Today I met my son's supervisor over lunch. She happened to be a dear friend of mine. When Kenneth needed an internship, she was able to help us.
We went down memory lane to recall the different high lights of her involvement in training interns. Interestingly, most of the interns she has had were young men. Now, before I set about recording her comments about Kenneth, I must start by saying that Kenneth is a regular bloke. He can be a little absent minded. No one would see him as outstanding or classify him as a leader. Therefore, I was a little taken aback when Olivier said her entire team voted my son as the best intern, not just two years ago but they reaffirmed it recently, after having another five interns or so.
Olivier recalled that Kenneth has the best networking skills. For an example, she said that within a few weeks he was already having lunch with folks from a sister company even though his direct duties actually lie mostly within the main company.
Then she said that out of all her interns, he was able to research and interview in such a way as to unearth exactly what she was looking for. Specifically he was able to approach the most formidable member of the artistic team and found out that he loves motorcycles. The man with few words actually told my son that he owned two bikes, one for taking him to work and the other one he kept at home. Of course the latter one cost him much more that the first work horse. The subject referred to his darling sheltered bike as his "wife". All these took place without Olivier having to call the subject ahead of time and ask for a favour, namely please don't chew my son up and swallow him alive. Artists are well known for being temperamental and difficult to get along with.
All afternoon I have been running a search in my brain. The only unusual thing about Kenneth's childhood that could possibly be an ingredient towards his networking skills is: whenever anyone came visiting, Kenneth would linger nearby and listen to the adults talk. After the friends leave, he would come to question me on whatever he couldn't catch or understand. I would then fill in the back ground info so that he could comprehend why so and so felt that way. Of course the topic of any conversation would be child friendly since everyone saw a child sitting in and listening. Kenneth has a taste for people, he likes associating with all types. He loves to find out what makes them tick.
As to the ability to get people to tell him interesting bits of information, apart from inborn tendency, I can only point to reading. Kenneth reads widely, both fiction and non-fiction. The thousands of books he ploughed through throughout his childhood exposed him to all types of personalities. Reading in between the lines enables him to recognise personality types and instantly know in his heart how to approach that particular type. It is what the Chinese says,"When you meet a human, use human speech, but when you meet a ghost, speak like a ghost!"
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