What I have learned about people and organizations...so far.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Talk Less. Listen More.

Moderation
Have you ever had lunch with someone you want to get to know and they spend the whole meal talking about themselves and their accomplishments?  If you are like me, you wanted to learn about their life but you wanted them to learn about yours too.  Boasting, bragging or monopolizing in conversation is a relationship killer.

A good test as to whether there is moderation in your conversation is to look to see who has eaten the most food.  If your plate is much fuller then your guests, then you are talking too much and asking too few questions.

My father had a great, if not a bit raunchy, term for people that talked too much.  He called it
“diarrhea of the mouth.” On this matter John Wayne had great advice for managing our speech.  He said, "Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much."