Archive for the 'Communication Skills' Category

Step 1: Learn to withstand distractions. In an ideal world, we could get rid of all physical and mental distractions. In the real world, however, this is not possible.

Since we think so much faster than a speaker can talk, it’s easy to let our attention wander while we listen.

Sometimes it’s very easy - when the room is too hot, when construction machinery is operating right outside the window, when the speaker is tiresome.

But our attention can wander away even in the best of circumstances - if for no other reason than a failure to stay alert and make ourselves concentrate.

Whenever you find this occurrence, make a conscious effort to pull your mind back to what the speaker is saying.

Then force it to stay there. One way to do this is to think a little earlier than the speaker - try to foresee what will come next. This is not the same as jumping to conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, you put words into the speaker’s mouth and don’t really listen to what is said.

There is no such thing as an ideal speech! At some point in every presentation, every speaker says or does something - no matter how minor - that does not come across precisely as he or she had planned.

Fortunately, as with one’s nerves, such moments are generally not apparent to the audience.

Why? Since the audience does not know what the speaker plans to say. It hears only what the speaker does say.

If you shortly lose your place, reverse the order of a couple statements, or not remember to pause at a certain spot, no one needs to know. When such moments occur, don’t be terrified of them. Just carry on as if nothing happened.

Even if you do make a noticeable mistake at some stage in a speech, that is no catastrophe. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, you may remember that he stumbles over his words twice during the speech.

Most likely, however, you don’t remember. Why? Since you were focusing on King’s message rather than on the fine points of his delivery.

According to Research, women make more eye contact than men do.

Why should this be so? Given below are just a few of the possible reasons why:

Information Gathering

Since, women are often discarded from informative interactions with men, and men have a tendency to use the stone face to cover their feelings, women must be more attentive for the period of interactions so as to glean as much as they can.

They are often “checking in” with men for the suitability of their behavior. In one study, men and women were asked to suppress their feelings.

Interestingly, given these instructions, women looked more at their informal partner, but men looked less. The women were trying to perceive from the men’s reactions whether their emotions had leaked out.

Perhaps women have more reason to be “vigilant” when concealing or rejecting their true emotions.

Observation in Group Interactions

If ever there are group meetings, as the speaker is talking, you can monitor the women at the table glancing around the room, checking others’ facial expressions, and using eye contact and gaze behavior to collect information and gain a read on the group. This behavior is not as usual with men in a group-meeting setting.

Our human bodies are programmed to have emotions, to signal - both internally and externally - when something magnificent happens and when something awful happens.

A love relationship will almost certainly comprise both of these ends of feeling.

What are Emotions?

Emotions are real physical events, identical to hunger or thirst, with your entire autonomic nervous system moving into action.

On the inside, adrenalin flows into your bloodstream, your heartbeat and blood pressure soar, your breathing rate rises, your nervous system is flooded with sugar to give you energy, your digestive system slows down so as not to waste that energy and your coagulation rate goes up in case there’s blood spilled.

Classic Six Emotions

It’s relatively easy to spot when either you or your partner is flooded with emotion, mainly the ‘classic six’ emotions that have the same body language all over the world, from Japan to Argentina: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise and fear.

By means of your smiles, you’ll signal happiness to each other through; sadness by means of your tears; anger by means of your raised voices or strong gestures. (However, you may never see real fear in each other except you’re involved in a disturbing incident together.)

Many tools can be implemented for success in delivering your speech, whether you are giving a speech to a public audience, talking with members of a company board meeting, or simply offering a sales presentation.

Such tools comprise explaining detailed examples, designing statistical charts, in addition to providing influencing testimony.

Below, we will add another public speaking skill to the list and explain four special tips for using “evidence” in a influential speech.

• Use Evidence From Genuine Sources: There is a good deal of research to show that listeners find evidence from competent, credible sources more influential than evidence from less qualified sources.

  In particular, listeners are doubtful of evidence from sources that appear to be prejudiced or self-interested.In assessing the current state of airline safety, for instance, they are more likely to be influenced by testimony from impartial aviation experts than by statements from the president of American Airlines.

  In judging the conflict between a corporation and the union striking against it, they will typically be leery of statistics offered by either side. If you wish to be persuasive particularly to careful listeners - you should put your faith in evidence from objective, nonpartisan sources.

What you wear at work makes an individual statement about you that communicates to others.

It could be a way of saying to your boss that you’re prepared for promotion or, to your colleagues, that you’re a friendly person; it could be an assertion to a client that you know what you’re talking about.

So it’s wise to consider your agenda and choose your clothes appropriately - and, for a woman, that includes your accessories, makeup, and hairstyle also.

Power and Authority At work Place

Is it important, for instance, for you to be seen to have power and authority, possibly because you want to influence a client or you may be taken seriously as a freelancer? The days of power shoulders are over, but the fact remains that if they want to emerge powerful, both genders have to adopt some of the non-verbal icons of masculinity.

For women, the key lies in shape and color, noticing the slightly tailored look that is suggestive of a man’s suit, in coordinated outfits, using dark or dismal shades, with light makeup and a simple hairstyle without too many feminine curls.

One element underlying everyone’s personality is which of the senses they favor.

Does someone revel most in what they see, hear, or touch? (The senses of smell and taste are usually peripheral, important only in situations such as eating or love-making.)

Most humans do have a trivial preference for one of these, but some people have an exceedingly distinct liking for one sense or the other, which informs their personality and can frequently show through evidently in their body language.

1. Lookers: Lookers be inclined to have good stance but tense shoulders. They’re often thin, with tight lips. Obviously, they’ll choose clothes and furniture for visual impact - they feel good inside when they see nice-looking things.

   Not only this, but they also think mainly in pictures, which causes horizontal brow-furrowing, so they may have forehead wrinkles on an otherwise unlined face.

2. Listeners: Listeners think sound is essential - words as well as noises. Their usual stance is with head slightly down and to one side, as if listening, or with one hand up to their face or ear - the ‘telephone posture.’When thinking something through, you’ll often see, their lips are in motion, as if talking to themselves.

   They love rhythm, and may beat out mental riffs on tables, on chair arms or in the air. They’ll have the car stereo set to turn on when they start the ignition.

Instructions are found in brochures, pamphlets, owners’ manuals, packing slips, on the reverse of credit card statements, and at the bottom of invoices.

However, infrequently it is essential to write a special letter of instruction, most often in response to a customer query.

Well-written letters of instruction assist as both goodwill and sales letters, so they should be looked on as a exclusive opportunity to increase customer loyalty otherwise as a routine and unimportant part of your correspondence.

Writing letters of Instructions would normally be for the following situations:

• payments
• product registrations/use/care
• requests for instructions (see REQUESTS)
• return, repair, or replacement of merchandise
• samples
• shipping instructions
• agreements/contracts/leases
• babysitters/daycare providers
• forms/applications/surveys
• house/plant/garden/pet care who away
• new policies/procedures/regulations
• operating instructions: appliances/tools/equipment

How to Express It

1. 1. If your letter is a response to a previous contact, mention this (”Thank you for your letter asking . . .”). Otherwise, give the reader an instantaneous reference point (”To help you get the most out of your new software, we offer the following suggestions for use.”).
2. Number or otherwise set off the steps in your instructions.