@ Don’t limit yourself to one mentor– you can have one for every area you’d like to improve in
@ Don’t (ever!) approach a potential mentor without having done your research and knowing: why it’s a right fit, what you want from them, and most importantly, what you will do for them.
@ Do follow through or follow up on your mentor’s advice. Either do it, or let them know why you couldn’t or didn’t.
2. Don’t interrupt. Hear them out completely, and keep an open body language.
3. Do count to five after they finish speaking before you say a word to make sure they’ve said all they had to say.
4. Don’t disagree with their feelings, even if you don’t agree with the facts.
5. Do start by rephrasing their complaint to make sure you’ve heard it correctly and show them you’ve listened.
6. Don’t try to unlock their minds until you’ve unlocked their bodies: if they’re sitting, hand them something so they have to reach for it.
Above all else, Remember the Golden Rule of Interpersonal Communication: people trust people who are like them. The more you can adapt your voice, language, and choice of words to theirs, the more comfortable they will feel around you.
Have you ever felt annoyed, disturbed or simply bored out of your mind by the superficiality of most cocktail party small talk? Here’s a simple exercise to cut through the layers of polite reserve, adapted from Professor Srikumar S. Rao’s brilliant course, Creativity and Personal Mastery.
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When you meet someone at a cocktail party, imagine, while facing them, that it’s their last day on earth. The minute you do this, you’ll notice that your behavior, your attention, changes– and theirs will react accordingly. You’ll naturally find yourself gravitating towards more authentic, more personal, more solid conversation topics, queries, and answers.
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The conversation will instantly take on a whole new level…
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