Not everyone can hold eye contact, and that’s fine. Listening shows up in other ways too.

Eye contact is one signal among several, and it comes easier to some people than others for reasons that have nothing to do with interest or honesty. Somebody looking at the floor may be concentrating hard on every word. Treating one visible habit as the test of attention means misreading plenty of people. Listening shows up in what gets remembered and what gets asked next.

Judge attention by follow-up rather than by gaze this week. Notice who returns to something you mentioned days ago. If eye contact is hard for you, let that be ordinary.