by John J. Walters

I started thinking about phone interviews today because I saw one of my Facebook buddies posted that he had accidentally scheduled two of them for this afternoon.  Then I started thinking about how phone interviews are pretty much no different from conference calls, except there often won’t be too many other people listening.  So if phone interviews are similar to conference calls then it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to liken them to meetings in general.  And you know what that means, right?  It means I get to write about them — as if I know what I’m talking about!

As a matter of fact, I do know what I’m talking about.  I’m no stranger to the phone interview.  I’ve been conducting them semi-regularly for the past year for various projects for Wasabi Ventures and have also had to do quite a few for my other employer, The Maryland Public Policy Institute.  In fact, nearly a quarter of my job consists of calling folks and talking to them about this or that.  So I figured I’d share a little bit of what I’ve learned over the past year about phone interviews.

First of all, in answer to my own question: no, I don’t wear a tie to a phone interview.  But I do make a point to try and be as professional as possible when I conduct one.  In fact, I try to make sure that I’m at least presentable whenever I sit at my desk and work, even though I work from home.  This helps create a clearer divide between my work and home life.  If a tie helped me do that, I’d wear one.  It’s about feeling comfortable, but also like you’re “at work.”  Ties kinda lost that feeling for me when I had to wear one every single day in high school.

Phone interviews have become pretty normal to me, but I can remember how I felt about them before they became my bread and butter.  Until I became comfortable, I had to make it a point to make sure that I was in a familiar location and that I knew I was well-prepared.  This meant reviewing notes or articles about the subject beforehand while listening to relaxing music.  I would make a point of being in my office with the door closed at least ten minutes before the interview was scheduled just to focus.

Knowing your material is also very important.  I would review for my interviews starting a day ahead of time and then again a little bit beforehand just to make sure I remembered what I was looking at earlier (just like a test at school).  If you’re asking the questions your job is a little easier, but you still need to prepare or else it’s easy to get lost and ask a whole lot of useless questions that don’t pertain to the topic at hand.  Having been on both sides several times I would say both can be a challenge, and it certainly helps to do some rehearsing on your own.

Of course, none of these are hard and fast rules.  I’ve also conducted interviews in my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot with my laptop on my knees (although that was more out of necessity than choice).  But the keys to successfully getting your point across are preparation and relaxation.  You would do the same if you were walking into an office and speaking with someone in person, so don’t forget to take the phone interview just as seriously.  Take advantage of whatever helps you do that, be it a tie or a security blanket.

Also, keep in mind that what works for conversations between two people can also work in larger groups.  These same recommendations go equally for conference calls.

by John J. Walters

Alright, we’re back from our little “hiatus” promoting the site’s beta launch.  Now it’s back to the real content.  I had promised a second post about effective communication last week, and it’s time to deliver on that promise.

We have all heard that good communication starts with attentive listening.  That idea is practically a cliché at this point, but just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  As Shakespeare once said, I’m sure, “It doth taketh two to tango.”  Even the most effective orator will have a hard time getting his message across if his listeners aren’t paying attention.

I gave a very brief rundown on a few ways to listen more effectively, as well as why you should care enough to do so.  So you already have some stuff to practice in your daily life, both at home and at work.  We are asked to spend a lot of time every day listening, and this doesn’t decrease with rank.  When we become bosses and managers we’ll be asked to listen to endless reports and summaries of the company’s activities, and our ability to retain and process that information is what will determine our success.

The trick is, we won’t ever get to be the boss if we can’t communicate to others that we know what we’re talking about.  As with the deceptively simple skill of listening, communicating is highly nuanced and subtle art.  I say “communication” instead of “speaking” as we are asked to communicate in a variety of different ways these days, each with its own set of complications.

There is some disagreement about the exact percentage, but I think the general consensus is that communication is only 15% about the words we choose.  The rest is elsewhere — in our tone, our pacing, our body language, or the context of the conversation.  This gives us a good amount to consider before we even open our mouths.  Sadly, we often don’t.

TechRepublic has a nice article by Steven A. Watson about how to maximize managerial success with good communication practices.  The best part is by far the example story he tells, in which a new employee enthusiastically begins laying the groundwork for a revised LAN setup.  When support lags and disappears entirely she is both surprised and frustrated.  Then she realizes that she forgot to get to know the team and their thoughts, experiences, and needs before implementation.

That’s where listening comes in — but once you’ve got your listening skills down, you need to be able to show others that you understand and that you can help.  Enter the “Four C’s of Communication” as explained by Isabelle Albanese.  In a nutshell, these involve making sure your audience trusts you, understands you, has common ground with you, and remembers your message after you’re finished.

Each of these things is extremely valuable in a business setting: Trust, understanding, camaraderie, and being remembered.  Since meetings are often the place where the most communication goes on in a business, effective communication becomes exceedingly important during meetings.  Honing your listening and your communication skills could be your ticket to increased productivity — or even the corner office.

by John J. Walters

I was wracking my brain trying to think of something to write about that was at least partially meeting related while listening to music (as I usually do while I work) when it hit me — what is it you’re asked to do for the majority of nearly every meeting?  Listen!

I’ve always admired the people I’ve met that possess the skill of listening more than they speak.  It is certainly not something that I do very often, although I really wish it was.  When I speak I give my opinion, my advice, or my reaction to something.  I am rarely surprised at what comes out of my mouth, and I rarely ever learn anything.  When I listen, however, I never know what I am going to hear.  So long as I am “tuned to the right station,” anything is possible.

A quick Google search for “listening” will pull up a ton of articles on the subject.  I grabbed three from the first page at random and read through them quickly to see what they had to offer, which I will summarize briefly here.

The first article was written by Larry Alan Nading, PhD.  Its value is in its simplicity, and in the broad number of topics that it covers.  The most important lesson to learn from it is about the three basic listening modes.  There’s competitive (where we’re only waiting for our turn to speak), passive (where we listen but do not participate) and active (where we listen and then seek to understand completely through verification).  Simply being aware of what type of listening you are employing in a given situation will often make you a better listener.  The article is a good introduction to the art of listening, if you’ve never really given it any thought.

The second and third articles focus primarily on active listening skills, which is helpful as long as you truly understand what active listening is.  Active listening is more than just carrying on a conversation.  One article summarizes it quite nicely as “being able to repeat back in your own words what they [the speaker] have said to their satisfaction.”  The words are theirs but the emphasis is mine.  When someone talks they are (hopefully) talking for a reason.  If you can’t summarize that reason back to them immediately after listening, then you’re not listening effectively.

Both articles contain some very helpful hints and tips to improve your listening skills.  I highly recommend reading them, especially the one on MindTools.com as it is the most career oriented.  But improving your listening skills doesn’t have to be all about being a more effective meeting participant.  I’m sure your friends and your spouse or significant other would appreciate a little more active listening from you as well.