WORK YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE

Everyone communicates in different ways. You can improve the way you communicate not by changing your style and preferences, but by understanding your style and working it to the best of your ability.

1) Do you talk fast? You can use this to your advantage by grounding what you’re saying with expressions and gestures to help concretize messages for your listeners.
2) Do you struggle to get to the point? Make your concluding point right off the bat so you won’t have to worry about losing the attention of your audience before you get there. Everything you say after that will just be supporting and anecdotal substantiation.
3) Do you make faces? For some people, the silly concept of “resting bitch face” can be a real issue. While you can’t control what your face looks like when you’re not conscious of it, you can make yourself more conscious of how you look when receiving information.
4) Are you easily distracted? If you are the speaker, give yourself a focal point in the room and stick with it. If you’re the listener, try to make eye contact. If eye contact makes you uncomfortable, focus on the speaker’s forehead. The key is to keep focused.
5) Do you rely on overused phrases? Record yourself speaking with others for a day and see if you can weed out some of the unnecessary verbiage you hear yourself spewing. This will help make your messages fresh for people you communicate with on a regular basis.

Get more exciting communication tips in Your Self-Sabotage Survival Guide by Karen Berg. Read more here: tinyurl.com/y786t4ax