Emotional quotient “is just another way of saying ‘being a good listener,'” Melissa Sawyer, an M&A partner in New York and the co-head of global M&A at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, said on this week’s Drinks With The Deal podcast. “It’s hearing people when they tell you what they’re worried about, what they think the solutions could be, who they report to, what the pressures are, who their stakeholders are, and understanding all those elements of their motivations and what they’re trying to solve for.”

Sawyer, who represented Masimo Corp. on its $9.9 billion sale to Danaher Corp. (DHR) earlier this year, said she takes notes in an effort to ensure “that I’m really listening and trying to organize on a piece of paper how people are presenting information to see if that sheds any light on what their goals are.”

A member of her firm’s management committee, Sawyer also discussed what she’s learned as the partner who assigned corporate work to associates and in heading knowledge management at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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