Reframe anxiety as excitement to enhance performance and manage stress.
Active listening is crucial for effective communication, demonstrating care and understanding in conversations.
Deep dives
The Power of Reframing Anxiety as Excitement
Alison Wood Brooks discusses a coping strategy to manage anxiety by reframing it as excitement. Instead of trying to forcibly calm down, reframing anxiety as excitement allows individuals to stay in a high arousal zone without having to combat physiological signs of anxiety. By shifting the negative valence of anxiety to a positive one, this simple technique helps individuals approach situations with a sense of excitement rather than nervousness.
Talk Course Emphasizing Topics, Asking, Levity, and Kindness
Alison Wood Brooks introduces her course, Talk, which stands for Topics, Asking, Levity, and Kindness. The course aims to help individuals improve their conversational skills by focusing on even the seemingly easy conversations, highlighting the complexity and challenges present in all types of interactions. By delving into the nuances of conversations and exploring strategies to enhance communication, the course seeks to make each conversation more effective and meaningful, impacting both personal and professional interactions.
The Significance of Active Listening and Expressing Attentive Listening
Alison Wood Brooks emphasizes the importance of active listening and demonstrating attentive listening through verbal affirmations and follow-up questions. Engaging in active listening involves not only nonverbal cues like eye contact and nodding but also expressing attentive listening through words. By actively showing that you are attentively listening to the other person, such as with follow-up questions and paraphrasing, individuals can enhance their communication skills and foster more meaningful conversations, showcasing genuine care and understanding.
As a communication expert, Alison Wood Brooks spends a lot of time talking about talking. But, as she says, listening is just as important.
“My course is called TALK,” says Wood Brooks, who is the O'Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow at Harvard Business School. “The great irony is that it should really be called LISTEN. It’s hard to be a good listener yet so very important.”
In the latest episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Wood Brooks covers conversation strategies for active listening, turning anxiety into excitement, and knowing when it’s time to change the subject.