Use a person's name whenever you address them and you add value to their brain and to their day.
That's true because your intrapersonal intelligence is that part of your brain that makes you – you. It would include personal reflections you make at a blog site, and questions about life as it impacts you. We all come at life with a particular view about things and when we express or develop that view we unleash new intrapersonal smarts.
Recently I learned that it also includes hearing your name spoken! Apparently, when we hear our names in everyday situations, that hearing creates a sudden spike in personal self-awareness. Researchers applied PET scans to look at activity in the brain whenever people hear their first name spoken. They observed a strong cerebral flow change in the brain’s right superior temporal sulcus. An even stronger change of flow was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex. This change to show a stronger flow suggests that this region plays a big role in a person’s processing of “self.” 
I found that research particularly interesting since I’ve just been given a new name by Chinese leaders I taught for six weeks on the Yangtzee. Know what my new name means?
Check out the research at Neuropsychologia, in Volume 43 (1), on pages 12 to 19.
Anybody you might name at work, as you listen to hear your own name spoken back in a few favorable ways? What do you think?
Ah, the science behind the good idea. In teaching and in sales, if you want an intelligent answer, you simply say a person's name and pause before asking the question. They perk right up, and in most settings, want to answer correctly. And once you call one by name, the others expect you will do the same to them. It is much more effective than asking a question then picking someone to answer.
Posted by: John Gratton | April 19, 2006 4:47 PM | Permalink to Comment