They say the key to communication is empathy—feeling it inside, and showing it outside. I'm a good communicator (if nothing else at all), and so I find myself mirroring the body language, meeting the energy level, even taking in the rhythm and slightly taking on the accent of whoever it is I'm speaking to.

But I've been having a new one lately. A guy I deal with occasionally for Vital Speeches has a stutter. I've known people with stutters before, and dealt with them fine. But I've never talked to one on the phone, where aural empathy is the only tool in the box.

Get this: The second I start talking to this guy, I start stuttering! And it's as involuntary for me as it is for him!

I'm desperate to ask him if other telephone conversants suddenly become stutterers when they're on the phone with him. Or if it's just me. But I don't have the courage to do it.