{"id":444,"date":"2008-04-24T13:38:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2015-04-28T09:42:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T13:42:38","slug":"is-a-fear-of-phoning-killing-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/is-a-fear-of-phoning-killing-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a Fear of Phoning Killing Relationships?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple weekends ago I was involved in a training course in downtown Toronto and had to be at a particular hotel for the event both Saturday and Sunday slightly before 9am. Saturday morning I left my home late and decided to take a taxi, to ensure I was not late for the event (first impression management 101 \u2013 don\u2019t be late!).<\/em> I got a very nice cab driver, originally from Ethiopia, and we had a pleasant talk along the way. Like a good businessman he asked if I was going to need a taxi for Sunday\u2019s trip downtown, to which I replied yes<\/em>. So we agreed that he would pick me up in front of my home at 8:30am, and that he would call me so that I would know when he had arrived. I gave him my business card which has my address and phone numbers (including cell<\/em>) on it and we left with a handshake, smile and a solid plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next morning it was 8:40 am and I still had not received his call. Not at my residence and not on my cell. I decided to go to the street to see if he was there. He was not. So I had no choice but to walk a bit to the main intersection and catch a new cab. I did so, and as I was getting into a new cab at 8:43am I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye the cab from yesterday, whizzing down my street, I suppose looking for me. <\/span><\/p>\n

I got in my new cab and arrived on time downtown. All the time I wondered why he didn\u2019t just simply call me, at home or on my cell, just to tell me he was on his way, or that he would be 5 minutes late. I would have waited for an extra five, even though he should have been prompt, as he knew I had a deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact is many people have a fear of calling<\/strong>. Whether you are an immigrant or visitor not sure of your English proficiency, or a native speaker who somehow feels embarrassed, many of us do not call when we should.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have talked to many ESL students and immigrants here in Toronto over the years, and it is really interesting to ask them a simple question \u2013 have you ever ordered a pizza by yourself? <\/em>The answer is quite often no<\/em>. Interesting when we know they have the English ability and vocabulary, but they lack confidence in their communications. <\/span><\/p>\n

In my coaching and training we deal with the issue of how and when to call and how to make it appropriate for the situation. Hopefully when we recognize that a business or personal relationship can be damaged or even lost over a simple phone call or lack thereof, it will help us get over that feeling that it could be embarrassing, and make us realize that a quick phone call, like to tell someone that you will be late, can really go a long way in showing respect and empathy for others. This improves how others view you and in turn, how they treat you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple weekends ago I was involved in a training course in downtown Toronto and had to be at a particular hotel for the event both Saturday and Sunday slightly before 9am. Saturday morning I left my home late and decided to take a taxi, to ensure I was not late for the event (first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[538,534,537],"tags":[636,545,779,712,638],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confidence","category-professional-communications","category-speak-english-better","tag-immigrants","tag-phone","tag-shyness","tag-speaking-strategies","tag-telephone-skills"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1107,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}