How often have you sat in an informal get-together with your colleagues and ended up listening to your boss’s stories? Stories about his or her travel, family, pets, life incidents etc etc.
If the boss is good at communication, the stories are entertaining. Still they run the risk of irritation after a while.
It gets worse when the boss is not a good communicator. Boredom soon sets in, people start stepping out for a smoke or surreptitiously start looking at their phones.
When an employee tries to pitch in with his or her story, its heard for couple of moments, and conversation goes back to the boss!
I have been guilty of this! I can think of countless occasions when I dominated the conversations.
I often wondered the reason for this behavior displayed by leaders. They obviously know that such get-togethers are a wonderful opportunity to know their colleagues better. Still, they cannot get over the desire to talk about themselves.
What drives this behavior – monopolizing conversations with own stories?
A group of Harvard psychologists conducted interesting behavioral experiments and found answer to this.
Talking about ourselves—our subjective experiences, our thoughts, views – no matter how boring they are to others, are extremely rewarding to our brain. When we talk about ourselves, it triggers the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money.
Watch this interesting 2.5 minutes video to know more about it.
At the outset, I would like to thank you for stopping by my Blog.
I believe that there is nothing right or wrong in this world. What’s right in this moment and context may be wrong in another moment and context. This belief has inspired me to name my blog ‘Perspectives’.
Perspectives is a platform for me to share my experiences, thoughts and perspectives on various subjects. You may have a different point of view. I look forward to hearing them, these are the triggers for rich and deep conversations.
On personal front, I live in Mumbai, India. I love to read; Somerset Maugham and Nevil Shute are my favorite authors. My favorite books are The Razor’s Edge, Mrs. Craddock, Chequer Board and Gone with the Wind. I am thankful to my father who inculcated the habit of reading in me early on.
I am also passionate about traveling, I have been to most parts of India and to several countries across the globe.
On professional front, I work in Human Resources function. Over two and half decades, I have worked across multiple industries and cultures. I focus on Leadership Development, Talent Management, Visioning and Culture, Large-scale change, Employee Listening & Engagement, Employee Well-being, Inclusive work culture, HR effectiveness, Behavior and Mind-set shifts through sustained interventions
I currently lead Organization Effectiveness Function for Aditya Birla Group, a $44.3 billion conglomerate with 120000 employees across 35 countries.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading my blog. I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
Thank you!
View all posts by Padma Rajeswari Nandi
Perspectives 