Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Five Principles I Have Learned About Leadership Part 3

Adjusting to different types of people.

On my honeymoon 12 years ago Stacey and I purchased a program from a guy named Marshal Sylver who was a motivational speaker and on his infomercial for some reason we just wanted to purchase his program. We listened to those tapes over and over again.

He taught a principle called "Mirroring and Matching" this is also tied into another principle I learned in the corporate world for sales and leadership called "Adjusting your personal style." Basically what this means is to make sure that when talking to someone who might be either slow or fast in their speech then you would do the same.

I am a "just give me the facts" guy not a "give me all the details" guy, so when communicating with me I prefer people who cut through all the stuff to get to the real facts.

This works for both sales and leadership. When leading someone who needs all the details then you can give it to them, if they are a fast talker then in most cases you might want to speed up you speech to keep their attention. Some people look you in the eye the entire time they are speaking and some don't. I have even heard of some cultures where looking them in the eye is insulting.

However if they feel like you are copying them and their speech it can also seem like you are mocking them. There are also some people who are extremely as they say "thick skinned" and some you have to be a little more gentle to when giving correction or direction. Has this ever happened to you?

What are your thoughts?

1 comment:

Vince Farrell said...

yep, that's a lesson learned the hard way for me. But I have learned and the results are much better.