Embracing Awkward Silences

One of the most important tools in effective communication is also one of the most awkward—silence. When faced with a challenging question, great communicators will often take a moment to think deeply about their response. And this isn’t a slight pause, either. You should learn to be comfortable taking 10, 20, even 30 seconds to offer a response. It will certainly be awkward at first, but the benefits are worth the discomfort. By affording yourself this time to delay your response, you’ll start to build better emotional intelligence and better identify, understand, and manage your emotions. Silence can help you get to the root causes of an issue more efficiently than immediate discussion and it will also telegraph to your listener(s) that you are giving their points careful consideration. This goes for written communication too. Your first response isn’t usually your best response, so take a moment before you answer someone over a direct message. In the age of immediacy, sometimes slowing down can help.