BUSINESS SKILLS 3/2020 Business Spotlight 41their beliefs, their life priorities, their passions. Re-
specting and connecting to others — finding the
points where your motivations intersect — is the
key to creating trusting relationships. Connections
take time and patience to build, but the reward in the
longer term is a network that will support you and
enable you to perform better.➻ Deliver benefits
A useful rule in professional life is to forget about
objectives. We often over-focus on our objectives
and forget to think about collective benefits. So, as
you prepare your next presentation, start your next
meeting or negotiation, or sit down to dinner with a
business partner, think not just about what you need
but what others can gain by listening to you.
Delivering benefits to others is, ultimately, about
having a mindset of collaboration. This affects both
what you speak about and how you speak about it.
You spend less time trying to convince others of
something and more on collecting ideas. There is less
disagreement and our curiosity increases, as we try
to discover what really matters to others. Of course,
not all professional life can or should be spent serv-
ing others. But take time to consider seriously how
useful and effective it is to communicate your own
agenda as frequently as you do.➻ Think “group” — and facilitate
Many meetings that I observe fragment, with the
louder or more senior individuals simply arguing
each other into submission or frustrated silence. In
very few meetings do I see a strong focus on facili-
tating a group process that liberates the talents and
perspectives in the group in order to take the best
decisions possible. Yet facilitative behaviours are
surprisingly basic in character. They involve posing
Illustrationen: tomozina/iStock.comlots of questions to stimulate a flow of ideas, using
affect sth. [E(fekt]
, etw. beeinflussen
agenda [E(dZendE]
, hier: Anliegen
argue sb. into sth.
[(A:gju: )Intu]
, jmdn. (durch Debat-
tieren) zu etw. bringen
brief sb. on sth.
[(bri:f Qn]
, jmdn. über etw.
informieren
decline: be in ~ [di(klaIn]
, zurückgehen
engage sb. [In(geIdZ]
, jmdn. einbeziehen
ensue [In(sju:]
, folgen, sich ergeben
facilitate sth.
[fE(sIlEteIt]
, etw. erleichtern, fördern;
auch: moderieren
foster sth. [(fQstE]
, etw. fördern
intersect [)IntE(sekt]
, sich überschneiden
invisible [In(vIzEb&l]
, unsichtbar
liberate sth. [(lIbEreIt]
, etw. freisetzen
mindset [(maIndset]
, Denkweise, Einstellung
objective [Eb(dZektIv]
, Ziel(vorstellung)
scope [skEUp]
, (Handlungs-)Spielraum
submission [sEb(mIS&n]
, Unterordnung
unravel sth. [Vn(rÄv&l]
, etw. entwirren;
hier: zunichtemachenpositive feedback to encourage this flow further,
engaging quieter speakers, silencing the louder ones
and fostering a climate in which people feel safe to
say what they really think. Individuals who think
about the group and less about themselves — and
who can stimulate high performance in meetings —
are exceptionally valuable to organizations. So, learn
the art of facilitation.➻ Be a creative negotiator
When professionals sit down and negotiate — even
if you have briefed them on the benefits of “win-win”
approaches — something close to warfare usually
ensues. This is primarily because professionals fail
to think beyond their initial positions, and are thus
drawn into the defence of their various views and
needs. But a key attribute of highly effective negoti-
ators is creativity — the ability to come to a negotia-
tion openly and to transform the scope in such a way
that the negotiation can focus on exploring new and
potentially mutually beneficial options. A key rhe-
torical skill here is using “why”-questions to discover
the other person’s underlying interests — what really
matters to them.- Intercultural competence
Intercultural thinking exploded into life in the 1990s.
It was very popular for over 15 years, but is now
somewhat in decline. On the one hand, this is posi-
tive — if it reduces the focus on national cultures. But
it is also a pity because intercultural thinking helps
to focus attention on diversity and on the deep and
sometimes invisible differences in values and beliefs
that can unravel cross-border communication and
collaboration.
Use questions
to help the
dialogue to flowBuild positive
relationships
to get results