I was listening to The Dale Carnegie Leadership Mastery Course…

 

…the following set of suggestions caught my attention:

  

How a leader can help to change people's attitudes and behaviour

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Point 6 includes a recommendation Dale Carnegie repeats frequently:

 

 

Now, well into the 21st Century, numerous folks teach this sort of advice. So, sets of suggestions such as those above probably do not stand out as particularly innovative or novel. However, when we consider Dale Carnegie was adventuring into this territory during the first quarter of the 20th Century…it is interesting to wonder how this sort of advice was received when he first provided it.

 

Carnegie’s 1937 classic, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” was a major success, a bestseller.

 

So, we don’t have to wonder if people bought the book…but, how readily did those who bought the book practice what Carnegie recommended?

Dale Carnegie, in The 5 Essential People Skills, educated us about assertive curiosity. Assertive curiosity is a multi-faceted concept, described in 10 elements.  www.DaleCarnegie.com

 

If we want to summarize these 10 elements in a single word then that single word would be ‘passion’.

 

You may recall, I was asked, “How can we build passion into our workplace?”

 

Here is another answer: building a culture of assertive curiosity is a way to build passion.

 

Dale Carnegie Training suggests 10 elements for building assertive curiosity at our workplace:

1. Remember assertive curiosity is an emotional as well as an intellectual experience. Assertive curiosity is more about passion than about gathering facts. It is about teaching ourselves how to learn in ways that are meaningful, memorable, and effective. It is about conveying to your co-workers an excitement about learning.
2. See yourself as both a student and a purveyor of real knowledge. Gather information from within and outside your field, striving to have leading-edge knowledge. Be dynamic about it, bridging the gap between theory and practice. Become an authority. Be comfortable saying, “I don’t know” [which is a mark of true authority] and couple that with an intention to find out.
3. The operational/interactive component of assertive curiosity involves listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering each human being is different from every other. Find the best in people. Ask the right questions and want to hear the answers. Seek the opinions of others. Find out what people think.
4. Assertive curiosity involves being curios about and interactive with people without having a fixed agenda. Adjust to accommodate others’ interests. Be confident enough to understand other people’s ideas may be better than your own. Be a patient teacher. Share information about yourself in order to inspire others to share their personal information. Share your dreams.
5. Work at having an appealing personal style. Be theatrical. Be interesting.
6. Develop a fine sense of self-deprecating humour…to attract and engage others. Remember, both curiosity and humour thrive on the pleasure of surprise.
7. Recognize what other people want to learn and also what they need to learn. Then, be creative as you work to spark their curiosity. But, be sure to have no agenda and have no expectation.
8. Your company culture, as a whole, must support assertive curiosity. You must have visionary leadership coupled with tangible resources throughout you organization.
9. Assertive curiosity should be mentored by senior management. Make curiosity a factor in employee performance appraisals. Provide training about curiosity. Reward curiosity.
10. Build fun into your workplace.

If we work on these 10 things then we will ignite passion at our workplace.