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From: Andrew Harding
Date: 10/13/01
Time: 10:04:02 AM
Remote Name: 62.6.83.110
Hello Shelagh and Sarah,
Like many people who ask about the BSA employment project of which I am in charge, I have looked through your paper and the responses for magic examples of practical advice! Then I thought that really, the value of your paper and the references is to enable people to ask more specific questions about a given problem, and then work at lessening the problem. Having had to overcome a certain level of fear with the telephone myself, for reasons of stammering, I'd like to make two contributions to the discussion.
The first is that of difficult calls. That we want to make a good impression is a given, albeit one that can benefit from some good rigorous psychological analysis. I always find the most difficult calls to be ones where I need to have specific requests to make of someone who I don't know and may not be all that interested in what I have to say. Picking up the phone and just making the call is one step, but it's only the first. Just as important is to be clear in you own mind about exactly what you want to say or ask for. Desensitisation and practice do help here, but I still find this to be a work/telephone issue, and I suspect I am not the only one with it.
Secondly, there is much to be said for integrating these quite demanding calls into therapy. I would have struggled more than I did a few years ago when doing a journalism couse if I had not had some kind of speech therapy to draw on, although it was some time prior to the course. Your point about doing something 20 times is a valuable one. I had to make all sorts of calls to all sorts of people, within a short space of time, sometimes with people who could hear me. Although I absolutely hated it at the time, just having to make call after call after call got me used to making difficult calls, which was still easier than facing the news editor without a story! Although I didn't become a journalist - the Andrew Harding who reports for the BBC is not me - this was valuable training. Sometimes you just have to do things, and keep doing them until you get used to them. A person needs a certain level of confidence to do this and benefit, but once at that level, some hard, unpleasant work does help.
I look forward to your ongoing work and hope to publish an update in Speaking Out sometime.
Regards,
Andrew