Speaking
Holding your listener’s attention is as important as saying your piece clearly and fully—and probably harder to do. Use leading statements to keep the discussion focused on your main message.
Impact vs. affect, farther vs. further, emigrate vs. immigrate, and sympathy vs. empathy.
Over time, organizations gradually develop their own special terminology, abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon. But for new employees and people from outside the organization—like customers—this language can be bewildering. Here’s how to make it more accessible to the uninitiated.
If your voice is fine in conversation but fades when you’re addressing a group, try this volume control tactic from communications coach Karen Friedman.
Here are five ways to increase your value to your current employer, as well as to potential employers.
In customer service, little things—and little sayings—mean much. Listen for the following customer-repellent phrases and train your people to trade them in for more effective ones.
Telling stories or anecdotes is a great way to illustrate important ideas or to inspire your group to recognize opportunities. But what makes a good story?
Some words—no matter how trivial they seem—can make you look less sure, professional and capable. Make these small tweaks in your language to appear more confident and competent.
We all use filler words, or vocal disfluencies, in our daily speech. The junk food of the applied linguistics world, they come off as sloppy and faltering. We should try to banish them, especially from our professional speech as much as possible. Right? Well, not necessarily.
One of the most overlooked tools in clear communication is the paraphrase—summarizing what you’ve just heard so that you confirm you understood what the other person just said. This is such a simple, basic aspect of communicating effectively, but so often people ignore it, and it leads to all kinds of problems down the line.
Never take any moment in the spotlight for granted. This is a moment that shapes the way people perceive you; don’t let it get away from you! Always consider these essentials.
Positive people have a way of telling even sob stories in a way that reveals a silver lining. That’s called a “positive explanatory style.” Develop it with these 4 steps…
Write it right, say it right, spell it right.
