In Real Life – Social Interaction

I’ve always been a huge advocate of face to face contact whenever possible. It provides a more effective platform for communicating, it feels more sincere, and it allows for greater clarity–all of which reduce the likelihood of a misunderstanding and make a more compelling case for succeeding at an intended accomplishment. It seemed intuitive to me that the loss of eye contact and real-life interaction lowers the connectivity and mutual understanding involved in an interaction, and my professional and personal experience have proven that suspicion to be true. Beyond the intuition and the support of communication theory, however, it appears that there are concrete biological indicators to validate these suppositions. As Susan Pinker explains in her TED talk, social interaction helps us to live longer, healthier lives; watch as she explains more, including how “face-to-face contact releases a whole cascade of neurotransmitters, and like a vaccine, they protect you now in the present and well into the future. So simply making eye contact with somebody, shaking hands, giving somebody a high-five is enough to release oxytocin, which increases your level of trust and it lowers your cortisol levels. So it lowers your stress.” It’s just one more way that being an effective, competent and caring leader not only makes you stronger and better at your job, it also makes for a better life.

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