It is a truth universally acknowledged that English novelist Jane Austen was – and remains through her classic works – a highly effective communicator.
There are many time-honoured truths about effective communication which Jane Austen deeply understood in the late 1700s and early 1800s – and from which we can all be inspired today.
This edition focuses on two such lessons – which live on through Jane Austen’s fascinating characters who continue to entrance her current readers.
These lessons apply to real-life everyday business communication in the 2020s.
The lessons relate to communicating through the written word and in vital business-focused verbal conversations – face-to-face, on-line and over the phone.
As Jane Austen came into this world 250 years ago, it’s an ideal time to examine the two lessons – and watch how they play out dramatically on screen.
The first lesson is about Jane Austen’s understanding of the need to correctly balance the emotional and the factual when communicating in every situation.
This is essential when conveying a successful message that needs to appeal to both the heart and the brain.
The second lesson concerns Jane Austen’s realisation that self-awareness – and the ability to empathise with the feelings of others – are essential qualities in good communicators.
Examples of each of these lessons are deeply embedded throughout Jane Austen’s novels.
Both lessons scream out in two of my favourite Austen-inspired fictional scenes.
These two scenes are from her most famous novel, Pride & Prejudice.
The first scene concerns the initial proposal of marriage received by the book’s heroine – the highly self-aware and emotionally intelligent Miss Elizabeth Bennet, portrayed below by Keira Knightly.
The clumsily and offensively executed marriage proposal comes from the bumbling clergyman, Mr Collins.
Portrayed below by Tom Hollander, Mr Collins is horrendously lacking in any glimmer of self-awareness.
Mr Collins is a cousin of Elizabeth Bennet and is in line to inherit the home where the Bennet family lives.
He – and Elizabeth’s marriage-obsessed mother – see the potential ongoing family occupation of the house as a bonus benefit to the proposed marriage.
However, Mr Collins’s proposal is an embarrassing failure.
Unlike what you might expect in a romance-focused novel,
Mr Collins’s overtures are largely free of emotion.
His proposal is so unemotional that Mr Collins actually lists what he claims to be the advantages of marrying him in three mechanically-delivered points.
Mr Collins’s lack of self-awareness means he cannot see how impossibly badly matched he is for Elizabeth Bennet’s lively independent personality and superior intelligence.
And his proposal is so badly delivered it’s comical – both for the reader as well as to members of the Bennet household who are eavesdropping on the horror of it all.
Rather than accept the offer of marriage, Elizabeth robustly turns it down and storms out.
This leads into the following scene where Mrs Bennet – who sees her sole purpose in life as being to marry off her daughters – tries to force Elizabeth to accept the offer.
You can see Mrs Bennet – played here by Brenda Blethryn – looking characteristically outraged.
Like Mr Collins, Mrs Bennet is entirely lacking in both self-awareness and communication skill.
Her efforts to persuade Elizabeth are too hysterically emotional to have any chance of success.
These include her threat never to speak to her daughter again if she doesn’t change her position.
This leads into what – in my view – is Jane Austen’s funniest ever line.
It comes from the mouth of Mr Bennet – Elizabeth’s father – who is portrayed below by Donald Sutherland.
Mr Bennet is (arguably) an early feminist – and one who understands that Mr Collins is completely unsuited to marrying his daughter.
Mr Bennet declares:
“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”
Watch here how these two scenes play out in this exquisite BBC 2005 TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.
Of course, back when Jane Austen created the unreflective characters of Mr Collins and Mrs Bennet, it was not possible for anyone to perceive how they came across in video replays.
This is an advantage we have of living in today’s world.
Communication-enhancing sessions allow you to see and hear yourself replayed so that participants – with a spot of gentle guidance – can get a better idea of how they come across to others.
And they can quickly understand what they need to do differently to improve.
This is highly advantageous when preparing for media interviews.
Video playbacks are also beneficial in sessions on “Give Great Answers To Tough Questions” for the business world.
You can find out more about media interview response training at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/media-master-classes/
And there’s information on “Give Great Answers To Tough Questions” for situations outside of media interviews here:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/give-great-answers-to-tough-questions/
Speaking slots at your conference to empower your whole team to discover the secrets of communicating more inspirationally are set out at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/speaking-at-your-event
Video replays can ensure that becoming better communicators is a learnable skill for everyone.
Even a modern-day Mr Collins or Mrs Bennet can surprise themselves about how video playbacks – coupled with a bit of practising – can revolutionise their communication success!