The Great Conversational Deficit

One of our clients is India's leading public guide organization, under a comprehensive talent management program, with many eminent leaders with famous careers and outstanding achievements, they spend almost 3 hours alone talking to them about us. , Their pilots, their doubts and their desires. In almost all cases, getting 3 hours from a CXO level leader is a challenge for the internal team, which often requires shortening the duration and sometimes the leaders reject it. The controversial question is why do we need so much time for this interview?

This is just the first performance of a play I called "The Great Conversational Deficit". Action 2 allows leaders to connect with us and open a dialogue about themselves, leading a grateful and inquisitive life. The experience of the second law compelled me to write this article.

In almost all cases the time is reduced. Often the conversation takes a short time and sometimes the leaders themselves suggest not to end it quickly, but to give it another time to end it properly, that is, to continue the conversation and finish it properly. Conversations usually end with a statement "It was meaningful and refreshing, I don't understand why we've been talking about this for so long".

My opinion on why this script ends up in a certain way, often with many other clients, is as follows:

A) Leaders and professionals of different organizations struggle on different fronts, they need an opportunity to relax, reflect, reconnect and revive their internal source on a regular basis, sometimes directed.

B) Most leaders ride roller coasters and sometimes even run on weekends, as do many professional marathons. It creates an image of the hundreds of personalities of the current captain who attend many meetings, town halls, emails, presentations, lunches, dinners, corporate events, offers, and more. Must be present, and at the same time give people confidence and strength. The idea of ​​a formula-free conversation and talking about yourself and your way of life is like taking a psychological break and going on vacation to a quiet, peaceful place. Leaders need and deserve meaningful breaks for dialogue, which will sometimes help them evaluate and refocus their lives. It’s their “my time”.

C) Many business leaders have been excluded from the equity regime, which is evident from the language that leaders use to lead or inspire: midnight oil burning, stomach fire, let's set the ball, dive deep, bite the bullet, and so on. This broad orientation of action, combined with the self-created notion that leaders constantly "play a role" and "observe / evaluate", creates the pressure to be recognized and recognized. Directly a good sounding board company can often hear what has been said and said and express something valuable without an order or judgment, sometimes acting like a cool breeze on earth. It also emphasizes the value of life balance, while corporate life in general slows down deep and focused conversations, breathing and pauses, about speed and action.

D) At a certain level of classification, the work becomes very impersonal. Senior leaders understand that technology takes up a lot of space in their lives. In this dynamic world, some calls are very difficult, such as reduction, exchange of partners, etc. Leadership is often an isolated place, so leaders often want a trusted partner who listens and challenges their cause because they understand it. The emotional and socio-political dynamics of an organization. So they are looking for someone who is interested and interested in hearing their stories and connecting with them as a person. Ask the Prime Minister when he joined a new organization during the epidemic, often without an official agenda to talk to anyone who is absent.

David Bohm, a well-known theoretical physicist, in his book On Dialogue, defines it as a key dialogue: "A flow of money that flows between us, between us and us." The more time I spend with senior executives in a professional capacity, the more I begin to appreciate Bohm's definition. And Act 2 of the drama mentioned above reaffirms the belief that almost all leaders attach the same value to in-depth conversations regardless of the initial response. It’s amazing that deep conversations have become a rare occurrence in places that take us so long, as well as have a huge impact on our lives. It is time for organizations to promise to build this vital capacity in their leaders. That law will start 3!

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The views expressed above are those of the author.

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