When is the last time a short conversation has had a long-term effect on you?
On who you are?
How you see yourself?
How you see the world?
How you interact with the world?
What would it be like if your interactions with others had similarly long-live positive impacts on people?
How would it change not only the lives of those around you, but your own life?
There is conventional wisdom on how to do better at this:
- talk less, listen earlier, more, and more effectively
- “yes and” rather than “yes but”
- replacing “you can’t unless” with “you can if”
- more empathy
And while techniques like these can help remove the barriers, they are insufficient.
The literature lists a dozen skills required for effectively having transformational conversations.
I am only deficient in 12 of them.
So, how hard can this be?
The first of those twelve is being emotionally trustable.
And that probably starts with getting my snarky tendencies under control.
Might be a while before I need to worry about what the second is.
