Stumble it!If we want to be successful, we don’t get to choose whether or not to develop and enhance our conversational prowess. SCHMOOZE OR LOSE is the rule for both personal and professional success.
Formal research from Harvard to Stanford and places in between supports my informal findings that the ability to converse and communicate is a key factor in success. A survey of managers sponsored by the National Association of Colleges and Employees rated “oral communication skills” as the most important.
As corporations continue to merge, jobs disappear and industries are off-shored, we need conversation and communication more than ever before. Networks of loyal customers and relationships become pivotal. We not only establish, develop, and nurture those relationships by our actions, but also by our exchanges and our conversation.
PAY ATTENTION is the watchword for this century. Pay attention to projects, to details, to trends, and most of all to people.
UNEQUIVOCAL EQUATION
In the early 1990′s, Dr. Thomas Harrell, Professor Emeritus of Business at Stanford University, studied a group of MBAs a decade after their graduation. His goal was to identify the traits of those who were most successful.
He found that grade point average had no bearing on success. The one trait he identified in common among the “successfuls” was their verbal fluency. They were confident conversationalists who could talk to anyone: colleagues, investors, strangers, bosses, or associates. They could speak well in front of audiences, and they were easy to talk to.
\\ tags: Business, Networking