"Perfectly Polished" Meeting #1

Last Friday morning (August 16th), all of the Honors Mentorship students attended a "Perfectly Polished" lesson taught by Debra Lassiter. She taught us the importance of first impressions. The things that she taught us are important for when we begin our mentorships and when we begin working in the future.
Over the entire lesson, the subject that stood out to me the most was appropriate conversation skills. We learned how to properly begin a conversation with introductions. When we were practicing introductions, I was able to have good posture, have good eye contact, smile, and shake another person's hand correctly. However, I was not able say the words we were taught to use without stumbling or making "sounds" (words like"um"). I found out that speaking is something that I have trouble with and really need to work on.
A very helpful and interesting tip that we were taught was what to do when you cannot find something to talk about with someone else. She told us that we should learn how to talk about a topic for each letter of the alphabet. For example, a conversation starter with the letter F could be football. A few topics could be something you know little about, and you can learn about them throughout a conversation. I have not created my topic list, but I do plan on creating this useful tool sometime soon.
The most important aspect of a conversation that I learned was what to do with your hands while you are talking. I have always wondered what to do with my hands while I talk and that it was okay to hold your hands in front of your body. It turns out I was wrong. The correct thing to do with your hands during a conversation is to keep them by your side. It is okay to use your hands while you talk but not most of the time. Not being able to use my hands a lot may conflict with what I learn during my mentorship. I have been taught by very good teachers who teach with their hands, and I would agree that it is one of the best ways to engage students and help them learn. The teachers that taught like that always seemed like the best teachers. I will have to learn to be able to be good at using my hands when teaching while also being good at not using my hands during conversations.
The "Perfectly Polished" lesson taught me a lot about great communication skills. It showed me that I have a lot of work to do when it comes to professional conversations. The meeting was very helpful, and I am interested to see what the next one will be like.