Three Key Techniques for Better Listening Essay Example for Free

Three Key Techniques for Better Listening Essay In this McKinsey article, Bernard T. Ferrari explores three key techniques for better listening and its importance. By showing respect, keeping quiet and challenging assumptions, Mr. Ferrari argues that will create a â€Å"base of knowledge that generates fresh insights and ideas. First, show respect. Respect breeds confidence and trust. If you’re a manager, you probably have a complex set of responsibilities. You can’t know everything about every facet of your domain. By respecting your teammates, you will naturally draw them into the conversation and learn from them. If you simply jump to a solution, you short circuit the entire process. Not only do you miss out on any advice about the current situation, you also teach your colleagues not to offer advice in the future. Second, keep quiet. Ferrari suggest a variation of the 80/20 rule — let the other person speak about 80% of the time while you speak only 20% of the time. Many executives struggle as listeners because they never think to relax their assumptions and open themselves to the possibilities that can be drawn from conversations with others. But many executives will have to undergo a deeper mind-set shift—toward an embrace of ambiguity and a quest to uncover â€Å"what we both need to get from this interaction so that we can come out smarter.† Too many good executives, even exceptional ones who are highly respectful of their colleagues, inadvertently act as if they know it all, or at least what’s most important, and subsequently remain closed to anything that undermines their beliefs. Third, challenge assumptions. This doesn’t just mean that you challenge other people’s assumptions. It also means that you encourage your colleagues to challenge your assumptions. So it takes real effort for executives to become better listeners by forcing themselves to lay bare their assumptions for scrutiny and to shake up their thinking with an eye to reevaluating what they know, don’t know, and—an important point—can’t know. One of the interesting twists in Ferrari’ s framework for effective listening is his â€Å"field guide to identifying bad listeners†. He identifies six â€Å"types† of bad listeners: The Opinionator listens to others primarily to determine whether or not their ideas conform to what he or she already believes to be true. Grouches are poor listeners who are blocked by a feeling of certainty that your idea is wrong. The Preambler’s windy lead-ins and questions are really stealth speeches, often intended to box conversation partners into a corner. Preamblers use questioning to steer the  discussion, send warnings, or generate a desired answer. Perseverators talk a lot without saying anything. If you pay close attention to one of these poor listeners, you’ll find that their comments and questions don’t advance the conversation. Everyone wants to solve problems, but Answer Man spouts solutions before there is even a consensus about the challenge—a clear signal that input from conversation partners isn’t needed. Pretenders feign engagement and even agreement but either aren†™t interested in what you’re saying or have already made up their minds. This article is particularly aimed at executives. However, it is useful for every person who wants to learn how to communicate better. Ferrari uses very interesting and humorous examples, so it’s easy and interesting to read. I find this article very helpful because I struggle to be a good listener. When I’m engaged in an intense conversation, I’m often framing my response or am thinking about a solution to the problem at hand. Of course, when I’m thinking about something else, I’m not really listening. More importantly, if the other side thinks I’m not listening, they’re less likely to be persuaded to my point of view. Also, I had always thought of questions as being solely an expression of interest and generosity. Now, I am beginning to better understand that questions. Even seemingly friendly inquiries can be a subtle source of control. We simply can’t listen if we’re talking, even if we are talking by questioning.

Getting Back into the Game :: Personal Narrative Essays

Getting Back into the Game I have always been involved in sports in some way or another. I was team captain in every sport imaginable in elementary school. Junior high I continued to be involved in sports, but it wasn't until high school started that I really got into it. I played soccer, softball and basketball at Rogers High School. I particularly loved soccer. Just playing it gave me a rush I had never felt before. Also knowing that this sport took a lot of hard work and dedication gave me a sense of satisfaction, because I knew that I put everything I had into it. Putting a lot of dedication and hard work into something may prove to be useful in the future. When I had my baby, being involved in sports at all seemed impossible. Then one day, my friend Cory from work was telling me that her daughter wanted to play soccer. She then said that she was going to coach because no one else had volunteered in her area. The only problem was that she didn't know the first thing about soccer. That gave me an idea. I played soccer in high school, so I thought I could help her, so I did. My friend Cory and I went down to Spokane Youth Sports Association and volunteered to become soccer coaches. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting to do this. I thought it was going to be great. I had not played soccer in a while, so I was nervous when I first started coaching. I never knew how hard it would be to dedicate yourself and your time to something without getting compensated for it. It was especially hard when the kids were more often than not pretty hard to deal with. I was coaching a team of nine-year-old girls. Some of those girls seemed to want to be there, and others not. That made it very difficult to get all of their attention at once. Sometimes it was so bad I felt that I was wasting my time. But I stuck it out in hopes that they would come around, after all they were only nine. As time went on the girls started to come around and started listening and enjoying the

Heard Curious Facts About The Amount Of Time

Most of us have often heard curious facts about the amount of time we devote to certain activities. For example, one can be amazed by the realization that we spend more than one third of our life in sleep. But not less importantly, when speaking about our conscious part of life we have to admit that more than a half of it is occupied by work. And while the state of sleep is usually pleasant for us, if one dislikes his or her job it is a great problem, as spending half of our life for an unpleasant activity looks like a very pessimistic perspective.Moreover, some researchers even suggest that it is the very nature of human beings that makes us dislike work as such, and that we carry our professional and personal chores only out of the bare necessity to survive rather than because we enjoy it. However, I believe that this view is somewhat simplistic, and that it is possible for a person to really enjoy his or her job, and with the help of the personal association with what one is doing to turn the necessary work into a perfectly meaningful activity. Let me try to define what I mean by this, and how I define the notion of meaningful work.First of all, it seems safe to suppose that without the internal motivation based on our system of psychological rewards human beings in any time during the history would hardly commence any kind of activity that would lead beyond the satisfaction of the most basis needs, such as the need for food and shelter that even animals can fully satisfy with their level of intelligence.Thus, there is something in the human psychology that seems to drive us to the achievement of something excessive in relation to the minimal possible goal. In the context of our discussion, this psychological factor means that there is something in the process of work of almost any kind that can incite the person carrying it to strive for its completion for the sake of the completion. And on my personal example I can testify that the visible end result of th e work can trigger mechanisms of psychological reward, which for some people, including me, can in the future serve as powerful additional motivators (Bryner 2007).On ground of this, as one of the definitions of meaningful work may serve the establishment of the link between a person`s understanding that work can actually offer psychological rewards that are safe in contrast to those offered for instance by alcohol or drug abuse, and the chosen strategy of behaviour in which that person aims to include work in her or his life as a necessary and worthwhile activity that satisfies something more than the mere need for money.That the above mentioned approach to the definition of meaningful work is indeed a possible life strategy is testified by the example of what is known as workaholism, a psychological dependency on one`s professional activity as on the only or the most significant source of self-satisfaction. This phenomenon demonstrates that the psychological rewards produced by wo rk can be so strong that they may essentially overtake a person with the force similar to a drug seeking behavior (Killinger 2004, pp.3-17).While this may be quite problematic for an individual, it can help us strengthen our definition of meaningful work in such a way as to in addition to the already mentioned understanding of psychological rewards associated with work to include in it the clause that meaningful work is also characterized by person`s ability to imagine life without it and still retain the sense of one`s being. In this light, a truly meaningful work may be defined as an inherently voluntary activity based on the assumption that one`s occupation is neither based on the unavoidable compulsion, nor is the only meaning of life, but rather represents the possibility for a harmonious personal development and offers benefits for one`s emotional and even spiritual life.With all this said, I think we can conclude that the idea that the human unwillingness to work is our inher ent quality is true only in a limited context, while from the general point of view work we are involved in influences almost every aspect of our life, and therefore is an integral part of our being.SourcesBryner, Jeanna. â€Å"Subliminal Rewards Trigger Harder Work, Research Shows†.LiveScience.com, 2007. Visited April 16, 2007 at

The New Global Order in the Financial Market - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2028 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The most recent G20 (19 nations and EU) Summit meeting was held in Seoul on Nov 11 12 and was the 5th meeting of the G20 Heads of Government to discuss the global financial system and the world economy. The theme of the Summit was G-20s Role as an important forum for international economic cooperation and the Post-Crisis World. Over the past 2 years, G-20 has evolved rapidly into effective crisis management steering group for the global economy and financial system. The effects of the recent economic and financial crisis of 2008/2009 had led economies around the world to hope for some decisive action for reforms and stability and to avert another crisis. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The New Global Order in the Financial Market" essay for you Create order This has resulted in Governments seeking agreement on international policy coordination on strengthening transparency, enhancing sound regulation, promoting integrity in financial markets, reforming Financing Institutions, safeguarding ongoing recovery, restoring fiscal and financial sustainability, balancing global growth and opening trade Policy. The US has been central to this global economic order whilst having to deal with a fragile economy, low growth, bulging deficits and near double digit unemployment. Its voice and recent action have not been taken seriously and supported back home by its Washington law makers, her trade surplus partners and certainly not China. During the Summit, it was inevitable that the stage would be set for the locking of horns between the US and China, the worlds two biggest economies. Obama used this opportunity to raise the issue of Chinas undervalued currency, causing unsustainable trade imbalances and was expecting to gain support from the o ther advanced economies impacted but failed to do so as it was deflected by the recent US Federal Reserves decision of a US$ 600bn stimulus into its economy. Criticism was abound on USs action to buy UST bonds which will drive down the yield and the interest rates across debt markets that are linked to UST rates. In effect the US is printing billions of Dollars thus weakening the Dollar and stimulating export growth. It risks pushing oil and commodity prices up with floods of money seeking higher yields in the emerging markets causing higher interest rates and robust growth in the respective countries. In turn, this pushes up currencies to levels higher than some of the Governments desire, leading to some countries resisting its currency appreciating which causes tensions between these countries and the US. This is the second quantitative easing in US since Nov 2008. China presented counter proposals calling on US to adopt responsible policies for a stable Dollar and also demande d global resistance to trade barriers that would trigger high commodity prices and volatile financial markets. The Summit was broad-based and disappointing as G20 leaders pledged and agreed on moving forward towards a more flexible market driven exchange rate mechanism to reflect economic realities and refrain from revaluation of currencies. G20 Finance Ministers were tasked by 30 June 2011 to draft non-binding indicative policy guidelines conducive to addressing excessive imbalances to be maintained at sustainable levels between the surplus and deficit nations. The G20 Summit was always an exercise in damage limitation and the advantages for vague statement plays for time to allow countries to move at their own pace. However, by failing to agree on numerical targets would cast doubt on the any credibility effort required for a framework for a Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. Any action one can expect to see or hope for will be made known only by the middle of next year. In the meantime, global economic and currency tensions will still remain, with the weakened USD opening the floodgates, resulting the inflow of funds flowing into Asia and other emerging markets to seek higher yields. G20 said it was appropriate for countries to adopt capital controls. However, the hot flow of funds could trigger asset bubbles and inflationary pressures in these countries while the Euro zone, especially the advanced economies. continues to address their bad debts issues. US must aim to reduce its trade deficit and to improve its competitiveness in the industrial and technological sectors. Clouds of uncertainty hovers on the recovery path as it was in plain view with Chinas growing assertiveness through a variety of International forums such as the failed Copenhagen climate Summit last year as China has its own agenda. The World will be watching warily for events on the monetary front between an undervalued Chinese currency against a devalued USD. Any furthe r intervention to devalue their currency from underlying market economics will induce other countries to follow suit to protect their own export growth as Brazil has indicated to do so. In the meantime, any trade sanctions that the US may impose will be fraught with political and economic risks. Trade barriers and currency wars will prolong the Global depression and although nations can defuse a standoff, the possibility of this currency war still remains. World leaders have missed on the pre-emptive chance to act together on a macroeconomic level. But this should not be overshadowed by their latest ambitious achievements of a package to reform the IMF and an agreement on Basel III that were attained in a short time frame (as noted below with some other Summit Agenda items) G20 Seoul Summit Summary: Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Global Growth Global solutions and coordinated policy to address uneven growth and widening imbalance. Resist protectionism. Global partnership to build the capacity to achieve and balance global growth by focusing on concrete measures in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to make significant changes to enhance living standards in developing countries particularly through the development of infrastructure. Seoul recommended the need to establish a development framework to narrow the gap between the advanced and worlds poorest nations. This was approved by the participating nations. It contains nine key pillars which will need action plan to target the shortcomings of some 170 nations. This includes the enhancing of food security coherence policy, agricultural productivity and a training strategy to improve employment skills development Reforming the Mandate, Mission, and Governance of the IMF At the G20 Pittsburg Summit, President Obama led and proposed the call to reform to include dynamic emerging-markets and the developing countries to be more represented in IMF and its Executive Board so that it is more representative of todays Global economy. This will enhance IMFs credibility and effectiveness to form a stronger institution in promoting and achieving Global financial stability and growth. The advanced European countries agreed to relinquish two of their eight seats to provide a greater voice to these countries. The reform also moves BRIC nations (Brazil, China, India and Russia) into IMF top 10 shareholders to account for the size of their economies. It includes the protection of the voting share of the poorest countries and also maintaining US veto over key IMF decisions. Enhancing Global Financial safety nets The IMF Governance made significant reforms to its lending facilities to include the establishment of the Precautionary Credit Line and the enhancement to its Flexible Credit Line, both of which are new measures to help the prevention of crisis spreading against external shocks by allowing strongly-performing countries to insure themselves during future crisis. Leaders and some citizens disagree on any proposal to lenders of last resort as they believe this would articulate moral hazards. However, it is essential to strengthen the global financial safety net by doubling the size of the Fund to bring the IMF quotas to be like a lender of last resort and act as a mechanism to mobilize the IMF financing for special drawing rights (SDR) and for any temporary swap arrangements. The reform should look to include the need to integrate better its surveillance and financing role. Strengthening Global Financial Regulatory framework The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has been tasked to develop capital and liquidity standards for systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) to prevent excessive risk taking and was asked to suggest appropriate resolution tools for effective supervision of the SIFIs to mitigate potential systemic failures, moral hazards, too big to fail and to ensure its commitment to the World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program. Global Financial Inclusion Action Plan and Flexible SME Finance Framework Expand opportunities to poor households, small and medium enterprise to access global financial services Harmonized framework for EU for national restructuring and improved control in Europe to be established as of 1 Jan 2011to ensure stability of the financial markets. Exchange Rate Policy The discussion from a nominal exchange rate to the rebalancing of current account issue was discussed. G20 leaders pledged to work together to avoid competitive devaluations of currencies and draw up guidelines by 30 June 2011 to address measures on trade imbalances Doha Development Round These are the principal documents agreed by WTO member Governments at important stages in the trade negotiations. Commitment to promptly bring to a successful completion of Doha development mandate and that representatives must intensify and expand in 2011 for the outcome to be reached and commit to seek ratification where necessary to resist protectionist measures. Landmark free trade accord (FTA) sought by the US with South Korea was not achieve in Seoul. Trade and investment liberalisation has been a key economic foreign trade policy. President Obama stressed shared values on democracy and tolerance with Indonesia and India, implying that Asia would do better to embrace this model rather than Chinas version of capitalism. As the CEO of Credit Suisse, we need to continue to maintain our strong position as one of the best capitalised global banks with a Basel II Tier 1 ratio of 16.7%. We include our dividend accruals in our Tier 1 ratio in line with the historic payout. Unde r the new tighter Swiss Banking regulation for a proposed first capital surcharge on too big to fail banks, Credit Suisse is required to meet its capital holdings to almost double the minimum capital adequacy by at least 19% of assets, weighted according to risk. Credit Suisse has achieved this including a counter-cyclical capital buffer, using a conservative organic growth for a common equity ratio to at least 10% by 2019 as compared to the 7% required under Basel III for other banks. In line with Basle requirements, we use incremental default risk adjustments to include credit risks held in our trading books. We continue to make disciplined investments in a global platform and have reduced our proprietary business and refocused our business strategy to a more flow based model in the emerging markets which should generate higher revenues and also mitigate some impact from any incremental default risk relating to credit inventories. On our derivative business that has uncollatera lized exposures, these will either mature or be hedged over the next few years. We also concentrate on fixed income, underwriting and advisory business which is yielding high returns and achieving good solid performance reflecting our improving competitive position. We will keep abreast of developments on an ongoing basis and will move quickly to take advantage of business opportunities if considered prudent and in keeping with our strategy. Likewise, we will closely monitor currency exposures and will take appropriate action to maximise gains and to minimise potential losses. We continue to operate on a high standard of corporate governance, including liquidity management, accounting, audit and lending practices. We also ensure that proper supervision and expertise is applied by our managers and staff and to equip the organization with appropriate Risk Measurement tools to capture trade, operational and counterparty risks, in addition to the capture of securitisation and ware housing on and off balance sheet. We have compensation and profit sharing schemes that are based on performance measured and risk adjusted over the business cycle rather than short term risk taking. Other than external credit ratings, we also use in house measurements ratings. We need to increase the direct trading via centralised exchanges as this will quality for a zero risk weight for counterparty risk exposure and avoid the build up of excess leverage which can lead to deleveraging credit crunch in a crisis situation. We must continue to ensure the capture of effective information with regard to open, unmatched positions and currency exposure and it remains highly prudent that we continue to adjust our business strategy and prepare ourselves ahead of current and future market uncertainties to avoid adverse contagion risks.