Sometimes the best way to attract other people’s attention is not to say anything. Sounds easy enough, but it’s not that simple.
Check out: If You Want People to Listen, Stop Talking
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Listen
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Glossary
- uncanny – strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way.
- counterintuitive – contrary to intuition or to common-sense expectation
- intransigent – unwilling or refusing to change one’s views or to agree about something
- acknowledge – accept or admit the existence or truth of
- lure – tempt (a person or animal) to do something or to go somewhere, especially by offering some form of reward
- inevitable – certain to happen; unavoidable
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Think about it
Answer the questions below.
- What did NOT make George a master persuader?
- How was George busy when he was silent?
- Why is persuasion by argument not really effective?
- What could the author hear whenever George started speaking? What was the others’ reaction to Georges words? Why?
- In what way can you approach questions asked to a group of people?
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Practice makes perfect
Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words. Use ONE word per blank space.
“When you ask a question ________ a group,” he told me, “think ________ it ________ a competition. If you answer your own question, you ________ lost. You’ll be answering your own questions all day and ________ one else will ________ the work. But wait in the silence — no matter how long — until someone in the group speaks. And they will then continue to do ________ work necessary to lead themselves.”
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There are ________ many good reasons to be thoughtfully silent that it’s a wonder we don’t do it more often. We don’t because it’s uncomfortable. It requires ________ we listen to perspectives with ________ we may disagree and listen to people we may not like.
But that’s what teamwork — and leadership — calls us to do. To listen to others, to see them fully, and to help them connect their desires, perspectives, and interests ________ the larger outcome we all, ultimately, want to ________.
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