[petervandijck]

Set the habit from the beginning to do quick debriefs (a few minutes) after each meeting. The most interesting thing when shadowing very senior people is to see why they do certain things.

Try to have 1 question ready after each meeting/call/... Why did you agree to the terms? What was the most important thing about this call? Why did you handle it like that? What did you try to get out of this meeting? How did you know they were going to say X? Try to get a sense of why they make certain decisions, how they think about it.

[alexpotato]

The debriefs especially are incredibly valuable!

Why?

You may think something happened based on your surface impression of what just occurred. The CEO may view it completely differently based on:

  a. information you don't have e.g. past history etc
  b. non-verbal cues (as other comments have mentioned)
  c. something else

Ideally, the CEO would turn to you after each meeting and ask you "What do you think just happened?", you give your thoughts and then they respond with what they think actually happened.

I've read/heard multiple accounts of where this has been game changing for the non-CEO/manager person as it gives you an insight that you would only ever be able to deduce slowly over time via trial and error.

[vm]

+1

Understanding exec 2nd level thinking is perhaps the largest opportunity of your internship

Always think about WHY behind their actions. Think about their incentives. Think about what they're trying to accomplish. Same for the other people in the meetings.

[speedplane]

> Try to have 1 question ready after each meeting/call/... Why did you agree to the terms? What was the most important thing about this call? Why did you handle it like that? What did you try to get out of this meeting? How did you know they were going to say X? Try to get a sense of why they make certain decisions, how they think about it.

You can sum this up with simple advice... be curious.

[wraithdroplets]

The terms of immediacy are a great reminder of the importance of the 97 % of nonverbal context. Consider for example, the great American classic essay from Harvard Business Review "How to Run a Meeting" (1976, first published.)

[ZainRiz]

Link: https://hbr.org/1976/03/how-to-run-a-meeting

[paradoxparalax]

The essay has a few passages about things related to The social skill of Politeness, in a broader sense, The very Skill of Enchanting people. This is the skill ultimately responsible for making money, in my experience, no matter what other skills people will praise. I didn't find the specific mention of the 97%, as it was a long essay, but I will consider that what you mean with nonverbal must be related with the human social interaction.