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Career Tips - Issue # 13 (March 2005) FREE bimonthly newsletter dedicated to your career development. You'll need less than 10 minutes to read this newsletter. The Secret of Good Communication: Keep Quiet! "How are you?" How many times have you asked this question and then not bothered about the reply? How many times have you answered the same question without anyone paying attention to you? Research studies show most of us are poor listeners. We think so long as we hear, we listen. That's far from reality. In fact, many people think good communication is about speaking well. Great communicators, however, think otherwise. In the words of Larry King, the host of Larry King Live on CNN and the man who is paid millions for speaking, "To be a good talker, you must be a good listener." Tim Sebastian, the award winning presenter of BBC's HARDtalk interview programme and the man who conducts over 200 interviews per year, revealed "listening" was the secret to his strength of asking penetrating questions, while speaking to the Times of India newspaper during his visit to India in 2002. Top-flight businessmen, seasoned politicians and brilliant teachers-all know listening is essential to good communication and performance. Interestingly, we have all been taught how to read, write and speak during our school days. Do you remember being trained in listening skills? No wonder, most of us don't even think of listening as a skill. >>CAREER TIP: For a start, observe: How people suddenly interrupt you before you finish a sentence. How normal discussions often turn into heated arguments (even in personal life) because people refuse to listen to each other. How people spend most of their time in the office. According to some estimates, people spend 75 percent time in communicating with each other. In addition, think about job interviews. How can a person give correct answers and secure a job without listening properly? Indeed, listening is a critical skill to work effectively, grow and make successful career moves. The starting point in developing listening skills is simple: learn to keep quiet more often and longer. One good way to implement this vital step is to put a reminder in the mobile phone. (I do it! It helps me to keep quiet more than I would normally do.) The next step is to realise real listening is not about listening to the words. According to communication experts, words represent only 10 percent of the overall communication. 30 % is represented by the sounds we hear and the rest 60% by the body language. So mastering listening skills requires not only keeping quiet and using our ears but also using our eyes, brain and heart. As Peter Drucker puts it, "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." Are you listening? Non-stop Career Growth: Defeat Peter Principle Ideally, the growth in a person's career should be limitless. Practically, however, we all know people do get stuck at some point in their careers. Is there a way to avoid getting stagnated in your career? Yes! Just avoid the trap of the Peter Principle. The Peter Principle is a theory originated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, which states: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." The principle was first mentioned in a humorous book titled "The Peter Principle," published in 1969. The Peter Principle works like this: When a person performs well, he is promoted to the next level as a reward. If he performs well again, he gets another promotion. The train, however, comes to a stop when the person eventually reaches a level where he is unable to perform. That's his level of incompetence. The evidence of the Peter Principle can be seen in cases such as: A star salesman gets a promotion to become a manager but then becomes a mediocre performer. Or, a competent and technically-brilliant engineer becomes a manager and then becomes ineffective. Or, a highly-acclaimed professor takes over as the Dean and turns into a non-performer. The problem in all the above cases is same: They all got promoted for doing well at the level below but didn't have the competence to perform at the level above. No more promotions for them! >>CAREER TIP: Everyone has a level of incompetence. The key to avoiding career stagnation is to keep pushing our own level of incompetence higher and higher. In other words, becoming more and more competent. Here are a few steps to achieve the above objective and avoid falling into the trap of the Peter Principle: a. Once promoted to the next level, never keep doing what you were doing at the previous level. You were good at the work you used to do and that's why you got the promotion ,but if you continue to do the same work after the promotion, you have already walked into the trap of the Peter's Principle. b. Doing well in the present position is of course important for the career growth but what is also critical is having the skills/knowledge to perform at the next level. If not, even if you get a promotion, you will be stuck. Systematically acquire new skills and knowledge that would be required to perform at the next level. c. Acquiring higher-level skills and knowledge is not enough. It's equally important to prove that you've it. One way could be to volunteer to take over your boss's duties in his absence or in his presence as well, if he allows. Grab opportunities to work on higher-level assignments. d. Many people like to keep an edge over their subordinates. They want to remain irreplaceable. The last thing they want is to create their own replacement. Paradoxically, they convey a message: "Don't promote me or else there'll be a hole here." Be bold and create your own replacement so that you can move up. That's the way! Will be back after two weeks. Atul Mathur FORWARD IT: Would you like to share what you've just read with any of your friends? Click below to send a link to your friends. To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:subscribe Career Tips ***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur*** |
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