Pairing and Expanding Your Strengths: Woo

On this Theme Thursday Season 2 webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Gallup Advanced Learning and Development Consultant discussed the theme of WOO.

People exceptionally talented in the WOO theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with someone. WOO is a social initiative. It is a quickness of making that connection. It is the ability to quickly discover the right chemistry needed to connect with another person, and the quest for that chemistry. Those with the WOO theme can quickly read people and their posture. They can have a whole conversation that is tailored to you. WOO is about hospitality, charisma and magnetism. People with WOO are drawn to other people. It can be the same with reverse magnetism, people are drawn to those with WOO.

People with strong WOO talents bring energy to social situations. They can connect with others and act as catalysts in helping people connect with one another. They have an exceptional ability to draw others out of their shells. They build rapport with purpose. They can pay attention to the necessity of building rapport, and realize that is how you get others to a better place. We should position our people with WOO in that moment where they can start the initial conversation. They are little beacons of hospitality. If you can spread them throughout an event or room, they are going to act as not just fire starters, but low radiators of warmth.

Raw WOO looks like the need for people to like you. If that's all you have it can lead you to some pretty tricky behavior. However, mature WOO is the realization that you like people. This might feed the need to be liked in return, but to see it less as the need to be fulfilled, and more as that connection because you truly love people. Raw WOO says rapport is the goal, whereas mature WOO says rapport is just a means towards a bigger goal. It is more important to break the ice so that we can get to better performance, or so that we can make deeper relationships. Where raw WOO is more about the pleasure in the moment, mature is about recruiting and assembling. You can use that ability to win people over to get you somewhere. There is power and edge to WOO. It is not just about being the person that everyone is comfortable around. It can also have a really positive relationship with people that can be resources to you, and that can make you a powerful leader.

WOO is a social catalyst. You are creating comfort, and you are creating investments. Invest by looking for opportunities where you can connect other people to each other. If you are the best at getting those relationships to begin, a way that you can deepen them is to connect other people that need the depth of relationship. Who can you connect to each other? Think about WOO as investing through skill and knowledge. Develop your skill at learning and remembering others' names. How do you ask the best questions that make people feel like they're the only one in the room? Be better at being more charismatic. Grow at your courtship skills and pursuing the love of another. Understand that you get energy from social situations, and you're better with that energy. How do you set up your day? Try to change your environment to have people around you all day, and make sure to connect throughout the day. It is your responsibility to put other people at ease. You should strive not only to be the first face that people see every day, but try to be that face that sets people on the correct path every day.

To learn more about WOO, please watch the video or listen to the audio above.