If You Don't Talk, You Can't Rock VC

Over at the Harvard Business Review Blog, She Negotiates graduate, venture capitalist Whitney Johnson, says if you don’t talk, you won’t rock the world of venture capital and investment banking. Johnson,Â*a founding partner of Rose Park Advisors, Clayton M. Christensen’s investment firm, was a double-ranked Institutional Investor analyst at Merrill Lynch covering telecom and media in emerging markets before she helped found Rose Park Advisors. When Whitney Johnson talks, women listen. So attend to the core of her advice here. Invert the listen/talk ratio. Most women are pretty adept at listening, but when it comes time to speak, we tend to falter — and more importantly, over time, we get left behind: specifically, when we listen passively, we retain 5% of what we’ve learned, when we participate actively, 90%. Talk shop with other women. I sometimes get “talker’s block” around men; around women I don’t. And yet, when I’m around women I rarely talk about our <a href="http://www.cheapghdstraighteners2011.com/"><strong>cheap ghd</strong></a> portfolio, what stocks I like and why. . . Perhaps because there are very few women in our chosen professions (only 5 to 10 percent of VCs are women), we felt some relief in the opportunity for “girl talk.” But don’t men talk sports during business dinners, you ask? They do, but sports are just an appetizer, the meal is about the deal. Require women to talk the walk. I was surprised when a senior Wall Street banker and friend of mine confided that women rarely speak up in his departmental meetings. Yet as he described to me how the meetings unfold, I think I know why. The meetings actually start before they start. The men walk in the room already engaging, bantering, smack-talking, the women in the room listening, quietly. Whitney recommends women follow Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto advice at any meeting by asking all participants to speak Â*for just a minute or two which “activates” <a href="http://www.quickbooksonline2011.com/"><strong>quickbooks pro 2011</strong></a> them as contributors who will Â*more readily add to the conversation. When I teach deposition (pre-trial testimony) skills for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, I always tell the deposition “defenders” (the lawyers representing the witness) to make an objection, any objection, early in the course of the deposition just to hear their own voice in the room. “Just say, ‘vague and ambiguous’ within the first ten minutes,” I tell them. “It might annoy opposing counsel (not a bad thing) and it accomplishes the goal of confirming your active presence in the room. You are not a potted plant. This is particularly important for young lawyers no matter their gender. The same is true for any business meeting, whether you’re on the Board of Directors at PepsiCo or a new manager at Kraft Foods. You should read Johnson’s entire article, Keep Listening, but Start Talking. It’s full of personal anecdotes that make the outlined advice above accessible and easy to follow. <a href="http://www.cheapghdstraighteners2011.com/ghd-iv-pink-styler-p-16.html"><strong>hair straighteners ghds</strong></a> Then go get ‘em ladies, the world is your oyster. As a postscript, we’re proud to say that of our six-week online negotiation training, Johnson gave us the highest accolade any training business can receive – Best Educational ROI I’ve had in years. Take the first step toward being a courageous and effective talker by signing up for our Tuesday Muse here.Â*Fabulously sensible tips, tools and invitations in one tiny blast. To thank you for your precious time, we'll give you a slice of our training to help you source and research your right value.