Let’s say you have an opportunity to chit-chat with an upper-manager in your company. Maybe you have a chance to just shoot the breeze or you get to work with them for a short while or maybe you even get to have a lunch or dinner with that person. You know he or she is an important person and generally wants to talk about important things.
What are some topics that you would touch on to carry on a good 10 minute or more conversation with that person? What could you talk about that would be so interesting that a person like that would want to take time out of their day to chat with you?
Here are some topics that I assume would be appropriate for someone like that:
Interesting facts and anecdotes that are relevant to the industry that you work in
The cause of our current recession it’s effects on various industries
News about the Stock Mart
Questions about their rise to the top and how a normal person could do what they did
Questions about what makes them successful on a daily basis
What do you think about these types of topics and questions being used on important people? Good, bad, too vague? What kinds of topics would you elaborate on around someone with a high standing in the world?
Nah, they’re human beings too, usually with spouses and kids and interests far-reaching from work. The last thing I do is talk work over dinner or polite conversation with upper management. Believe it not, they like sports and TV shows too. I’ve had meals with lots of VPs, CEOs, etc. Nothing wrong with a casual stock market chat, but leave the business stuff alone and try to connect at a personal level.
See the two of those don’t necessarily, or even usually in my ( perhaps limited ) experience, go together.
Unless they are obsessed workaholics ( in which case I’d probably avoid them like the plague in social situations ), I find most people aren’t terribly keen on nattering on about business outside of business hours. More casual chit-chat in the manner Leaffan suggests seems a lot more natural to me.
The powerful people I’ve interacted with have fallen into three categories:
Snobs. You won’t be interacting with these people because you are beneath them and they’re not interested in interacting with YOU.
Egomaniacs. They enjoy being the center of attention and will sit there and hold forth on whatever they think is important or interestng. Your role is to nod and make them feel smart.
Normal People. Despite the power differential they are capable of interacting with you as a human being. Carry on a normal conversation the way you would with anyone else.
Don’t quiz people about the secrets of their success. It comes across as prying and fanboyish … unless you’re with an egomaniac who WANTS to teach everyone his valuable life lessons. And I agree with Leaffan … if it’s a social setting avoid business topics. Unless they’re total workaholics most people don’t want to talk about work 24 hours a day.
Motorcycles is definitely a good idea. If he is into bikes, you will not talk for 10 minutes, you will talk the whole evening, and chances are good that he will ignore the rest of the party.
If he is not, you are in trouble. I would switch over to his family in this case
Most executives are busy people, in what context are you interacting with them? Usually, there’s going to be a point to the conversation, executives have very little time for just hanging out.
Unlike most other people in this thread, I’ve found executives usually love talking about their work. It’s hard to get to that level at any job without becoming driven & workaholic and many of them could talk about it all day. But because they do talk about it all day, what they don’t like doing is having the same conversation they’ve had 1000 times before.
Offer an interesting perspective or a clear viewpoint that’s cogently argued. One of the things executives are highly aware of are the risks of living inside a bubble and if you can present a compelling view that deviates from the group think, I find they’re usually willing to listen.
Another thing to be aware of is that most of the people who are talking to them are usually after something so they’re very aware of that entering into any conversation. They’re usually trying to figure out how you’re trying to play them for the entire course of the conversation.
From my experience most upper echelon business types like to talk about topics from this list:
Bestiality
The Devil and his works
Why you can’t open windows in office buildings
Words ending in -gry
The Monte Hall problem
Did Oliver Stone act alone in making JFK
How to remove vomit stains from expensive suits
Do you know the way to San Jose
What do they call these little pastry things - the ones with the bacon
Yodelling
Boxers vs briefs
Does this make my ass look fat
-Leading economic indicators (especially if you can string several together without reference to actual goods, industries, or services)
-Tennis (if exec is under 50)
-Golf (if over 50)
-Abstract buzzwords (consult management seminar texts or annual reports from the past 5 years)
You want to cup his balls gently with your hand. Too light of a touch means “I lack assertiveness,” but too firm of a hold will say “not a team player.” You need to get it just right. Practice it on your father first.
Of the four partners at my old firm, one liked to talk about his kids and how they were either wonderful or spoiled brats, depending on how he had interacted with them the night before (they were teenagers), one liked to talk about politics and science fiction, one liked to talk about old movies and college basketball (UNC grad), and the fourth tended to run around with a kind of dazed look in his eyes, and, when he did talk to you about non work stuff, tended to make bad puns. The partner I was working for before that liked to talk about France, scuba diving, and what idiots people were.
So, in my admittedly limited experience, I’d try one of those topics.
Oh, also, wine was a big topic of conversation. The partners liked them some wine.
I think the answer varies depending on your relationship with this person. Most of my experience has been in directly working with CXOs on projects (mostly CIOs, sometimes CFOs or CEOs). If I just have a chance to shoot the breeze then I’ll discuss something not work-related that I’m fairly sure they enjoy, like golf. If I get to work with them, then I’m going to learn what aspect of the project they are most interested/invested in and make sure I know that part of it forward and backward. But execs are normal people - sometimes they don’t want to discuss the project. So you can discuss other things.
Basically, in my experience, CXOs are just like us normies. They talk about work, they talk about sports, hobbies, etc. The topic is often less important than how you talk to them. In my opinion, if you awkwardly look like you are trying to impress with important economic topics, you’re more likely to fail. If you can leisurely and comfortably discuss the success/failure of the [insert name of local sports team here], you’ll be fine.
