"I see," said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.

It felt like an odd question to ask someone I talk with by telephone so regularly, but I needed to know - "How will I recognize you?!" It's that rare that I meet my clients face-to-face these days. But FB was coming to Chicago for some meetings so we decided to meet in person for the very first time, over lunch.
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It reminded me how often I'm asked how I can coach someone without seeing them in person - without the benefit of all those visual cues (and clues) having to do with body language, facial expressions, appearance, etc. - how can telephone coaching possibly work?

Frankly, I thought it'd be a problem, too, when I first started GottaGettaCoach! But I found that when you can't see, you tend to listen more - and listen better. So when I coach, I pay attention to all sorts of non-visual things. Things like:

• tone of voice
• rate of speech
• particular language/wording
• variations in pitch
• breathing (or lack thereof)
• volume of speech
• steadiness of voice
• the spaces in between the words
• the inter-relationships of seemingly unrelated topics of discussion
• the things that aren't being said

And of course, things that ARE said, as well. And you know what? It works!
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Lunch was wonderful, by the way - I really like working with smart, capable, successful people! I have to admit, though, that in order to really recognize my client, I had to listen for a while with my eyes closed!

You might want to try that yourself some time - closing your eyes and really listening to who's talking to you. How does their message change by you not being able to 'see' their visual cues and clues? Is it stronger? More powerful? Or less so? What non-visual elements take on an added importance for you? What becomes apparent to you with respect to your own methods of communicating?

Do you hear what I'm saying?!