A weird headline for a newsletter, but it's almost what you got this week, thanks to a combination of work, life, studying for a professional qualification and well, frankly, some grief.
But I'm really getting into silence at the moment.
We tell stories about ourselves, don't we? Mine was: "I'm an extrovert, I love the buzz of an agency office and the hustle of the London tube. I'm a people pleaser, so I help people get out of awkward situations, when no-one's talking."
Hm.
I've written previously about really getting into awkward (it's a thing). But now I'm practi(s/c)ing silence in my coaching. Sitting...waiting...letting my client do their thinking. Because it turns out that many of the times when I was filling in the awkward silences, I was only reassuring myself.
I wasn't listening. I wasn't giving the other people at the table time to think, or say what they really felt.
Silence is incredibly powerful in PR and Communications too. Because again, it's listening. How do you create two-way dialogue if you're not listening? And oh, the gems you get when you pause, wait, listen.
A recent conversation in passing with a senior leader:
Them: Next year's going to be interesting.
Me: Really, how so?
...............
...............
Them: Because I'm taking on a big role and I'm not feeling that confident about it.
Leaders are humans too.
Silence speaks. Like the lack of replies to your employee survey, the dearth of questions at your staff meeting, or the customers who never turned up.
Are you feeling brave enough to explore what comes next?
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