Oscar Trimboli
Amid accelerating customer investment and escalating talent shortages, the ecosystem has arrived at a crossroads of contradiction, heightening the need to “stop, pause and deeply listen”.
Increased deals to the left, but diminishing skills to the right, the channel is stuck in the middle of a market juggling opportunities and challenges in equal measure.
As leaders, the tempting reaction is to respond at lightning pace, instructing and initiating action to capitalise on end-user demand while mitigating rising labour concerns. But perhaps, somewhere in the noise, success can be found in soundlessness.
“Impactful communication isn’t just about how eloquently and persuasively you speak, it’s how consciously, deliberately and skilfully you listen to your employees, customers and markets,” advised Oscar Trimboli, author and host of the Apple award-winning podcast Deep Listening.
The value of creating impact beyond words will be unveiled at EDGE 2022, with Trimboli set to outline the science behind listening at a leadership level, supported by immediate examples of practical application to support improved communication with employees, customers and partners.
“Communication isn’t just about what you say, it is 50 per cent speaking and 50 per cent listening,” Trimboli said. “Most programs about effective communication focus on speaking with influence and leading change by setting a compelling vision, yet over 93 per cent of change initiatives fail. There is a missing ingredient – leaders who listen.”
According to Trimboli, only two per cent of CEOs have ever received any training on how to listen. Yet leaders typically spend 64 per cent to 83 per cent of the day doing just that, listening.
“The more senior your role, the more critical listening is to your career progress,” Trimboli added. “If communication is 50 per cent speaking and 50 per cent listening, why is listening never taught in leadership training programs?
“It’s like teaching a leader to run with only their right leg. It’s unbalanced and it’s exhausting running around in circles frustrated that you have made no progress.”
Leveraging Deep Listening research, Trimboli will equip partners, vendors and distributors will the tools for ongoing and sustained listening success at EDGE 2022, an approach which can be replicated in teams across the wider organisation.
“Deep Listening helps increase profitability by minimising duplicate costs and effort caused by confusion and conflict,” Trimboli noted.
“Dramatically reduce project costs by asking the right questions upfront while attract and retain employees by listening to what they have to say, as well as the unsaid. This is alongside getting ahead of the competition by serving customers better and mitigating negative publicity in the media.”
At the core of Deep Listening is the concept of the Five Levels of Listening, spanning Yourself; Content; Context; Unsaid and Meaning.
“These five levels describe the hierarchy of listening,” Trimboli said. “Each level is foundational. You need to be proficient at the previous level to effectively move to the next level."
Smart Skills
Trimboli’s insights dovetail into the overarching editorial theme of EDGE 2022, which focuses on Skills: Sharp, Strategic & Smart.
As the market engages in a stalemate struggle for talent – a struggle in which employees rule and salaries swing the balance – a pragmatic approach to skills is required.
Winning the talent war is impossible, time to focus on the more realistic battles ahead and build out skills aligned to three core objectives – Sharp, Strategic and Smart.
With new technologies flooding the industry at pace, partners must prioritise solutions aligned to internal capacity and end-user demand, while also exploring viable outsourcing strategies and practical methods to achieve scale. But this can only be achieved through a commitment to individual up-skilling as an executive leader, armed with the modern-day attributes to spearhead growth.
On the one hand, this is a market bursting at the seams with new technology projects and increased outsourcing demand. Yet on the other, remains woefully under resourced and unable to capitalise.
EDGE 2022 will side-step the predicable talent rhetoric to focus on solving the most crippling skills challenges facing the technology ecosystem – converting questions into answers and ideas into game-plans.
Specifically, Trimboli will align to Smart Skills.
Smart in relation to leadership development on an individual level, improving executive engagement with employees and customers aligned to corporate objectives.
- How to better show up with employees and customers
- Business coaching linked to individual executive development
- Top skills and attributes of successful leaders post-pandemic
More broadly speaking, EDGE 2022 will run as the leading technology outsourcing conference for business leaders in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), built on the foundations of collaboration, education and advancement.
Attendance at EDGE 2022 is by invitation only, limited to 380 decision-makers shaping the technology outsourcing landscape on both sides of the Tasman. Such high calibre of attendance is the catalyst for a four-day destination event designed to provide business coaching at an executive-level, targeting seasoned leaders to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Plans are now underway shaping an editorial narrative built around the theme of Skills: Sharp, Strategic & Smart – offering step-by-step guidance on pragmatic and realistic ways to overcome ongoing resource challenges. This will be underpinned by EDGE Research, housing in-depth end-user and partner analysis across A/NZ, uniquely delivered in partnership with Tech Research Asia.
For more information about EDGE 2022, click here
