Simone Schenk

Background

About Simone Schenk

Currently working on a PhD on 'Talking about a personal development goal at work' Promoters are Rob Poell and Robert-Jan Simons and co-promoter is Willem de Lange Listening is the most essential aspect in my research. I listen to tape recordings of conversations between managers and employees and use a grounded theory approach. I try to find out what happens when a manager and a professional from a self-managed team talk about a development goal. And, as part of my research, I train managers to listen to the employee and get the employee to talk about actual behaviour before talking about a development goal. Listening is essential because the person that does the talking can easily get lost in thoughts or emotions. The brain cannot multitask in case two or more tasks are difficult. And talking about a development goal is difficult by definition. It is not yet developed. Therefore the person that does the talking needs another person that listens and • helps to analyse, • keeps to the behaviour in which a development goal is ‘hidden’, • takes care there is no memory-overload, • helps get back on track after emotions, • signals when talking leads away from the original behaviour. Who wants to learn to get more out of a conversation with a professional? I am looking for managers that are willing to participate in my research.