Some people go quiet after hearing an idea because they need time to think, not because they're ignoring you. Ask for a specific window to respond, like "Can I get back to you in two hours?" It reassures the speaker and prevents silence from being misread as disinterest.
Now, there's really 2 kinds of silence. One, I come to you and I share a lot of great ideas with you and you give me nothing. Now, typically the person that's giving me nothing, when that happens, typically it's a high analytical personality. It's not that they're trying to ignore me, it's that they don't know how to respond yet because they haven't processed it. So, Karen, who I said is sitting to my right earlier, I gave you that example that Karen was helping everything. Karen will tell you Karen's a high processor. So if I come to Karen with a big idea and I'm like, Karen needs to pause and process. So what we've learned over the years is, all right, how can I not feel that Karen's not listening or engaging when Karen's processing? Well, the good news is this is one of the easiest ones we can address. One of the easiest ones we can address because the solution is simply tell the person you need time. That's all you gotta do. So Karen can say to me, hey Mike, thanks for sharing that with me. Can I get back to you in about 2 hours so I can really process that? It tells the person they're being heard.
