I have been attending a "Future Leaders" course every Tuesday lunch time. On the surface, it's something set up by FFX to train up the next generation of leaders. But honestly, it's to retain itching Generation Y staff who are busting for a Management gig.
Still, the sessions so far have been informative and as the presenters are current Managers at FFX, the stories about their own Management experiences are reassuring. i.e. Reassuring in the fact that they sucked at it as well in the beginning.
It's also been an eye opener as you come to realise that Management are people too. They get nervous about presenting, and they also care a lot about how they are being received. Today, it was a Communication lecture from the almighty Guy. The man who has communication down to an Art.
The presentation was awe inspiring as he was articulate and clear, soft-spoken yet funny. Everything he was theoretically teaching us about communication, he was able to demonstrate through the way he communicated and presented.
The things I took out of the presentation include:
1) Acknowledge that communication transfers from one person's experiences and filters, through to another person's experiences and filters. So Know yourself. Know your audience.
2) Self Awareness is key. This can only be achieved by sitting down after a conversation and self reflecting. Thinking about how I could have done better - not in a self-beating way, but constructively. Thinking about how my message was received by the person you were communicating to. How could you have communicated better? Did I talk too much about myself? Reflect, Learn and Change.
3) Have different Acts. 'The Story Teller', 'The Sleek Professional', 'The Comedian', 'Cool, Calm and Collected'. (For me, I'm the 'Goofy Nerd')
4) As a Manager, you need to get your staff's buy in.
5) As a Manager, be wary of your presentation (body gesture, expressions) as staff members read into all of it.
6) Acknowledge that everybody is at a different level of change.
Those were the key points which really ringed true for me. In particular the importance of 'self awareness' and the need to have different 'acts'.
Going to get the presentation off Astrid tomorrow so I can study it some more.
It was a good, productive day at work. I feel lucky again.
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