Unless you live under a rock, you can’t avoid communicating with people. You communicate everyday—all day—with people in your workplace, your friends, and your family. Sometimes they are your readers, your fans, strangers and even sometimes people you can’t stand. All the same you need to be able to have effective communication with each and every one of these people. How you do it each time might be a little bit different, but these five things should always remain constant:
1. Feel what you want them to feel — When you are writing a blog post, or talking to your wife, feel what you want the other person to feel. Enthusiastic speakers are usually the ones who get the crowd enthusiastic about their topic.
2. People Listen in Different Ways — If you say things more than once put it in a different way. Use different words and examples to explain concepts to people. Some people will learn from a story, some people will just take it as a story and not understand it. Other people will learn a concept if you just describe it. Talk so that everyone can understand.
3. When someone else talks consider how your response will sound to them — Many people talk without thinking about how it will be taken. Take a moment before speaking and consider how the listener could perceive it.
4. Let people disagree with you — If people don’t feel like they can disagree with you they won’t want to talk to you and they really won’t want you to talk to them. Let people honestly voice their opinion and you might learn something.
5. Talk about things that matter to the other person — People love to talk about themselves and what matters to them. They also like to hear people talk about things that matter to them. If you give them a story that is relevant to them they will want to listen to it so they can pass it on to other people.
This post is brought to you by Dale Carnegie Training of South Carolina, providers of professional development and management course. Please connect with us on Facebook!
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