Whether you find yourself at a cocktail party, a business meeting, or a family reunion, your confidence can get a boost from sounding smart. Communicating effectively allows you to feel mastery over the typical interactions day to day. Take some simple steps to improve your communication skills.
Instructions
1. Get your point across. If you have a message to share with someone, remain focused on its key elements until you know your audience has understood your message. Check your listener: "Does that make sense to you?"
2. Tame your inner blabbermouth. When it comes to speaking, less is more. Think back to the most impressive communications you've heard in recent years. These communicators knew the value of verbal economy. Avoid going off on tangents, such as "And that reminds me of the time Aunt Patty burned the chicken soup."
3. Focus on grammar. The next time someone gently (or perhaps cattily) corrects your grammar, don't go on the defensive. Thank them politely and add it to your mental checklist of words/phrases to eliminate.
4. Eliminate fillers. Overuse of the words "like," "um" or "ya know" makes you sound unsure at best or juvenile at worst.
5. Maintain eye contact when speaking. Gazing around the room, checking out the dirt under your nails or checking your text messages when speaking to someone distracts you from the conversation--and can make you seem spacey or nervous.
6. Listen. If you feel like you need to stop to catch your breath, you are probably speaking too much. People attribute positive qualities to a good listener, including intelligence.
7. Ask informed questions. This follows naturally from using good listening skills. An easy way to ask a question about something you don't understand is to paraphrase what the person just said.
Tags: when speaking