If approached as an exercise in listening and learning, powerful conversations with clients and customers can offer long-term lessons. A challenging client may seem like an obstacle but can also turn out to be someone who will motivate you to do quality work, by giving eye-opening ideas and concepts. A radical new way of engaging with clients and customers, the SPONGE process focuses on listening as a means to gain diverse, insightful perspectives.
Could you tell what the SPONGE Learning Framework is about?
SPONGE is really just a simple acronym for a learning framework I have created in my new book SPONGE – Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients. S stands for Super Active Listening. P stands for Probing and Questioning. O stands for Observing Behavior. N stands for New Behavior to Emulate. G stands for Getting the new Behavior Internalized. And finally E stands for Expanding, Explaining, and Sharing.
When we meet clients or customers, we can all learn a lot if we adopt the SPONGE Learning Framework. The idea is to get out of the ‘sell’ orientation and adopt a ‘SPONGE Learn’ mindset. If we can do that then we can end up getting coached (and mentored) for free by the smart people we deal with. It could be customers, it could be associates, it could be colleagues.
The book contains 25 stories dated between 1980 and 2005, capturing some of the conversations I have had with my clients. And what I learnt from them.
The first chapter, ‘A Shiny New Car’ is about the passion of a leader to visualize and execute a plan. a. Where does a leader/ manager draw the line so that he does not end up micro-managing things? b. Mr Tata found an issue with the car that others could not, which reflects his passion for the product. What is the ‘SPONGE learning’ from this?
There is a fine balance between micromanaging and being passionate about one’s job. In the story A Shiny New Car, I could see how Mr Tata had identified something interesting and wanted his team to figure out how to do it. They had failed in their first attempt and he had asked them to try again, only if they wanted to. But the engineers at Tata Motors ERC in Pune are a committed lot. They finally got what they thought was acceptable and Mr Tata dropped all that was on his plate that afternoon to see their work.
Esta historia es de la edición November - December 2018 de The Smart Manager.
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Esta historia es de la edición November - December 2018 de The Smart Manager.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
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Customers For Life
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The Digital Shift
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The Story Of Telling
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Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
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A Sustainable Model
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