Power Play: Make time for coffee

Power Players always make time to get people away from the office and into someplace for a terrific cup of coffee. Away from the office is relaxed. And it allows people to let their guards down.

Tell the truth and play being themselves rather than some version of who they think they should be. Power Players do the coffee thing as often as they can. They rarely set an agenda and see where the conversation goes.

Always, always, always make time for coffee. Take your guest out, get them a skim latte double shot with whipped crème and an extra shot on top (or whatever fancy crap they like), sit back and let them spill.

It comes down to this: you’re not the one who does the talking: they are. Power Players use these coffee catch-ups to listen. That’s it. Listen to whatever is going on in the person’s head and whatever they feel they need to vent.

Power Players make time for it and when things get busy they don’t nix it from their schedule.

Entrepreneur, strategist and author Rose Herceg co-founded Pophouse, specialising in social forecasting, market research and business strategy in 1998 before selling it to STW in 2006.

Until recently Rose was strategy director of the STW Group, working across 70 companies on strategy, social forecasting, trends analysis and innovation.

She is currently developing several online start-ups in media and media content.