BlogHop

Seek first to understand…then to be understand. Knowing how to be understood is the other half of Habit 5, and is equally critical in reaching Win/Win solutions. Earlier we defined maturity as the balance between courage and consideration. Seeking to understand requires consideration; seeking to be understood takes courage. Win/Win requires a high degree of both. So it becomes important in interdependent situations for us to be understood. The early Greeks had a magnificent philosophy which is embodied in three sequentially arranged words: ethos, pathos, and logos. I suggest these three words contain the essence of seeking first to understand and making effective presentations. Ethos is your personal credibility, the faith people have in your integrity and competency. It’s the trust that you inspire, your Emotional Bank Account, Pathos is the empathic side-it’s the feeling. It means that you are in alignment with the emotional trust of another person’s communication. Logos is the logic, the reasoning part of the presentation. Notice the sequence: ethos, pathos, logos-your character, and your relationships, and then the logic of your presentation. This represents another major paradigm shift. Most people, in making presentations, go straight to the logos, the left brain logic, of their Ideas.