Temperature of the room

Many years ago, when I was in a support role in the IT department for a large Financial Services company, there was a failure in one of the many overnight batch jobs. The impact of this failure was not insignificant: the positions of the traders in the Fixed Income desk were not current. Any transactions they wanted to do would not create the accurate reports needed to send to their accounting partner in real time for auditing purposes. At 7:30 am, the traders were understandably unhappy. On most days, by 8 am, they would book trades worth millions of dollars every few minutes and this delay would badly affect their numbers.

One of the senior IT managers, Dan, went to face the traders, “the business”, as we called them. His objective was to assure them that the problem would be fixed soon. I followed him into the crowded room to see how he would handle the crisis. He took measure of the room, and said calmly, “All of you know me. We are deeply aware of the impact of the overnight failure on your work this morning. Please know that we have been working on addressing this issue since it failed at 2 am. We have our best people on the job. We will be updating you every hour on the hour on our progress. As we do this, our team is working with your consultants to give you a manual work-around, which will be slow but at least get you started. I appreciate your patience. You may call me at any time. I am available 24/7.” He then wrote down his phone number on the large white board of the conference room. To our great relief, the traders were visibly reassured. They even expressed their appreciation for all the hard work being done by the IT team.

Understanding the mood, the sentiments, the general atmosphere in a room is one of the many things experienced leaders do every day. In business meetings, it is crucial to know how people are feeling, so you can identify potential issues and make informed decisions to address concerns. By knowing the temperature of the room, effective leaders are able to:

• Build rapport. Clients are more likely to trust and engage with us when they feel their emotions and concerns are acknowledged.
• Tailor their communication. If the clients appear rushed for time, we can give them a crisp and concise version of what we wanted to say. If they appear relaxed, a more open and conversational approach will make better sense.
• Identify client concerns. Sensing the temperature of the room can help us understand underlying issues that may not be explicitly stated. This can help us address objections or reservations before they snowball into huge problems.
• Avoid potential minefields. In problem-solving discussions, knowing the client’s mood and emotional state can help us navigate sensitive topics more effectively and this can help us build a more collaborative and positive atmosphere.

Not knowing the temperature of the room can be a blind spot with substantial impact on our role as leaders. Being overly focused on the task at hand, distracted by other problems, being low on empathy and holding biases about others all can contribute to this blind spot.

Here are a few things we can do to gauge the temperature in the room more effectively:

• Prep for the meeting. Know the context of the meeting, the reasons your clients are meeting you (what they want to achieve by meeting you), and past pain. Can you find out what they are proud of? What they’d rather not talk about? These are not just typical hot buttons such as politics, religion or personal life choices, but recent unfavorable company events, such as litigation, high profile exits or other unfortunate incidents.
• Check in. Start your meetings by telling the others how you feel about the meeting and invite them to “check in” with you too. This simple practice will help you understand if your clients have other things on their mind, if they are in a rush, if they are exhausted after a long flight, if they have any emotions that can have a bearing on your discussions.
• Observe. This involves paying close attention to body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. These cues are invaluable in gauging the client’s mood. Be aware of how the client’s culture can shape their behaviour.
• Ask open-ended questions. Encourage your clients to share their thoughts and feelings on the discussions you are having. Open-ended questions allow people to share freely what they think and feel. They also let the client know you are interested and listening.
• Listen actively. Acknowledging the client’s feelings and paraphrasing what they have said will demonstrate your understanding in powerful ways.

Knowing the temperature of the room is an important element of Social Intelligence and Emotional Competence. This skill lets others know that you are alert and alive to what is going on around you, that you are fully present. The above five behaviours can also be demonstrated on video conference calls – this is the reason you should (and insist that others) come on camera. In the context of team leadership, the benefits of knowing the room’s temperature and acting accordingly are many: employees feel heard and valued and change initiatives are better received and implemented.

Do you have any stories to share on how you (or someone you know) read the room well and thus was more effective? I’d love to hear from you.