That title sounds a little weird, I’ll admit. But I’m going to describe a simple technique I use that makes talking on the phone much easier. You can use this for phone interviews, telephone conferences, or just when you’re talking to somebody.
If you can find a picture of the person you’re talking to, and if you’re using Outlook, this is really simple. Essentially, you just grab the person’s photo, and stuff it into a contact record in Outlook. Then, while you talk, you can have the person’s picture on your desktop. I find that it makes it much easier to talk to somebody else that way – especially if you haven’t met the person.
Remember, for most of us, our personal brand – or more abstractly, our logo – is our face. If you’re talking to somebody on the phone (and if you’re paying attention, instead of playing solitaire), you’re probably already doing something like this subconsciously.
Here’s how you can do this:
- Find a picture of your phone call participant – the small photo in LinkedIn is ideal.
- Save the picture on your desktop or someplace else you can easily find. How? Right click on the picture. Then save the picture (or image) as – and provide a name for the file.
- Create or edit a contact in Outlook.
- Find this icon in the Contact form:
- Click on the iconic icon, and navigate to the location where you’ve just stored the other person’s picture. When you’re done, you’ll have their picture in the Outlook contact record.
Now, when you talk to somebody by phone, you can have their picture up on your computer screen. It’s not quite like a picture phone, but you may find it helpful, as I do. There are many places to look for photos, but I’d start with LinkedIn.