Catching the MESSAGE

Catching the MESSAGE

Traditionally, I have learned through my professional life and academics that we have 2 types of communication namely verbal and non-verbal. While I have always been excellent in catching the verbal piece as its hard-core words (written / spoken), I still face a huge challenge catching the non-verbal.

Nowadays the range of non-verbal communication is turning out to be vaster than I could ever imagine. While I always thought the non-verbal were primarily body language, eye contact, tone, gestures, proximity etc, now I feel it’s much more then what I always thought.  With the growing usage of social media ranging from Wats App to Facebook, I feel people are invariably communicating non-verbally more through their DPs (Display Pictures), smileys and statuses (although it verbal still indirect). It’s just about developing the skills of catching the right emotions and sentiments.

I met one of my friends who apparently had a break-up with his long standing girlfriend. He rode a Royal Enfield to work. One day I observed that the pillion seat had disappeared. When asked about the disappearance of the pillion seat, he just mentioned that the bike looks good without it. But maybe the inquisitive Sachin, wasn’t really satisfied with that answer. After much of indirect probing and beating around the bush I realized that the removal of the pillion seat was a message to his girlfriend that he doesn’t need her anymore and is happy now been alone.

This incident made me think of the many non-verbal communications that I have been missing out for such a long time. Off late people have developed too many unconventional ways of speaking out their mind. It’s just about catching the right sentiments.

We keep wondering on how people quit jobs and relations suddenly without any explanation or intimation. The fact remains that even those people may have given some non-verbal messages which we were unable to catch.

Been a part of HR for several years now, I have always been taught and advised by my bosses to have a feel of the floor, to be very precise ‘pulse of the floor’. While we depend too much on what we hear (intentionally not using the word listens here). We tend to get into the mode of verbatim documentation of exactly what we hear. In this whole bargain we somehow miss out largely on the non-verbal undercurrents which actually define the organization’s health. It’s high time that as professionals we shift focus towards capturing the non-verbal sentiments.

In a larger context, developing the skill to catching the non-verbal part would help making our communication with people more meaningful.

 

Sachin Kodolikar

Meet The Doers

Meet the Doers

During the early years of my working tenure, I met a Management Guru who gave me an excellent tip on cracking interviews, he said “Just keep bombarding corporate lingos and jargons on the interviewer and you’ll be able to impress him”. As I was still naïve to the corporate way of life I asked him what he actually meant. He gave a laundry list of words which helps create an impression, words such as Hunting / Farming / Revenue / Succession Planning / Customer Satisfaction / Mergers & Acquisitions / Appraisals / Networking / People Management / Team Building / Offsite / Learning Curve, etc…. For few of the words I had actually use Mr. Google. Today after more than a decade of corporate experience all these words have become part of my routine and today I feel part of a corporate.

Back in Dec 2014, I had planned some home improvement and we were searching for a contractor who could help us with wall painting, flooring, furniture and fixtures work. One day the bell rang and a neat and tidy sober looking gentleman stands at the door introducing himself as contractor. When asked for reference he referred to a family in our building where he had undertaken some work, he invited us to visit that family to see his work quality. We saw his impressive work and spoke about the commercials and YO… the contractor got a new customer in us (HUNTING DONE). He completed the work in the given time and budget. Later he asked us few questions on how many years we intend to stay in this house and he suggested few more home improvement activities for better endurance and YO…now he got additional work (CONSULTATIVE SELLING). After 1 month he paid a courtesy visit exploring for some work opportunity and guess what……some more work (FARMING).

In front of my old apartment, there used to be a Chai Tapri (Tea Stall), this guy had come from Rajasthan started and managed the tapri alone (START-UPS), as the business grew he brought his younger brother from his village, then few more relatives. Eventually he handed over the Tapri to his younger brother and went in the neighboring lane to start a new Chai Tapri (KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, COACHING to younger brother). Once when he met me in the next lane and I asked him about his plans and to my surprise without blinking his eyelid he presented his next 2 years plan regarding how many Tapris he would have and who all would manage it (PROJECT PLANNING & SUCCESSION PLANNING) and whenever I visited his Tapri I used to get a Sachin Bhai ki Chai totally customized (CUSTOMER SATISFACTION – WOW EffECT). And as an ingrained quality he managed all his workers effectively (PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SKILLS) and once in a month took his workers to Gateway of India (OFFSITE).

We corporate professional may want to spend some time with people like these who don’t know these corporate jargons but are actually living it in their real lives.

 

Sachin Kodolikar