You probably talk too much
You probably talk too much. And there is a good reason for that. Science says that humans, being social animals, are programmed to use communication as a vital tool to survive and thrive.This wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that science also tells us that our favorite subject to discuss is ourselves. People spend 60% of their conversations talking about themselves, 80% when chatting on social media. The reason, researchers found, was that it just feels good. So much so that Harvard psychologists discovered that individuals were willing to give up money for the opportunity to disclose information about themselves.
Unfortunately, this propensity to pontificate is at odds with our collectively dwindling attention spans, which have been measured between as many as 59 seconds, to as few as eight seconds, thanks to a barrage of information from both verbal and digital sources.
The ideal conversation should be a total give and take, with each person speaking about 50% of the time. That means staying quiet half the time, a tough, but influential, tool for business. As Peter Bregman notes in Harvard Business Review:
Silence is a greatly underestimated source of power. In silence, we can hear not only what is being said, but also what is not being said. In silence, it can be easier to reach the truth.LYDIA DISHMAN
