How to get what you want. And make others feel good about it.
Posted on: Friday, May 26, 2017 Category: Blog (57)< 1 min read
All conversation is improvisation. Why? Because we can never know what the other person is going to say. We only ever know what we want to say, and more often than not, we are incapable of even that!
So, how can you make sure that your meetings are productive? How can you enter into purposeful conversations that help you achieve your aim? The answer is – use verbs.
The beauty of verbs is that they are about doing something to someone… When you flatter – you have to flatter someone. So using verbs makes you concentrate on the other person and how you make them feel.
The most influential people are able to use multiple verbs to make a person experience a range of feelings during the course of a conversation. They might:
Flatter: “Those are great shoes, I love them.”
Provoke: “Oh my, did you realise that your project deadline has been brought forward?”
Frustrate: “That must suck for your team…”
Engage: “You know, I have a couple of team members who can help out.”
Admire: “They would really love to get to work with your team.”
Approaching conversations this way allows you to work with the unpredictable responses of the other person and increase your influence as you have a greater, more memorable impact on the other person. And we all know – flattery will get you everywhere.