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Fascination and Gratitude
A key theme in The Radical Edge is the need to foster the desire to fully understand your colleagues and customers by developing the qualities of fascination and gratitude.
From page 78 in the book:
"If you're fascinated with [the people around you], you'll discover how to add value to their lives; and if you're genuinely grateful for their patronage, partnership or friendship you'll show them in ways that are sincere and meaningful. Those are the essential elements of a fabulously productive business relationship--or any relationship, for that matter."
The folks at Kineticom (if you'll permit me one more glimpse at their performance evaluation) address it under the heading of "Attentive Listening" which they describe as "Understanding that listening carefully and attentively to colleagues, contractors and clients yields productive insights that move Kineticom forward and ultimately change the world."
Their highest rating reads like this:
"Incredibly 'dialed.' Fascinated with teammates, contractors and clients – grateful for who they are and what they are; actively pursues good qualities, points of view and insights in others and applies appropriately to foster positive relationships and fuel business growth. Highly skilled in questioning techniques (moving from implicit to explicit needs)."
Okay, enough (for now) about the Kineticom gang. How about you? What ways can you--or do you--incorporate the principles of Extreme Leadership into your life and work?
Posted by steve at 06.02.2006 | Comments (3)
Comments: Fascination and Gratitude
I've been attempting to teach my older daughter the concepts of being "grateful and gracious" (i.e., thankful for what she has and creating the ability to do for others to make them thankful also).
Personally, been practicing self-imposed boot camp on the fascination issue. Finding out that when I can observe and interact with the most challenging of individuals in my life and develop a "story learners" approach rather than being quick to judge, things generally go a little more smoothly.
Posted by Timothy at June 2, 2006 12:51 PM
A big part of this is at the start of this post (and on page 77 of "The Radical Edge")...it's not something we "do," but a way to "be."
Curiosity without judgment (as Smitty instructs earlier in the book) begins with a humble heart and mind.
Fascination is a powerful word. One that cultivates love when looking at others.
Posted by Mike Sansone at June 3, 2006 05:03 AM
Steve,
There's got to be places to work in the Midwest, or more specifically Michigan, that are like Kineticom. Anywhere that you know of that you can direct me to?
Thanks
Posted by Andrew Brown at June 5, 2006 05:04 PM