Chapter 9 : Don't Dominate A Conversation

Synopsis

Sometimes an individual can be more knowledgeable than the others in a situation, thus the ability to converse well on the topic at hand may be perceived as dominating the conversation. Unfortunately because the experience and knowledge on the subject is vast, the said individual will in fact be the most contributor to the conversation at hand, without even realizing what he or she is doing.

The Errors

In trying to inhibit the commonly perceive undesirable trait most people tend to become too extreme instead. However striking a reasonable balance should be the aim, in order to be a better contributor to an overall conversation.

The most common problem is trying to curb the tendency to want to immediately vocalize an idea or thought that pops into one’s mind. In giving into this tendency the individual is able to immediately get the thoughts out before any distractions happen to cause the thought to be forgotten.

The alternative would be to train the mind to remember the initial thought while concentrating on the conversation at hand. After several attempts to exercise this memory feature the individual would have some percentage of success and eventually be able to “hold back” and then contribute without any problems.

Alternatively jotting down the idea or thought and waiting for a chance to share these within the conversation only when others have had a chance to contribute is a good practice to start.

Making a judgment call to either contribute to the topic being discussed or to just listen would largely depend on the level of interest shown within the group on the said topic. If the topic is very technical and “heavy” it would require a certain level of in-depth knowledge and interest otherwise jumping in and trying to dominate the conversation will only end up being perceived as dominating or boring.

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