Engaged Communication
I pride myself on my ability to help students get in touch with their own inner voice. I have coached hundreds of scholars on teaching, presenting their research, interviewing, impromptu speaking, you name it. I have also interviewed hundreds of students to assess their English language proficiency using the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. I know how to get them to speak at length, how to probe for detail, and how to analyze what they are doing well and not so well with the English language, to help them make a plan to improve their proficiency. I excel at helping students figure out both what they want to say and how to say it in a compelling way to really land their message. You can have the best message, but if it doesn’t land, it goes nowhere. That’s why it’s important for communication to be “engaged.” Are you in your body when you are speaking? Are you connecting with your listener? Can you feel joy in the connection? So much of our communication is not actually about the content of what we’re saying. I’ve heard different statistics over the years, but my 8th grade son just learned that 90% of the information you communicate to others when you speak is not from the words you are using.
Given my experience, you might expect that engaged communication comes naturally to me. Alas, in this year of change I have realized that helping others do hard things is way easier than doing them myself! I have had a few interviews recently, and I am here to tell you, it is humbling. I know very well that I need to be confident, authentic, and connected, but that’s so much easier said than done when you’re on the spot to communicate the value of your many years of experience in a concise and compelling way. It’s almost like I know too much about what I need to do, that I have too much feedback in my head, which can make it hard to break through the noise and show up, be myself, and say what I want to say. Like everything else, I am getting better with practice. I have many years of practice helping others, and fewer experiences practicing these skills for myself. This year I am changing that, which has been both an exciting and daunting opportunity, testing my growth mindset every day.
I’ve had both Zoom and in-person interviews. My experience coaching people on how to be connected on Zoom really helps me here. Sit up, look at the camera, have good lighting, really try to engage to not let it become a static medium. During the pandemic we were so worried about how to help people be connected on Zoom that I may excel more at this, from my sudden and unexpected expertise in remote teaching. Zoom doesn’t let you see and feel connection in the same way, though, and is a more detached way to talk to anyone, because in the end you are sitting in a room by yourself, behind a screen. It might feel a little more comfortable and protected, but at the same time, you miss so much not being in the same room with people. The tradeoffs are huge. I worry about how much easier it may feel to speak from the comfort of your own room, behind the computer, rather than directly to people. What are we losing?
I wonder how much the pandemic changed how we show up physically, and how it has affected our oral skills and ability to connect with people in person. In a recent interview, one academic was telling me how much college students’ speaking skills have declined. We all see young people (and older people!) sitting together, on their phones. What is it doing to how we speak? Especially now, as we look for alternate ways to judge students’ performance in the age of AI, engaged speaking skills may become even more important. The AI may be able to write, but at least for now, we can’t get the AI to show up and do our presentations and interviews (as much as we can use it to prepare for those things). I am excited about what I hope might lead to a renewed focus on teaching students how to be articulate, how to speak clearly and with purpose, and how to connect with an audience without screens or other media.
I love teaching and coaching on engaged communication! You can learn more in my online guide, or sign up to speak with me about it. If you know someone preparing for an upcoming presentation, interview, or speaking engagement, please pass this along. I’d love to connect!
