That brilliant sage for the ages, Oprah Winfrey, was once asked to reveal the number one thing she learned over the decades she spent hosting her TV talk show. Her response: “People just want to be heard.”
Mahalo really takes this truth to heart, especially when it comes to clients who have business goals, deadlines, and a multitude of other stressors. Many of us have watched this entertaining TED talk about holding good conversations, a huge element of which is listening, and we actively work to incorporate the ideas it brings forth in all of our client relationships.
For starters, we love to ask clients open-ended questions. A really popular one when kicking off a project is What does success look like? Others include What do you wish you could do? and What is it about what you’re doing now that isn’t working for you? The insights we glean from questions like these tells us much more than What are your sales goals for Q3? And it makes our clients part of the process. They tell us what they need us to do for them, and they can count on us to hone in on that and deliver it.
And while it’s true that we regularly get helpful debriefings from SMEs on emerging technologies, new products and the like – and those are important – ultimately we’re more focused on the people behind the tech. In all we do, we try to make them feel like they’ve been heard.
That Record button on Zoom comes in handy, too. So we can…you got it…listen back.
