During the years of a typical career, the true self comes
out. Strengths and weaknesses are on display for everyone nearby to witness. At
times, we are hailed as heroes when we make that extra sale, solve that
annoying IT issue, or have the correct answer when a question is asked in a
large meeting of colleagues. However, many times, it can be quite ugly and for those
who cannot handle the stress of everyday work situations, it makes for a really bad day.
I have been working full time since the early ’80s. I even
finished my undergraduate degree while working nights. It was a lot of work and
not much sleep but definitely worth it. I remember learning a lot during those
days and had great respect for my professors and instructors. Listening to what
they could teach me about their careers in the field of Public Relations and
Journalism was very interesting and I wanted to learn all I could.
When I started my “after college” career, I was doing
marketing and technical writing for a manufacturing company that builds textile
machinery. The listening took on a new meaning because I was suddenly working with
engineers and technicians and I knew nothing about this world. My position in
marketing was to produce collateral material for trade shows and for sales
personnel to leave with their customers during sales calls. In my technical
writing role, I was involved with writing technical manuals for the machines
that my company built and sold.
I had no experience writing manuals nor did I possess the
skills to do so. I could write a script for a radio or TV spot, a press
release, even a newspaper article but if you are talking about a weakness, mine
was writing material that people had to read in order to learn how to operate
or repair a multi-million dollar machine.
In addition, it did cross my mind that these same machine
operators could potentially stick a finger somewhere they shouldn’t and have it
cut off. Moreover, it would probably be my fault. I needed the job but found
myself wondering how I got to that point in my career. I was very nervous. Of
course, I had a department head that was in charge of the finished product but
I was one of the writers that had to produce.
My task for contributing to the manual writing process was
to interview the engineers that developed and built these machines and learn as
much as possible so I could write an operator's manual. I assumed and was right that
these people knew everything about electrical and mechanical engineering. I
certainly did not. I was a liberal art major in college and could barely operate
a word processor (that’s what we used back in the day).
This is when I knew that I had to use all of the techniques
available to survive and keep my job. I quickly learned that practicing active
listening was my key to success. According to the grammarly.com blog, How to
Talk to Engineers, Kimberly Joki writes that one must build sincere trust and
get to know engineers and how they talk. Engineers use a lot of jargon. In
addition, it was important to respect their time. In my position, I wanted to
be around these people as little as possible because they were intimidating.
However, I knew that I had to do my due diligence if I was going to get the information
that I needed.
After a while, I was able to listen actively and understand
enough to ask good questions. I would request to sit in on engineering meetings
so I could further understand the process of manufacturing, costs, and customer deadlines they were dealing with. I never asked questions in these
meetings but listened intently. It was like learning a foreign language but
soon I could write in a manner that made some technical sense. At that point, I
knew that when I would ask a question it would be considered a somewhat
intelligent one and I wouldn’t get an impatient look and a quick answer.
I had
learned to think like an engineer and this was going to get me where I needed
to be. In his article in Engineering Management Institute, Anthony Fasano
writes about the importance of listening to communications for an engineer. He
states that “a key to verbal communication is listening.” He writes that one
method for this is, when listening, make mental notes of the key points that
the speaker is stating, and then when you speak you can discuss the key points
and confirm their importance.
This was all part of the process of what Dr. John Kline
calls Informative Listening. This is when you are listening to learn a
procedure or process. Kline wrote a book called Listening Effectively while
serving as provost for the U.S. Air Force Air University. In many parts of the
book, Kline writes about how listening and communications were vital to keeping
aircraft airborne. My situation as a technical writer could only cost a finger
while Kline’s readers could cost a life if precise communication was not practiced. Kline is in agreement with Fasano when he writes
the importance of focus and understanding the key points of the speaker.
I must say as a technical writer during those years I
learned a lot about listening and it was not easy. It was hard work. I had to
be focused, and in a frame of mind, that would allow active listening without
distractions and purpose in mind of what I was to accomplish.
On a lighter note. I always thought that the humorous part of
the process was when I was taking manual drafts to the engineers to have them
proof them for accuracy. They would agree to this, then after a few days, I
would go back to them to collect the proofed draft. Invariably they would hand
it to me and state that it was approved. I would then hand them a form for them
to sign stating that the proof they read was correct. They would then take the proof back
from me and state that they wanted to read it “one more time.”
I would always have a good laugh over this later when I was out of view.
Now that I have been in media sales for so many years I remember
some of those lessons of listening with a purpose. Now it is with my customers, internal colleagues, and management. Listening is always a part of life,
whether it be in our personal or professional lives. It is hard work but makes
us better communicators and people.
Lighter note part two:
Last June I took my daughter and her boyfriend to see Blink182 in Jacksonville, FL. The "warm-up" band was rap artist, Lil Wayne. I have been to many types of concerts but this was a first for me. This picture shows my "dad perspective" of the performance.
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