ANOTHER RESOURCE FOR POWERING UP YOUR CONVERSATION SKILLS

The DLE and its underwriter, Dulye & Co., are offering simple tips to help you join the Crusade for Conversations that we launched this year and build new social connections where you work and live

Challenge yourself to take deliberate actions to raise your confidence and improve your skills.

Try out one tip this week. Let’s get you started with this:

Crusade for Conversations Tip 1: Keep score of your conversation practice.

How many minutes during a day do you actively initiate and engage in conversations, whether in-person, by phone or by Zoom–with your camera on?

Do you text more than talk? Do you dismiss incoming calls on your mobile phone?

Our conversation time is a small fraction of what it was before COVID. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on the Epidemic of Loneliness, it has shrunk by as much as 70 percent.

Rebuild and cultivate connections by detaching from cellular devices and headsets, being fully present and engaging verbally and visually with others–whether a familiar face or a stranger.

Be mindful of your current practices by tracking and comparing your in-person talk time with your text time, email time and phone time. Track these over a three-hour period, then graduate to six hours.

Once you become aware of just how big the conversation void is in your life, you can take intentional steps to fill it by applying other Crusade for Conversations tips.