Communicate
Anyone who works for your company has one thing in common - the need to communicate effectively.
In survey after survey, communication tops the list of skills needed for success," says Dianna Booher, a Dallas-based communications consultant and author of Communicate With Confidence. Whether a valid or invalid measure, lack of communication skills tags people as being less competent and qualified. Fortunately, you can improve your communication skills with practice."
COMMUNICATING ONE-ON-ONE
Booher offers these strategies for improving your oral communication:
•Use a simple word when a simple word will do. For centuries, skillful writers and orators have known the value of using simple words. "Of the total 268 words in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, 190 have just one syllable," Booher says.
•Avoid playing tour guide through your conversation. Questions such as "Am I not right?" "Clear to this point?" "You follow me?" and "Are you with me?" create an air of false patience.
•Don't tell others how to think or feel. People resent those individuals who presume to read their minds, even if the presumptions are correct. For example: Telling a customer, "Certainly you can appreciate the situation you've put us in," could generate a "No, I can't" response. Likewise, saying, "We know you'll find the trip exciting and profitable," may elicit a reply of "I'll be the judge of that." Let people form their own conclusions.
•Avoid exaggeration. Did you really have to wait half an hour or was it half a minute? Did the caller slam down the phone or just hesitate to talk? Did the supplier raise the prices on your raw material 10% or 2%? "Exaggeration may make great humor, but it can destroy your credibility," Booher says.
•Don't step on other people's sentences. Identifying closely with what people are saying is no excuse for jumping in before they've finished talking. Doing so deprives others of an opportunity to respond. "Get someone to help you break the habit if you catch yourself frequently interrupting people," Booher says. "Ask that person to raise a hand or make another signaling gesture when you've cut someone off."
•Avoid dogmatic pronouncements. You'll make enemies of friends and co-workers by saying: "That's not the way it happened at all," "Are you crazy?" "Everybody knows that" "That'll do no good at all," or "You're wrong."
•Speak honestly. Mean what you say. Don't be like the tourist brochure that promises a "relaxed atmosphere" in a "sun-drenched" setting, which really means "no room service" and "hot."
•Be interested, not just interesting. Put aside your self-interests long enough to devote attention to someone else. "Nothing flatters us more than having someone show a personal interest in our job, background, experience or views," Booher says. "We're attracted to life-of-the-party people because they amuse us, but, ultimately, interested people win us over."
•Avoid ending every statement with a question. "I thought the speaker was boring, didn't you?" "The customer knew about the price increase, right?" Tag questions make speakers sound tentative and unsure of their opinions and facts.
•Avoid junk phrases. Using "sort of," "a lot," "OK," "more or less," "you know what I mean" and "you get the picture" leads to a vocabulary deficiency in conversation, Booher says.