Power communication

I woke up this morning with my cat purring at me. Not gently next to me, no purring AT me... I knew exactly what he wanted. Food. At 4AM. Now. Please. Can't Wait, he said... Am Hungry, he said...Am Old and Pitiful, he claimed when I didn't stir...May DIE Soon, he moaned...And as usual, that got me up.

 

Now, if you don't have a cat, you might be thinking that I have lost the plot, but if you do - you are probably smiling and nodding at this point. Because cats communicate. Superbly. Or do they?

I just spent Friday and Saturday at an amazing congress in Warwickshire. It was the annual Veterinary Practice Managers Association congress and I had the honour to be asked to deliver 2 days of lectures on personal and team development.

 

Now, it takes a lot of courage from the people organising a congress for managers to put on a lecture stream called personal development, so I was quite curious as to how many people would be interested. And just between you and me - I was quite prepared to only have 8 or 12 people in the room. I had my strategy all planned to deal with any number - but I thought to myself that I would simply do my best to give whomever showed up an unforgettably, positive and inspiring experience.

 

5 minutes to 10 (when the lectures were supposed to start), I saw to my delight that I had my 12 people - and a couple more were coming through the door. And then a few more...and some more...and the trickle became a flood. During that first lecture I had standing room only. In the break I was moved to a much bigger room (bless superb organisers!).. And during the second lecture they kept bringing in more chairs..

Now what was the amazing, inspiring title of my first lecture since it brought in so many people? Intro and goal setting. Yep. Really boring title...(long story..).

 

During those two days I worked with the most amazing, interested and focused audience. They were willing to open up, to listen and to take a chance on something different. They didn't bat an eyelid when I introduced concepts from neuroscience, NLP, leadership training and dog training (yes, there are similarities..). They participated in exercises, shared their problems and embraced the concepts that we were working with. I know from a focus group I did with Improve International last year that most veterinarians don't know what coaching and NLP is. Well, the veterinarians and the managers in that room may not have known a lot to begin with - but they were sure willing to listen.

 

And that - just that - is the key to power communication. What makes a superb communicator is not necessarily what you have to say or how you say it - but whether there are someone out there that are willing to listen.. My cat is 15 years old. I have known him from he was 6 days old and I knew his father before that. We have had a lot of years to establish the importance of listening - on my part. And purring that degree differently - on his part. Because one thing cats do superbly well - is train their humans to listen.