“I am afraid people don’t have the same patience”
She gave me 20 minutes of her time.
I’ve probably spoken to more strangers in a few weeks now than I did a whole year before. Each is a story to be thankful for, but one stood out yesterday.
I’ll skip the intro and get to the point. A friend of a friend, recommend someone, I had an unscheduled 20-minute call, and I got her permission to reflect on why this phone call stood out.
To focus all my thoughts in one post is impossible & unfair. So, I will go gradually, over a couple of days translating my thoughts and emotions into what I hope is at least grammatically correct sentences.
- She is in her 50s and she has been offering career coaching for 5 years now.
- She stutters (stammer), immensely.
I wear a thick armour on my reactions, one of the chinks in my armour is being in the presence of someone who stutters. A family history that includes my brother’s case, bullying in school, myself getting in fights with those who bullied him, including teachers, many teenage years incidents, how it affected him growing up, all came crashing down on me in the first 2 minutes of that call.
She had 5 clients, in the past 5 years. 4 success stories, she still coaches them. One failed mission. When I asked how many didn’t want to work with her, she said she stopped counting on year one.
Some answers I knew, yet they were still uncomfortable. It is true, we calibrate our communication and expectations today towards an era that champions the loud, the aggressive, the alpha, the dominate, the extraverted, the fast, the quick, the witty…it is a horror story for many. All her clients are people with certain challenges, people who can’t pick up the phone and ask for an interview, let alone going through one. Those are individuals who can’t cold-call clients, as the other person will assume it is a prank call. One of her clients used to hide away from recruiters because she was terrified every time, she is asked to go on a video chat. Some recruiters would actually shame her without intending to do so I guess.
I wanted the conversation to go further into how the local market, hiring managers, brand, colleagues are allowing the space for those individuals to still pursue their missions. I know from my wife (education sector) a lot of schools are paying more attention than ever before, I know how she personally worked with certain individuals, and it is amazing to hear them calling her after so many years, to tell her they are doing well.
Outside this region, I’ve seen better tractions, from brands, recruiters, coaches, managers, even developers who are trying to figure out more out of the voice assistant. That is amazing, yet it is way too scattered, too few, and too little. Lastly, I asked a question, a bit of a personal one, and it took her almost a full minute, between the time her brain answered and her vocal cords allowed it.
She said: “I am afraid people don’t have the same patience”
