by: Peter Murphy
Do you ever leave conversations at work wondering why you bothered opening your mouth? Do you sometimes wonder how many times you have to tell somebody something in order for them to get it right? Do you feel that just don’t listen? If so, then perhaps you need to know how to communicate better.
Communication failure is one of the biggest problems faced by businesses today, especially by their managers whose job it is to solve these communication problems; if you learn how to communicate better you can prevent these communication difficulties happening at all.
You know you are heading for communication problems when it appears that the other person has stopped listening to you even before you have finished talking. You get the hint when you can’t attract everyones attention when you speak at meetings or when you are not getting anything back from the other person with whom you are attempting to have a conversation.
You can’t blame other people for this and you can’t change the way that people listen to you; you need to improve your own communication skills.
1. Pause for thought
People are only capable of listening for so long. That attention span becomes shorter if they disagree with you or become confused, so when you see your audience’s eyes glazing over, you know it’s time to stop talking. Hopefully you will have stopped before that point. If you really want to communicate better, you have to listen too. Find out what other people are thinking; not only is that the polite thing to do but it also enables you to find out what people do not understand or what the resistances are to what you are saying.
2. Keep to the point
State your points clearly and simply with no mistakes in order to be easily understood. Signal what you are going to talk about from your very first sentence by stating your aim right away. Then the rest of your talk should be the way you expand upon it and illustrate your point of view. You can ask for feedback later or allow brainstorming of ideas if you wish, but make your point clearly first to avoid confusion. At the end, you should summarize any decisions that are made and make each person’s responsibilities for action clear. Make sure each person that needs to do something after the communication has a SMART target.
3. Watch your tone
You should speak to others as you wish them to speak to you, without arrogance, hostility or sarcasm. Make sure you speak loud enough to be heard but not so loud that your tone appears aggressive. Speak with authority, having thought out your words; you will be much more credible to your audience. If you have a strong regional accent you should try to soften that and make your dialect and accent more standard, to avoid confusing your audience who may not be from the same region.
You don’t have to neutralize your accent completely as an accent can be very endearing, but you need to make sure the way you speak is standardized enough to be understood by others.
You need to learn how to communicate better because communicating well is the best way to ensure that you are listened to and understood by others.
