Greater Reading Chamber Commerce Quarterly Spring 2017 - 11

GreaterReadingChamber.org

thinking, "Well, that was one-sided! The
whole thing was about him." We all hate
it when others can't stop talking about
their own thoughts and ideas but we're
blind to how often we do it ourselves.
Organizations would be wise to put
more emphasis on training staff how
to approach and execute meaningful
conversations - and it all starts with
questions. This is when the magic happens.
Individuals, teams, and their organizations
begin to blossom and flourish around
effective communication.

Train on generational similarities,
not generational differences -
Emotional Intelligence and
Conversational Capacity.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is an
ability to recognize and understand our
emotions so to manage our reactions.
Emotions are not a choice and you cannot
manage them. They are psychological
reactions to events in life and can only
affect you. On the contrary, you can (and
should) manage your reactions to these
feelings. This is where we can get into
trouble because our reactions will be
perceived as good or bad; and they affect
everyone.
When employees are well versed in
self-awareness and self-management, productive communication occurs. This then
leads to heightened conversational capacity.
What is conversational capacity?
"Conversational capacity isn't just another
aspect of effective teamwork - it defines
it. A team that cannot talk about its most
pressing issues isn't really a team at all. It's
just a group of people that can't work together
effectively when it counts." - Craig Weber,
Author of Conversational Capacity.
Like EQ, conversational capacity is
about approaching conversations, being
genuinely open, really asking, and paying
attention to the other person's response.
It's about interrogating the issue and not
the person. When people engage in this
everybody gets to advance towards their
better selves, as individuals and together
as a team.
While the workplace may be in constant change, one thing will remain the
same; our need for communication with

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others. Here at JFC Staffing Companies, we
treat dialogue as a discipline. It begins with the
onboarding process when new hires go through
three training sessions with me personally (CEO
a.k.a. Chief Enthusiasm Officer). The idea is to
set our people up for success when communicating with others. After all, communicating
in open, balanced, meaningful ways creates
winning mindsets, winning teams, and winning
organizations. Who doesn't want that?
My closing advice to the managers reading
this: Exhausting precious time and energy on

all the differences between generations is
futile. Focus on what each era needs, which
is meaningful communication with others. Invest in training your people to have
meaningful conversations. Once mastered,
everything else seems more manageable and
conquerable within multigenerational teams.
Reach out to me if you're interested in
learning more about these topics. I offer
insight and training, free of charge, to area
businesses as my way of giving back to the
community in which I live and work.
11
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Greater Reading Chamber Commerce Quarterly Spring 2017
