Alison Pugh

And also, may I say, it's kind of gendered.

We're misunderstanding it as only the province of women.

When men do it, we ignore it.

So how we respond to it is gendered, but I think it happens all over the economy.

Well, for sales in particular, I mean, actually, this is happening in many different occupations.

To be seen by another human being

has some profound effects.

There's a ton of research that talks about that for teaching and for therapy and for medicine.

But even in sales, salespeople know this.

When you, the salesperson, effectively identify somebody's problems or their perspective, it is much more persuasive.

it's very powerful to be seen by another human being, even when that's just for persuasion.

Yes.

The

The feeling of being understood is a powerful one.

And the feeling of being misunderstood or feeling invisible or misrecognized, that is kind of equally powerful in a negative sense.

That's a super important question.

Given that we don't know the other person, even when we think they do,

it's not a terrible approach to kind of start with humility.

So even it's perhaps easier when you know they're from a different culture or background or race or whatever.

But I think this starts with humility.