Communication is what makes human beings special from other species. Our daily life includes lots of conversations and interactions. But professional communication holds supreme importance among all. The employees who possess sharp communication skills get promoted to higher job positions in their careers. Efficient communication is extremely crucial for specific professionals like a salesperson, human resource executives, and relationship managers. These officials have to regularly talk with clients and negotiate deals.
Be it a corporate workplace or government office, as an employee, you are supposed to maintain a solid relationship with your seniors and colleagues. Bad communication may tarnish your image and crash your existing relationships. So, in this article, we will be giving you a list of tips to improve your speaking skills. Go through each of them and follow them judiciously to quickly improve your communication!
- Watch your body language
While talking we subconsciously express a lot through our body language. And it can indirectly have a positive or negative impact on the listener. Most of the time our aim is to impress the client and solve his complaints. So, practicing a positive body language will be helpful for you.
The thumb rule for a smart body language is keeping your back straight with chin up. While standing keeps a calm and relaxed pose and spare optimum space for your upper torso. Refrain from folding your arms against your chest. This gesture indicates your guest that you are a closed and introverted person. Certain activities like nail-biting, touching your face, shaking legs, looking down constantly signals that you are too nervous for the discussion. Your clients or audience will not have complete faith on you once they notice you are under-confident. So, trimming your actions to confident gestures can truly save you from embarrassment. “Fake it till you make it.” Practice this trick when you are giving a talk or discussing with a client. Convince your mind that you are an excellent talker! Never ever slouch on your chair. Use hand gestures while explaining an idea. Point to your presentation while demonstrating in a meeting. Expose your palms while explaining to your client. They will feel that you are a very genuine and honest professional.
- Keep a positive contact during one to one interactions
Eye contact has a distinct significance in communication. When you make positive eye contact with your guest, it paves the way for closer bonding. The client becomes more comfortable and considers you a friendly host. Not just that, while speaking in a meeting if you have good eye contact with your audience, they will listen to you with more attention. Another reason why eye contact is crucial because by looking into the eye of a person you can figure out his actual intentions.
Not having a proper eye contact makes you seem a nervous, shy, and doubtful person. So, if you are finding it uncomfortable to maintain eye contact with a strange person, try looking into the portion between their eyes. Or try to find their eye colour. The other person will feel like you are making confident eye contact.
- The essentiality of pauses
In modern workplaces, you have to often participate in conferences and address an elite audience. So, you need to be an effective orator on the stage as well. The importance of pauses amidst the speech can’t be ignored at all. Well-timed pauses leave the audience awestruck and curious about what will happen next! So, it will be a poor performance if you vomit out the entire speech in one go. The audience will get bored listening to the monotonous talk. Pauses will give you and your listeners a break to breathe in. So, whenever you change the course of your speech or reveal a secret don’t forget to take a pause and thrill your audience.
- The power of proper pronunciation
Imagine a program where the speaker is saying something but you can’t comprehend what he is talking about. Will not it be too boring to listen to a speech without understanding the meaning? So, pronunciation and articulation can severely impact your performance. Each word should come out clear so that people understand your views and opinions. Your accent should be up to the mark to impress the listeners.
- The volume of your speech
Your voice should be clearly audible to the people. The volume should not be too high or too low. A proper distance between the mike and your mouth should be maintained. You should also bring some tone modulations while you speak. The change in pitch and tone according to the flow of your speech can create better engagement. Speaking out the entire speech in the same gradient steals the excitement from storytelling.
- Always give attention to your facial expressions
Our facial expressions reveal our mood in a situation. Like if we are aggressive, satisfied, jolly, or worried. So, a minute change in our face can tell the other person our feelings and reactions.
A positive expression starts with a wide smile. A smiling face is always welcoming for a human. Have a calm and composed look. This will make your guest turn off his defense mode. You will be able to achieve a closer connection with the clients. Be a good listener during conversations. Nod your head while agreeing with the customers. This will convince them that you are actually listening.
- The art of haptics
Haptics refers to the communication we make through touch. Small gestures like handshakes, hugs, and patting come under this etiquette. It is in corporate culture to greet the guest with a warm handshake. Hugging your colleague improves your bonding with each other. Through these gestures involving touch, we show our support, affection, and respect for the other individual. So, never forget to use this art to enhance your client and colleague relationships.
These were the 7 quick tips to reinforce your existing communication skills. Of course, they will take time to gain perfection. And after that, you are going to ace the communication part of your personality. Then what are you waiting for? Follow the tips from your next client interaction and witness the benefits for real!