At the start of each of my managerial communication classes, I force the students to engage in small talk. Each week I devise different scenarios: they are at a conference reception, they are at a meeting with people from other parts of their company they don’t know, they are senior leaders introducing junior leaders to another colleague, they are hosts or guests, etc.
I think that the art of conversation is one of those managerial skills that can set you apart. Fluency with in-person small talk is becoming a lost art — due to both technology and remote work — and actually practicing it is the only way to gain proficiency — or at least a level of comfort.
It may come in handy to know that the higher-ranking person is introduced to the lower-ranking person, and it certainly will improve connections if introductions are followed by a detail about the other person. It also helps if all conversations are designed to ask open-ended questions with the goal of finding a “hook” upon which to string further comments.
One of my students wrote on their evaluation: “I hate the small talk; it’s a great idea.” As you work with interns or new employees, add opportunities for small talk into the onboarding process and explicitly mentor people about its value. There’s nothing small about the skill of making connections.
