into the process. If you want to give yourself an exam, at the end of the party or whatever, review what you heard-learned that was new about an old friend; I learn new stuff about 20-year friends when I really work on my listening-hearing. And keep in mind, as lodestar, the words from Dale Carnegie: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
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Article Tags: amtrak, cabbie, christmas tip, christmas traffic, cocktail parties, dave isay, family dinners, friend matthew, health advisor, human interaction, life coach, matthew kelly, natural laboratory, relationship issues, retrospect, spontaneity, stephen covey, thorny problem, ticket stub, tool 1
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Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ
- Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed
Ronna Lichtenberg
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From the inside cover:
"As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want."
WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype.
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Anyway, more of the info from the jacket:
"Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work."
The TOC:
1. Pink and Blue
2. The Quck-dry Chapter
3. What's In your head that's not in his
4. The Me, Inc Mindset
5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want
6. Identifying Prospects
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8. Crafting the pitch
9. Pricing the pitch
10. Packaging the pitch
11. Delivering the pitch
12. Closing
Conclusion
A Word to the guys
The Empathy Quotient
The Systemizing Quotient
Bibliography
And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.
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