Achieve All Your Business Goals Using the Art of Conversation “This book will increase your influence and success rate by the end of the first chapter.” ―Alan Weiss, PhD, author of Million Dollar Consulting and Getting Started in Consulting What is the key to business success? COLLABORATION. Executive coach and professional development expert Shawn Kent Hayashi provides everything you need to inspire, take part in, and manage the kinds of conversations that are the hallmark of true teamwork. In Conversations That Get Results and Inspire Collaboration , Hayashi answers the questions she is most frequently asked during coaching and trainingsessions: What can I do to engage people collaboratively? - How can I ensure I have a positive impact? - How do I get my point across so that others hear me? - How do I address the needs of my coworkers so we can move projects forward? - What can I do to get conversations back on track when they threaten to veer out of control? Featuring case studies illustrating best practices for engaging managers, peers, and employees to build momentum toward success, Conversations That Get Results and Inspire Collaboration gives you the tools to create theright conversation at the right time to achieve any business goal. Conversations That Get Results and Inspire Collaboration Engage Your Team, Your Peers, and Your Manager to Take Action By Shawn Kent Hayashi The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Copyright © 2013 Shawn Kent Hayashi All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-07-180593-3 Contents AcknowledgmentsPrefacePART 1 THE FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIONChapter 1 Knowing What You Want to CreateChapter 2 People Reading: Preferred Communication StylesChapter 3 People Reading: MotivatorsChapter 4 People Reading: Emotional IntelligenceChapter 5 Tying Together People ReadingPART 2 THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIONS THAT GET RESULTSChapter 6 Deep ListeningChapter 7 Relationship and Group Dynamics That Affect CollaborationChapter 8 StorytellingChapter 9 When Conflict Stops Progress: Creating More Effective ConversationsChapter 10 Relationship BuildingChapter 11 Having the Necessary Conversations and Getting the Collaboration YouAppendix The Twelve Conversations and How to Use Them to Collaborate Book Discussion GuideIndex Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Knowing What You Want to Create Business is a conversation focused on creating results. Being successful in business begins in a conversation with ourselves first, andthen with others, focused on what we are passionate about creating, about thesolutions we want to bring alive, and the way we want to add value and serveothers. Successful professionals invite their teams, peers, and managers toalign their own individual goals and motivators to the rewards of the projectthey are engaged in. Wildly successful business leaders create conversationswith others by inspiring passion for the value and services they can deliverworking together. Like most senior executives, Larry Page, the cofounder and CEO of Google, began2012 by sharing his goals for the company. He said, "Google is a large companynow, but we will achieve more, and do it faster, if we approach life with thepassion and soul of a start-up." He went on to outline six core areas of focusfor the upcoming year. If you worked for or with Google during that time, itwould be important that you understood these goals and how they affected whatyou were doing as an employee, team member, manager, leader, or even supplier.At Google, your ability to engage in conversations and demonstrate resultsaround these desired goals determines your success. If you work for or with General Mills, you know that one of their most talked-about goals is to be among the most socially responsible food companies in theworld. General Mills says, "We continually set targets for bettering thenutritional profile of our foods, and we keep addressing social andenvironmental challenges." They made it clear that this is a conversation theywant to further, and people who are passionate about bettering the nutritionalprofile of food and who want to collaborate around this topic would be engagedworking with General Mills. To be successful in this organization, you have todemonstrate how your actions and results align with the company goals, no matterif you are a team member, peer, leader, or supplier. Collaboration revolves around having meaningful conversations focused onachieving results with other people. Your role will determine what part you playin creating the vision. If you are the leader, you must clearly define and thencommunicate the outcomes you are committed to creating. If you report to aleader, understanding what the leadership team of the business you work for seesas important will enable you to link the business focus to your own goals inmeaningful ways. If you are a peer of someone who works in another department ordivision of the same company, it will be important for yo