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Making A Habit Of..... Understand to be Understood
This is the fifth of seven articles based around Steven R Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” We’re continuing to look at each of these habits to show how they can be applied in the world of insight.
As we live in a fast-paced world which wants instant answers, it’s easy to react to any human-based problem by wanting to rush in straight away, dispensing advice and trying to sort things out. However, a more effective result can often be achieved if you try and understand the other person first – and then help them to understand you!
Listen up!
One of the keys to understanding someone lies in learning to really listen to them. Most people listen with the aim of giving a reply, rather than with the aim of understanding the other person. To understand them, you need to not only listen to their words, but also be aware of their emotions, behaviour and other non-verbal signals. You should be focused on trying to see their point of view.
Covey explains this by describing the difference between an amateur and a professional salesman. The amateur sells products, whereas the professional sells solutions to needs and problems. He goes on to say that good judgment relies on good understanding. Anyone who judges first will never truly understand. Proper empathetic listening takes time but ultimately it can save time, trouble and money.
Can you make yourself understood?
In the 60s, the Animals had a hit with ‘Please don’t let me be misunderstood’. That should be a plea that is on every Insight team member’s heart! Once you understand the person that you are dealing with, you need them to understand you. This means that you need to present your ideas very clearly and concisely, and your listener needs to be able to understand how your suggestions can help them.
Applying the habit
For Insight teams, the main application of this habit comes when you are interacting with your stakeholders or your internal clients. In our benchmarking of internal client satisfaction (via IBEX), one of the most important issues to clients is that their Insight team really understands their needs and concerns.
This underlines why it’s so important to invest time in getting to know your internal clients. Get them talking about their goals and KPIs, their challenges, their options and their constraints. Ask probing questions and then, above all, really listen to their answers.
If you make the time to do this properly, you should be able to forge a strong relationship with them. When you understand where they’re coming from, you can put your own case forward in the appropriate context. Internal clients want us to be much more like business partners, rather than backroom researchers or analysts. This habit provides you with the key that will help you to achieve this.
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