Temple University alumna Judith E. Glaser, CLA ’67, has authored her seventh book, Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust and Get Extraordinary Results, which translates insights from neuroscience into a practical framework for having better conversations in the workplace.
And Glaser credits Fox School of Business faculty member Angelika Dimoka, an associate professor of marketing and management information systems and the director of the Center for Neural Decision Making, for providing scientific advice that helped bring the book – releasing Oct. 1 – to fruition.
“If I didn’t meet Angelika, I wouldn’t have been able to make sense of all the things I learned because I needed the paradigm she put forth,” said Glaser, CEO of Benchmark Communications and chair of the Creating WE Institute. “There’s something so wonderful about two Temple scientists bringing their work together. It helped me deepen my work and connect the dots.”
Glaser initially contacted Dimoka in November 2010, through the urging of Zandra Harris, a member of the Creating WE Institute, and the two have been involved in a number of projects since then, including Glaser attending one of Dimoka’s annual Interdisciplinary Symposiums on Decision Neuroscience for academics and practitioners.
“I consider her a very good friend of mine,” Dimoka said of Glaser. “She’s an amazing person and very energetic. When you work with her, you get inspired.”
In Conversational Intelligence, Glaser introduces a framework of tiered conversation types in business: Level I: Transactional Conversations generally involve managers giving orders to employees. In Level II: Positional Conversations, leaders advocate their point of view by using their positional power to move people into alignment. However, Glaser argues, these two levels, while they have appropriate uses, often fall on deaf ears when they are used excessively or inappropriately – leading to compliance rather than transformation.
Glaser’s Level III: Transformational Conversations activate higher levels of trust, candor, and innovation – and ultimately strengthen organizational culture to achieve better business results.
“Bringing in the science was an amazing eye-opener for people,” Glaser said of her work with Dimoka and other academic experts who provided scientific advice. “I can’t tell you the difference it’s made.”
From noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, the Temple Perspectives Webinar Series, organized by the Temple University Alumni Association, will feature Dimoka and Glaser discussing Conversations that Transform History. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/19trRvc –Brandon Lausch