Small talk with Partners

Wise TC forum - please help again.

I want to get 5hit hot at the art of small talk with partners.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some blubbering moron, but I just don't know what to talk about with them.

I'm one of those who has no interest in whatever strongest man competition you got up to over the weekend.

Help?

Tell them about this girl you took to the Travelodge...

+1

though don;t mention getting caught. Partners recurring nightmare!!!!

A lot of partners are quite busy people and don't have too much time for small talk in the office, however you might consider doing small talk about work related things that are off-topic. Maybe some internal project or hobby horse they're working on - ask them how it's going, sound interested and offer to help if you can. A good time to get into small talk is on a friday evening, maybe make a jokey comment about something you're looking forward to and ask them if they have any nice plans for the weekend... then early the following week you have an opener to ask them how it went. Just try and keep it natural. Many partners are boring old men but they're still human too and although you need to be polite and so on (as they need to be to you too) just engage with them on their level and treat them like people with personalities rather than partners occupying a role. Just be a little cautious about getting over-familiar though, that perhaps is a good reason to keep the small talk to semi-work related things and then let it progress from there.

I guess my main suggestion would be to talk to them the same way you would talk to the receptionist!

Talk to them on what they're interested to talk about.

Ex : Our partner at ACN keeps uttering the word 'digital' in every meeting. So talk something about 'digital', it grabs his attention and keeps the conversation flowing.

Maybe tell him u have a digital watch :)

LOL!

Content could be anything - it's tone you need to crack, not what to talk about. Partners at MC firms are much like the business leaders of any sizeable business - conscious of time/effort economy and conscious practitioners of clear, concise, to the point communication. It doesn't matter what the small talk is, what matters is the way you deliver it - confident, articulate, to the point and relevant. Plenty of news on here to start with - a simple 'what do you make of the Booz acquisition by PwC?' for example.