Powerful Conversations – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

What makes a conversation last

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

We’ve all had conversations that add and multiply. Talks that run for a good while and seem over in the blink of an eye. We’ve also lived moments when a conversation subtracts and divides. What draws us to powerful conversations? What effect do they have? How can we build more of those connections with the world?

A key element of a conversation that lasts is that it always looks ahead and sets out to build the future. We’re usually searching for answers and ways to meet all sorts of challenges. The key is finding the person or people who will always find a way to inspire us and show us life from many angles. We tend not to listen to ourselves, and that may be one of the most powerful lessons to learn before listening to anyone else. Still, nothing stops us from seeking out the unique way someone else sees life. That change of perspective does us a lot of good.

Paradoxical as it sounds, listening is becoming one of the great tools of this century. In a hyperconnected, overinformed world, knowing how to listen may become one of the most decisive skills for making things happen or finding new solutions. The impact a person has on others depends largely on their ability to listen. It may be the greatest quality of anyone who inspires, along with the persistence to offer exactly the right word, which usually goes hand in hand with the next point: asking.

What kind of questions? Questions that inspire, that make us reflect, shift our perspective and see life from its many angles. Questions lead us to reflect, and even when we’d rather not hear them, a question always makes us think (so rare these days). There’s no formula for a powerful question. We refine it little by little as we learn to trust the power of a question over the limited power of advice. Resisting the urge to give advice is another great quality of a powerful conversation.

You could list a thousand elements of a powerful conversation, but for the word powerful to hold true there has to be a commitment and a result, whatever the conversation is for. By being there for others through listening, asking the key questions, looking ahead and trusting fully in our ability to build what we long for, we can have the superpower of conversations that last. The greatest achievement of a powerful conversation will always be inspiring ourselves and others. And the surest sign of a conversation like that is wanting to have it again. How do you know your conversations are powerful?

Warm regards,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. No VELA this week. I’m traveling and have had to cut my reading to a minimum. The only reading I keep up is what helps me grow as a person. While I’m on the road this week I’ll be reading Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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