Interviewing: A New Way to Connect with Stakeholders in Your Business
Interviewing: A New Way to Connect with Stakeholders in Your Business
What if I told you that every conversation you have is an interview? What I am proposing is a profound shift in how you view conversations, interactions, and even business practices. The idea that every conversation is an interview invites you to move beyond the surface and explore the human experience, perspective, behavior and purpose.
The Transactional Mindset
A renowned professor of medicine said, “90% of medicine is the ability to interview.” What separates a good doctor from a bad one is their ability to diagnose. There is a standard script every doctor uses to diagnose based on the science of medicine. And, as with many things in life, especially those that involve people, it’s always more than the science. Said in another way, listening is critical to get beyond the presenting issues and into the world of the person. Just as a doctor must look beyond symptoms to understand the underlying issues, so too must you look beyond the immediate facts in any interaction. Whether you’re leading a team, working with a client, selling, managing or simply engaging in everyday conversation, the goal is to see and understand the other person in their full context and to see their view. This not only builds stronger relationships, but also leads to more effective outcomes because it’s grounded in a deeper, more accurate understanding of what’s really going on. A question to consider is are you settling for mere information exchange over valuing connection?
Beyond Traditional Methods of Engagement
Usually, the way to begin an engagement with an employee or client is to interview them. It’s a way to get to know them, see something about them, gather information you think is needed. Conventional wisdom places more value on speaking or presenting information. In this model, the access to what can be created with that employee/client is never seen. It’s only facts and what they want you to know. It’s limited. The essence of effective engagement—whether in leadership, medicine, or any other field—isn’t about collecting data or ticking boxes, but about truly understanding the person you’re interacting with.
The word interview comes from the French entrvue, meaning “to see each other.” In most businesses there is a disconnect between performance, statistics, and the actual person doing the work, or the customer being impacted by the work. Business numbers and statistics are retrospective. They can show what has happened in the past and give indicators for the future. Rather than looking simply at the numbers, consider the secret to driving performance and sales is a human centered phenomenon. A willingness “to see each other.”
Listening is the Critical Element
When people speak, it indicates what’s happening. That you are listening becomes a doorway into the world that they are dealing with. With this view, your listening is more important than your speaking. Interviewing in this context is simply a conversation. Not to gather information, but to authentically get interested and into the way the world is occurring for the other person. It emphasizes the importance of being fully present and genuinely curious about the other person’s world. The way in which they see things is correlate to what they did and will do. It opens new possibilities for connection, insight, and action that might not otherwise be accessible.
Interviewing as an approach not only can transform the way you conduct business, but also enriches your personal life, making every interaction an opportunity for growth and discovery. You don’t have to make up situations and reasons to interview. All interactions are a form of interviewing. It’s about moving from a transactional mindset to one that recognizes the inherent value of truly seeing and being seen by others.
If you are ready to transform your listening from a traditional, information-gathering approach to holding yourself accountable to a process that is outside business as usual, our Executive Coaching Program will expand your capacity to lead beyond familiar frameworks. You will gain access to new perspectives that result in your ability to see, hear, act and engage with your team, clients, and yourself in new ways. Contact me to learn more.
THE PATH TO LEADERSHIP AWAITS. ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP?
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