Avoiding Unproductive Conversations
On this morning’s HBR IdeaCast(85) Podcast, the featured guest was Marshall Goldsmith, who writes the Ask the Coach Blog at HarvardBusiness.org. Goldsmith and Paul Michaelman, the IdeaCast’s discussion leader, talked about counterproductive communication in corporate America and how sixty (60%) percent of workplace conversations involve employees discussing their self-importance or harshly criticizing their coworkers. It is in management’s best interest to mitigate these conversations because of the reputation risk associated with the disclosure of sensitive information. For example, a boastful or inflammatory employee may exercise poor judgment outside of the workplace and disclose private data to unrelated third party. To help my manager mitigate this risk, I have adopted a process of asking myself several questions before I speak.
Why would I want to say this?
This question forces you to think at a very high level.
Personally, if I am unable to ascertain a reason as to why I am going to say something, I tend not to say anything at all. Additionally, if the reason is anger, jealousy, fear, or any other emotion that is best kept out of the work place, I will also tend not to say anything at all.
Am I right?
This question forces you to make a decision.
In prior experiences, when I felt that I was right about an issue or a situation, I would speak my opinion at will. And my colleagues were not pleased. This behavior lead to a series of humbling experiences while I was in college, and I have learned that being right all the time quickly loses its novelty.
Is it worth the risk of being wrong?
This question forces you to think about the consequences of your actions.
In college, my free expression of my opinions were both self-gratifying and inflammatory of my peers. I cringe at the memories of what I said when I was an undergraduate, but use those experiences to help me avoid making the same mistakes as a professional. It has been my experience that most of the time, it isn’t worth the risk of being wrong.
Overall, this process has lead me to sublimate my ego so that I may have honest and productive conversations with my colleagues.
Posted on April 15th, 2008 | By: bootstrap economist | Filed under Banking
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