Successful leaders are recognized by the fact that they communicate clearly and meaningfully. While some encourage their employees to strive for perfectionism in creating new products, others turn to mentors to reach new levels, and others emphasize ethics in the relationship of employees to everyone around them.
But they all have skills that are necessary for meaningful communication. It is not something that fell from the sky, but something that they partly had, but for the most part learned and practiced.
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels
Learn non-verbal
Learn the basics of non-verbal communication. More than half of the listeners point out that it is non-verbal communication that has the greatest influence on their opinion of what is being said. Although the content of what is said is also important, if those words are not accompanied by a convincing attitude and movement, everything falls apart. For clear communication, it is necessary to speak clearly, confidently, and in the right posture. Use the space offered to you, move around it, and make eye contact.
Give the context
Additional story is often needed to understand the story. Often the lecturers themselves, school teachers, or college professors overestimate the possibilities of their audience. When sharing new ideas that are not familiar to the listeners, one should be aware that the audience will not be able to understand the content if it is not further explained.
Avoid only visuals
You avoid relying only on visual content. Many leaders in companies like Apple or Facebook have banned the use of PowerPoint because many presentations confuse more than clarify communication. Preparing the right words and incorporating story elements and non-verbal expressions into them helps in communicating with the audience. Visual aids must help, not hinder, communication.
Get honest answers
You are looking for honest answers. Getting honest feedback from your audience, team members, or colleagues about how you speak is the best tool for better communication. If you do this regularly you can work on the weak points and see how effective it is.
Encourage discussion
Discussion should be encouraged. No matter how interesting the speaker is, his listeners have a limited ability to keep their attention. For better communication, it is necessary to make it interactive. Asking questions, encouraging others to share ideas, and asking hypothetical questions are good tools for this.
Start and end with important stuff
Key points at the beginning and end. Clear communication and receiving important information and messages should be additionally emphasized. This should be done at the beginning and at the end of the lecture, and the content should not be long, but well prepared - clear and meaningful.
PIP - purpose, importance, and preview
Identify the purpose, and importance and outline the content. Business experts use the so-called PIP (purpose, importance, preview) approach to their presentations. Speakers using this approach to their presentations can demonstrate importance through analysis of consequences and possible outcomes.
Record yourself
Purposeful communication takes a lot of time and energy. If you sometimes need to present the same content again, record it and share it again in the future. Videos can be edited to be more useful and encourage action and can give insight into a better way of presenting as well as give the right time frame needed for it.
Control your time
Stand-up comedy is an example of successful communication. Excellent communicators who deal with it are able to talk interestingly and engagingly and make the audience laugh for up to an hour and a half. The secret is in recognizing the right storyline as well as the moment when the audience is ready for a new topic, and equally when it is necessary to abandon an idea.
Improvise on topic
Learn to improvise on topic and key content. The vast majority of communicators write the sentences they plan to say. This is good in the beginning when you want to check how much better one way of putting sentences is than another. But it's good to practice speaking skills by preparing only the hints or key ideas you want to prepare. This is necessary in order to cover all the topics you want to cover but at the same time allow the audience to react and ask questions and make your story even more interesting.
Know your audience
For good communication, it is important to know who is listening to you. Each audience is different and expects a somewhat different style of communication, and this should be taken into account.
Try to surprise
Surprise helps communication. If you spice up your story with interesting and humorous elements or something that will surprise them, you will keep their attention and help them remember more of the content.
Respect than smiles
Earn respect instead of smiles. It's easier to communicate with others in a light-hearted way by joking and telling jokes, and this can help create new friendships at work. However successful communication is based on respect, not laughter. It's good to make the audience laugh with a joke at the beginning, but it's not good to end in the same way.
Listen!
Communicate by listening. Those who want respect and connection with others must be aware that they should first listen to what others have to say. It is possible to give thoughtful answers to their ideas and questions, which will show how their ideas have been taken into account.
Communication is certainly one of the most meaningful skills that anyone with leadership ambitions should develop. You should communicate with words, but also non-verbally. You need to listen to what others have to say and clarify your ideas in an innovative way to ensure that the content of your story stays in the minds of those who listen to you.
Comentários