A few weeks ago, I backpacked with my friend Bill. What’s great about going into the wilderness for a few days with Bill (in this case, four days) is that we communicate so well, respect each others needs, and consider them throughout the trip. This kind of deep communication becomes especially pointed living in the woods when your kitchen and bedroom are in the pack on your back.

This trip, our goal was to summit four of the forty-six 4,000-foot peaks in New York’s Adirondack park. (Actually, there are only 43 such peaks. Apparently, past climbers couldn’t measure very well, but history dictates compliance with their inaccurate measurements.) Four days, 32 miles, 12,000 feet of elevation gain, fifty-pound packs, all planned with a guide book last published seven years ago—an eon for the Adirondacks where landscape-altering storms are the norm.

While we had a general idea of the summiting trails, we also knew that routes and conditions would be different—in two cases, markedly different as it turned out—from descriptions written at least seven years ago, and probably eight. We knew this going in, and we knew that we would be trying to get the latest conditions, from whoever we crossed paths with, always an eye-opening and trusting endeavor.

Ultimately, we knew this: our ability to ask clear questions, listen attentively, engage in the dialog, focus on outcomes, and accurately assess information would be crucial to the success of our trip. In other words: simple, clear communication. (You knew that was coming, right? If not, look at Solari’s home page.)

So we did this. Whenever we met someone on the trail who was amenable and willing to talk, we engaged them. In return, we gathered a lot of pertinent information (some conflicting that we reconciled by assessing the source). We discovered three significant facts: one trailhead wasn’t where we thought it was; a rumored trailhead relocation was indeed fact and that its trail had been substantially cleared over the previous years; and that one trail was overgrown although still passable.

In the end, we discovered that the information we gathered was accurate on the ground. We did summit all four mountains. And, as a bonus, garnered a couple of sources for summiting future mountains.

Think of how, in a metaphorical sense, these same events happen to you. Think how simple, clear communication could have helped clear your path and enable you to summit your mountain.

–Rich Maggiani

• Build awareness of your brand.
• Enhance your reputation.
• Convert prospects into customers and clients.
• Create loyalty in your customers.
• Increase the morale of your employees.

So that’s what you get, the benefits. How do you get it?

• Through a Facebook fan page for a celebrity, band, or business.
• Through a Twitter account for your business.
• Through LinkedIn pages for key employees (executives, managers, employees, whoever best represents your company).
• Through a blog with one or more authors (or multiple blogs) on your web site.

Those are the tools. But they are only tools; you must know how to use them to enjoy the five benefits.

So you must have a plan, well thought out; with goals, strategies, and tactics. You must know where you are going and how you are going to get there; otherwise, how will you know you are on the right road? How will you even know when you get there, whatever your destination (your goal) might be? So a plan is a necessity. As is the skill to use these social media tools.

It doesn’t hurt to write guidelines for participation. Actually, guidelines are a necessity, for companies of any size, even for one-person companies. Why? Guidelines allow you to consider the rules for playing. They set a clear path of engagement.

All of this takes some thoughtful consideration, some time to gestate ideas, some time to adjust as you go. And a commitment for the long term.

See. That’s all it takes! Nothing to it, right?

–Rich Maggiani

A national panic ensued during the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. People didn’t listen to the many announcements made throughout the broadcast that the story was fictitious. Halfway through the program, Orson Welles looked up from his microphone to discover that the studio was filled with police. Radio stations, newspapers, hospitals, and police were flooded with phone calls regarding the “invasion”. People don’t listen any better today, to a great cost for them and everyone else involved.

Listening is at the forefront of communication. Just think about how often during the day you spend time listening: the radio during your commute, television in the evening, at the movie theatre, through ear buds attached to a portable music player, audio seminars and podcasts over the Web, office conversations, airport announcements. The listening ability of airplane pilots and control tower personnel is critical to a successful and safe flight. And those company meetings you attend: one person talking, everyone else listening. The written word, and its incumbent paperwork, is much slower than the spoken word — when business needs to move fast, the keyboard and pen are eschewed in favor of oral communication: talking and listening.

I had the good fortune to be in Washington’s Dulles airport on the fifth anniversary of September 11. Over the intercom came a booming voice: “Attention passengers and personnel. Your attention please.” We were reminded of the anniversary and were fed the live memorial ceremony from New York City. We were then asked to stand in a moment of silence. Virtually everyone and everything came to a standstill. It was a poignant and somber event, one that I will always remember. And it all took place because people stopped and listened.

Listening training? Companies spend virtual fortunes to ensure their staff can write, give presentations, speak in public, and plan and conduct meetings — all venues for disseminating information. But companies spend precious little time ensuring that these same people know how to listen, and yet the foundation of all effective communication is listening. Communication is a two-way street; we send out a message then wait for — and expect — a reply. Why? Because we want to be heard! And yet, do we actually listen to this reply other than to confirm that something was said? Probably not.

Few of us take the time to truly listen. Most people, when in a conversation or dialogue with others, are not really listening; they are simply being polite, half listening, and waiting for their turn to talk. Instead of listening while someone else talks, they formulate responses. This is not listening; it’s story telling.

Listening as a selling point. I was perusing the web site of a vertical market software company. They are rewriting the code for their main product offering, announcing it with these words: “We’ve been listening.” As if it’s such a surprising thing. But you know what? It is.

Listeners are exceptional people. Examples of listening abound, yet they are all so specialized. Harvey MacKay in his book Swim With the Sharks, recounts how his wife intently listened to a taxi driver on their 20-minute trip to the airport. When she paid the tab, the taxi driver said to her, “Lady, you are the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

Even in fiction, listeners are appreciated. M C Beaton, the Scottish mystery writer, in one of her books, speaking through her character Constable Hamish Macbeth, describes a witness as “that rarest kind of person, someone who truly listens”.

Of timeless importance. What does all this mean for you? Consider this. “The effectiveness of the spoken word hinges not so much on how people talk, but mostly on how they listen.” So says Ralph G Nichols and Leonard A Stevens (researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa, respectively) in their Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, Listening to People. Through their research, Nichols and Leonard found that managers and office workers earn 40% of their salaries listening; executives earn up to 80%. They also found that the vast majority only half listen. Editorializes the HBR on their article, “They open up a subject of tremendous practical importance to executives.”

Successful sales professionals have long since discovered the value of listening. When in a selling situation, one of their highest priorities is to ‘qualify’ the customer. They must determine the needs of the customer to best match that customer with a product or service offering. During a sales presentation, there is only one way to ‘qualify’ a customer: by listening.

Your ability to listen effectively can be the difference between success and failure. Similar to the other forms of communication of writing and speaking, listening is a skill that can be learned. As professionals, as managers, as executives, listening is your highest duty.

–Rich Maggiani

By now you realize that I live in a rural setting with my small family, on about an acre of land surrounded by large tracts of wooded areas dotted sparsely with some homes.

The deer slip out from the surrounding woods and find the one place in the yard where there was a garden. They root around for whatever they can find to eat, then lie down to sleep. My wife — it being her garden — was the first to notice.

It’s unusual for deer to sleep in the open, so their making beds in the middle of our yard seems quite strange. And yet, the deer somehow have found refuge there, enough that they return now and again.

While contemplating this small bit of nature one morning, it struck me that the deer had found a bit of nourishment in that small garden and a piece of humanity in our yard. Which, naturally, spawned the idea for this blog.

I hope you find a bit of humanity in these posts, something you can bring to your everyday lives.

–Rich Maggiani