Many of you will, of course, have enjoyed the paper on Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence as published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences volume 11, number 2!!!
I actually have read it (yes, I know I need to get out more), and I was fascinated by the conclusions and their implications for the people I work with.
Academics from the universities of Princeton, Northwestern and Lawrence, including the fabulous Amy Cuddy, tell us that people who are perceived as both warm and competent elicit uniformly positive emotions and behaviour from those they communicate with. And, importantly, that warmth carries more weight than competence.
Hence, training a group of lawyers this week, we worked hard to balance ‘emotional’ and factual content so that they could make a human connection with their audiences.
We used content, tone and non-verbal cues to cut through the dense, technical material; we explored how to (a) understand and (b) resonate with an audience to make them feel valued, respected and included. We gave the lawyers ‘permission’ to let their personality come through rather than applying a cold veneer of professionalism. It’s no longer enough just to tell people stuff.
And all of this is particularly important in the era of AI. As more people use it, there will be a homogenization of content and style so those human connections become ever more valuable. Our authenticity becomes a potentially competitive edge.
I’ve seen similar issues recently, training people in creative industries who want to ‘sell’ concepts more effectively and to communicate better when their ideas are challenged. How to avoid responding in an overly defensive/aggressive manner? How to maintain control and openness while fighting your corner?
This is indeed a communications challenge, especially for people who are often more comfortable with images than words. It’s about respecting the other viewpoint; finding out more about the challenge by asking questions, and demonstrating your own belief in the concept/lamp/colour/material.
At the heart of all this is having the courage to open up to an audience: to let the defences down; to show them honesty, vulnerability and empathy while at the same time demonstrating competence. This is tough for many professionals.
One thing’s for sure though, for us and for the Easter bunny, having audiences warm to us is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s essential.
