Doing this simple trick more often can instantly boost your credibility, says public speaking expert: It's ‘enormously important'
They also know the power of good eye contact, according to executive coach and public speaking consultant Bill McGowan.
Eye contact is "enormously important," whether you're having a one-on-one conversation or giving a TED Talk in front of hundreds of people, McGowan tells CNBC Make It. The skill helps you exude confidence and boosts your credibility and authenticity, especially when you're in a professional setting.
Darting your eyes across the audience or looking up to the sky, figuring out what you'll say next, can make you look anxious and doubtful, he adds.
"We break eye contact because we like to have mental privacy to think about what it is we want to say next, and looking at the other person staring at you doesn't give you that privacy," says McGowan, author of "Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience." "So that's why we'll look at the pattern on the carpet, or we'll look at the tiles in the ceiling. We'll look anywhere to give us that privacy of thought."
That doesn't mean you should unwaveringly gaze in someone's eyes during your next conversation or presentation — that can make you come off "robotic," Columbia Business School professor and communication expert Michael Chad Hoeppner said last month. Focus on making eye contact meaningful instead of constant, he added.
If someone is sharing a secret or being vulnerable, for example, you'll want to be attentive and show empathy. If you're having a casual chat, however, staring too intently can become uncomfortable. In other words, read the room and adjust your focus accordingly.
"People who are shy and introverted have a harder time with eye contact than extroverts," says McGowan. "But [you can] improve your eye contact in a way that still keeps you in your comfort zone."
McGowan tells his more introverted clients to pick a spot around a person's eyes to look at to make meaningful connections, especially if you're speaking to an audience.
"It could be an earring that somebody's wearing. It could be the knot on a necktie a man's wearing, or the top button of someone's shirt, or their earlobe," he says. "Zero in on that when you're talking to them, and that is going to give you all the privacy that you would get from looking at the ceiling and looking at the floor."
The same applies for meetings on Zoom or Microsoft Teams, where staring at your webcam instead of people's faces on the screen can be difficult. McGowan even advises people to print out a picture of someone you're comfortable with and tape it on your computer, with a hole cut out for the webcam.
"The other person will never know that you're not looking at them directly," he says. "That's the virtual equivalent of eye contact."
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Millennial Moms Don't Have It All. They Just Do It All.
I was settling in for an interview over Zoom when I glanced at my baby monitor and saw it: the unmistakable wiggle of a toddler who'd pooped himself awake from a nap. I sighed and set the monitor aside. I had no choice but to wait till after the call to check on him. When the Zoom ended, I dashed in to clean him up, then texted my friend a photo of the three of us (my baby, myself and my laptop). 'Look at me,' I wrote wryly. 'I have it all.' I started thinking a lot about 'having it all' after my son was born in late 2021. I went back to work after four months of parental leave, breast-pumping my way through phone calls and changing diapers on the sly. I loved being close to my son and was lucky to have a husband who thrived as a stay-at-home dad, but it was all so completely exhausting. For every stolen midday snuggle there was sobbing (on both sides of the door) when I had to close my eyes and tune out my son's cries for Mommy as I buckled down to get a project done. Surely, I often thought to myself, this isn't what Helen Gurley Brown had in mind when she published 'Having It All,' her famed book of advice on balancing sex, work, relationships and more, in 1982. I may have a career and a family, but I often 'have it all' — or, rather, do it all — at the exact same time. In the summer of 2012, just a couple of years into my journalism career, The Atlantic published Anne-Marie Slaughter's culture-defining text, 'Why Women Still Can't Have It All.' In it, she described stepping back from powerful government work to be closer to home and more available to her two teenage sons, and she outlined the workplace changes she saw as necessary to allow ambitious women to pursue big careers and remain present mothers. I read it hungrily, feeling smug about my own ambivalence toward motherhood. At 25, I was climbing the career ladder fast and loving it. Why derail the train with a baby when the ride was so exciting? Plus, I couldn't imagine a world where Slaughter's proposed changes — more flexible schedules, remote work, less business travel, teleconferencing instead of in-person meetings — would materialize. Little did I know a global pandemic would abruptly shift that tide. A decade later, in a post-COVID world, I had, in many ways, exactly what Slaughter had described: an exciting career with a flexible, remote job that allowed me to be close to the baby I'd decided I wanted. But I also had a hefty dose of burnout. For me, it was all too much — the constant doing it all. And I was losing my ambition as a result. I'm not the first millennial mom with an office job to feel this way. Between lazy girl jobs, the death of the girlboss and the countlessambitiouswomen who've written aboutlosing their drive in recent years, the collapse of millennial women's ambition is well-documented. Heck, we now even have the millennial mom midlife crisis. But it's no wonder: Millennial moms work more than previous generations of mothers, and we spend more timeparenting our kids, plus our parents can't or don't want to help us out (or need care themselves). And then there's the astronomical cost of child care. We are at capacity all the time, even with the trappings of professional flexibility. I decided to ask Anne-Marie Slaughter what comes next. The workplace transition isn't over yet. Slaughter acknowledged that we've made strides toward her envisioned workplace, but we're not there yet. 'We've transitioned the where we can work, and we have the flexibility — so now, if your kid is sick or you have a teacher's conference or you need to take a parent to a doctor's appointment, you have the flexibility to do that,' she said. But we haven't reached the place where professional and personal ambition can coexist. Aside from major structural changes we know are needed to support families — such as 12 months of parental leave, plentiful and affordable child care, free pre-kindergarten and well-funded public schools — there is one big thing that needs to change in the workplace, according to Slaughter: management practices. Face time is still the reigning tool for performance measurement, and that disadvantages anyone working remotely. 'If you're in the office and that other person is in the office, you are still going to have a better sense that they are working than the person who is not [in the office],' she said. 'I've said for a long time, to really make this work, you have to have much more objective and precise management practices, and that takes more work. I don't think we're there yet.' Indeed, McKinsey's Women in the Workforce reports from both 2022 and 2023 found that women in leadership are leaving their roles in record numbers, in part because their labor isn't being recognized by their superiors. They're taking on diversity, equity and inclusion work or heading up employee resource groups in addition to their full-time roles, for example, but it's not being counted toward their overall performance, and they're working remotely (often to juggle family responsibilities), which is being counted against them. 'They are looking for the ability to advance. They are looking for flexibility and choice in terms of where, when and how they work. They are looking for companies that authentically prioritize DE&I. They are looking for people who are backing their careers,' said McKinsey senior partner Lareina Yee in a podcast about the 2022 report. But, quite frankly, she said, 'companies haven't stepped up.' Beyond changes in performance evaluation and management, Slaughter also advocates for what she described in her Atlantic article as 'investment intervals,' the idea that you grind hard in certain periods of your work life ― early in your career before you have kids, for example ― and then make different choices as your career moves forward, including saying no to promotions that won't work for your family life or taking time off from full-time work to consult, take a sabbatical or accept project-based work. Then when your kids are grown, you can lean back in and keep rising. In my view, when it comes to frazzled millennial moms, a wholesale shift in the way we understand and reward professional ambition is due. Forget this idea that moving up, down, back or sideways in your career is a sign that you're not committed. Instead, we must think of ambition as a tide — sometimes rolling in, sometimes rolling out, always doing its part. Under this rubric, millennial moms aren't losing their ambition, they're simply moving with the tide, and there's no reason to feel ashamed about that. We shouldn't be sent back to square one in our careers simply because the tide of our ambition went out while our children needed us most. Slaughter said that taking a break to have kids or to work on professional development isn't the kiss of death that it used to be, but 'there are still plenty of workplaces where, if you get knocked off that straight-up path, it's going to be very, very hard to get back on. I can see it changing; it just hasn't changed yet.' At her company, New America, Slaughter said she's found that a flexible and supportive culture, which includes hybrid work, paid parental leave and a 'family comes first' mantra, has ensured the work always gets done without sacrificing people's personal lives and has also helped more junior staff find opportunities to rise and be seen. Parental leave, for example, 'creates opportunities for other people, younger people, other members of the team' to step in and work with Slaughter and other senior staff who they might not have otherwise crossed paths with directly. 'It builds resilience in the workplace.' Embrace a holistic view of ambition. Slaughter sees millennial and Gen Z workers rejecting the old hustle-culture model and applauds it, but also notes that many of us aren't sure where to go from here. 'There's a sense that the world that we knew is coming apart in many ways, and people are not sure what they should be wanting,' she said. 'But they know that the traditional whatever it was that was going to make you happy is not likely to.' That said, she thinks the idea of striving to be a 'whole, healthy person' is a move in the right direction. 'By whole, I really do mean having different dimensions to your life. That could be work and family, that could be sports, hobbies, friendships.' She doesn't even use the phrase 'having it all' anymore. 'The whole framing makes me uncomfortable, even though that is the phrase I grew up with that meant having a career and a family,' she said. 'There's a hyper-capitalist dimension to it' that runs counter to the way most millennials and Gen Zers think about their lives. It's time we tossed it for good and focused on building workplaces that support the multidimensional lives of all workers. As for our millennial mom midlife crises and waning ambition? Slaughter advises us all to hang in there. 'It is a life passage that many, many, many people go through. We are maturing into our fuller selves who realize that there's more to life and there's more to ambition. I have plenty of ambition. It's just not expressed in the way that it once was, to climb to the top of a particular ladder.' Related... 6 'Invisible' Household Tasks That Eat Up Moms' Time And Energy These Comics Highlight The Unfair Ways Society Views Moms Vs. 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For Muslims across the United States, balancing faith with the demands of modern life—work, school, family—is a continuous pursuit. Access to structured, high-quality Islamic education is essential, yet many Muslims find themselves disconnected from traditional learning environments. In response to this growing need, Online Quran Academies have emerged as a dependable, flexible, and effective solution. Al Madina Quran Academy ( is at the forefront of this educational evolution, delivering Online Quran Classes in US with a reputation built on quality, trust, and personalized support. Whether you're a parent in New York, a student in Chicago, or a revert in Los Angeles, our Quran classes are designed with your needs in mind. Over the last decade, the Muslim population in the US has grown steadily, with more than 3.8 million Muslims calling America home. As this community expands, so does the demand for accessible, consistent, and culturally relevant Quran education. 📍 Geographical Gaps – Many Muslim families reside in areas without access to reliable Islamic institutions or qualified tutors. – Many Muslim families reside in areas without access to reliable Islamic institutions or qualified tutors. ⏰ Busy Schedules – Working professionals, students, and parents need Quran classes that accommodate their availability. – Working professionals, students, and parents need Quran classes that accommodate their availability. 🖥️ Digital Literacy – The rise of Zoom, Skype, and learning management tools has made online education a preferred option. – The rise of Zoom, Skype, and learning management tools has made online education a preferred option. 🦠 Post-COVID Adaptation – Families now prefer safer, more convenient home-based learning alternatives. When selecting a Quran learning platform, quality, consistency, and trust are non-negotiable. At Al Madina Quran Academy, our curriculum and delivery model reflect a deep understanding of the American Muslim experience. We pair each student with a dedicated Quran tutor, ensuring lessons are customized to individual pace, goals, and learning style. Our faculty includes highly qualified male and female Quran teachers in US, trained in Tajweed, Hifz, and Islamic pedagogy, with fluency in English and Arabic. From Quran classes for kids in US to advanced Tafsir for adults, we offer structured paths for learners at all levels. Private, password-protected sessions over secure platforms. Female students and children benefit from a monitored, professional environment. Whether you're in New York (EST) or California (PST), we offer early morning, evening, and weekend spaces tailored to U.S. time zones. When choosing a Quran learning platform for yourself or your family, keep the following essentials in mind: Feature Why It Matters ✅ Certified Teachers Ensures correct Tajweed, memorization, and understanding ✅ Female Quran Teachers Provides comfort and accessibility for women and girls ✅ Flexible Scheduling Supports busy lifestyles and various U.S. time zones ✅ Trial Classes Allows evaluation before commitment ✅ Student Progress Tracking Ensures accountability and structured learning Al Madina Quran Academy offers all the above—making it one of the most trusted names in Online Quran Classes US. Our mission is rooted in accessible Islamic education for all. With students enrolled from Houston to Boston, Atlanta to Seattle, we proudly serve a diverse audience: Muslim Parents in the USA – Seeking structured Quran learning for their children at home – Seeking structured Quran learning for their children at home Working Professionals & Business Owners – Looking for flexible, after-hours Quran study – Looking for flexible, after-hours Quran study Reverts & Converts to Islam – Desiring beginner-friendly, judgment-free Quran instruction – Desiring beginner-friendly, judgment-free Quran instruction Youth and College Students – Needing focused Tajweed and Hifz support Visit: 👉 Our courses are carefully curated to cater to learners of all ages and backgrounds. Interactive lessons with visuals, games, and storytelling Focus on Noorani Qaida, Tajweed basics, and short Surahs Taught by skilled and nurturing female Quran teachers US Structured Tajweed and translation sessions One-on-one Hifz (memorization) with revision tracking Tafsir and application of Quran in daily life Learn to read Arabic script from scratch Understand basic Aqeedah and Islamic etiquette Compassionate tutors trained to support reverts in their faith journey At Al Madina Quran Academy, each student benefits from individualized attention. One-on-one sessions allow for: 📈 Tailored pacing and progression 🗣️ Active student participation 🧠 Improved retention and understanding ✅ Personal feedback and continuous motivation Whether you're searching for a 'Quran tutor near me US', or a female Quran teacher in the US, our digital classrooms bring the tutor directly to you—no commute, no disruption. We understand how varied American schedules can be. Our virtual classrooms operate on U.S. Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time Zones, offering unmatched flexibility. 📍 Cities with High Enrollment: New York, NY Chicago, IL Houston, TX Los Angeles, CA Dallas, TX Seattle, WA Miami, FL Washington D.C. Parents can schedule evening classes for their children, professionals can book early morning space before work, and college students can learn on weekends. We believe Quran education should be accessible, not expensive. Our pricing models are designed for flexibility and affordability. Plan Type Features Price Starter Plan 2 classes/week $30/month Standard Plan 3 classes/week $45/month Family Plan 5+ sessions/month Custom Hifz Plan Daily classes $120/month Revert Discount 25% off on all plans Applicable with ID 📌 First class is 100% free — No obligation, just explore. 'My two boys are learning so much through Al Madina's Quran classes. The instructors are patient, knowledgeable, and flexible with timings.' — Sarah Rahman, Chicago, IL 'As a revert in my mid-30s, I was nervous about starting from scratch. But the tutors here made me feel welcome. I'm now reading Quran with proper Tajweed.' — Mark Abdullah, San Diego, CA 'Online Hifz classes US-based and structured? Yes, finally! The daily revision plans and tracking have made memorization consistent for my son.' — Hassan Ali, Houston, TX Yes. We specialize in helping beginners and reverts with zero prior experience. Yes. All our instructors speak English fluently, making communication clear and effective. Yes. We have qualified female Quran tutors for girls and women upon request. Absolutely. We use interactive tools and child-friendly methods that keep young learners engaged and progressing. Visit and book your free trial class. Our support team will guide you through registration and course selection. Whether you're a busy mother in Los Angeles, a professional in New York, or a student in Atlanta, Quran learning is now just a click away. Join thousands of Muslim families who trust Al Madina Quran Academy for structured, reliable, and spiritually enriching online Quran education. 👉 Claim your free trial now 📍 Serving all major U.S. cities and time zones Al Madina Quran Academy — Your Partner in Islamic Education 📖 'The best among you are those who learn the Quran and teach it.' – Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) TIME BUSINESS NEWS
