Supercommunicators ask ten to twenty times more questions than the rest of us. That one fact from Charles Duhigg has been rattling around in my head ever since we talked. Charles is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and the author of Supercommunicators, and I read the whole book cover to cover (I told him so, more than once). What I love is that he treats connection as a skill, not a personality you are born with or without. A few things that stuck with me: 1. It is a skill, not a gift. Ask any great communicator if they were always good at it and they will say no. They studied it, and so can you. 2. Every conversation is really three conversations at once: practical, emotional, and social. The shortcut Charles borrows from teachers is to ask, do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged? 3. Ask deeper questions. Not “what hospital do you work at” but “what made you decide to go to medical school.” One invites a resume, the other invites a person. 4. When someone shares something...