People Skills for Analytical Thinkers

Once upon a time, I was all business. I was overly analytical and a bit too direct on every project I worked on. I was never mean-spirited, at least I didn’t think I was. I just thought everyone should be like me when working on critical projects. Four years into my career, some people who cared about me said, “Mark, you’re smart, but you need to go to charm school.” That was a transformational experience.

The Interview with Gilbert Eijkelenboom

I believe my natural weaknesses in people skills and the self-awareness of my limitations have led to a heightened sense of awareness of books about personal communication.

When People Skills for Analytical Thinkers hit my inbox from Amazon, I immediately bought it. I enjoyed the frameworks and thought process so much, I reached out to the author for an interview.

If you are an analytical thinker struggling with people skills, you’ll enjoy this conversation. Perhaps you are like me, someone who started setting their shortcomings and making some changes. This conversation is still for you as it will validate your insights and help you to be a better guide for those you are mentoring.

Interview Highlights

• Poker background
• Revisiting the 10-30-60 Rule
• Why the ROI in hiring data scientists can be low
• A definition of hybrid jobs
• People and communiction skills education starts before the university years
• How the brain is a set of algorithms
• Gilbert’s fundamental framework: Input – Process – Output
• Who is the elephant and who is the rider?
• Blind spots vs bright spots
• Batman vs Joker algorithms
• Nice guys vs Mindspeakers
• The role of self awareness

MindSpeaking

You can also learn more about Gilbert’s work by checking out his website at MindSpeaking. Among the various pages on that site, I recommend downloading the 7 soft skills for data professionals on the Maturity Model page. Nearly 2,000 professionals have also signed up for his free email course for analytical thinkers.

You can also follow and reach out to Gilbert on LinkedIn.

Favorite Books

I ask every guest about their favorite books. Here were the two that Gilbert mentioned –

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