Did you know that the fear of public speaking is higher than the fear of death or dying? This may be a surprise to some, but for others I’m sure you can relate to this. Public speaking is a great means of communication, and promoting your business, however, if you have a fear of public speaking, then you minimise your chances or opportunities of effectively and successfully ‘selling and promoting’ your services and your business. Usually those people who fear public speaking avoid it at all costs, however, when you are a business owner, it’s something that’s almost unavoidable. For example, most new business owners, join networking groups to get to know other like-minded people, where there is an expectation of giving a presentation, whether it’s sitting informally round a table, or standing up giving a formal presentation. Are you prepared? Do you have the skill? Is it something you
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“As a leader, you must consistently drive effective communication. Meetings must be deliberate and intentional - your organisational rhythm should value purpose over habit and effectiveness over efficiency”. Chris Fussell This quote made me think that as a leader, we are responsible for driving effective communication! This quote talks about communication being deliberate and intentional, and having a purpose. But it should also have a value purpose and be effective. Nowadays, we are spoilt rotten with so many options of communication, which is great, but is it really? Do we often not default to something other than talking? I am reminded of this almost daily when I am either emailing, texting or messaging someone. Usually halfway through several messages backwards and forwards, I think to myself, “Why don’t I just pick up the phone and talk to the person!” I am guessing you have often felt the same, or had
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You would think it was easy for us to communicate with each other, wouldn’t you? However, if we look at how we communicate, when we communicate, and who we communicate with, I am sure we would agree, that in most instances, our communication isn’t the best it could be. We may avoid certain communication because we fear it may be confrontational, or fear the outcome of the discussion. Communication is more than good or bad. The timing can cause a problem. The method we are using i.e. telephone, video conference, text or email has its pros and cons. If we measured how often our communication is good, positive and successful we would see how well we communicate with others, and vice versa. Communication has a sender and receiver. When communication breaks down, or the message isn’t received in the way it was sent, is it the ‘fault’ of the sender
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When it comes to communication, we are often good at communicating with others but not so good about communicating with ourselves. Are you one of those people who is great about offering great ideas, suggestions or advice to others, but not great at giving them to yourself? Did you know we can help ourselves through auto or self-suggestion, where we can encourage our conscious and sub-conscious to believe in what we are saying? Auto and self-suggestion is a form of self-induced suggestion where individuals guide their thoughts, feelings, or behaviour, and can be creative or destructive; positive or negative. Sometimes pretending we are offering the suggestion to someone else is a good place to start. How can we be better at suggesting great things to ourselves? Here are some tips to get you started: Statement of your desire – be clear what you want and start putting statements together of
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You may have read the quote “the biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand we listen to reply.” I know for many of us we find this difficult, but why do we find this so hard, and how can we listen more to understand than reply? Let’s look at the problem with us listening to respond. If we are formulating an answer in our minds, then how can we possibly be listening? We miss the main point of what the person is saying and give the person a huge dis-service by not being fully present nor actively listening to what they are saying. Let’s look at the benefits of actively listening. If we are truly listening to the other person, we are showing a real interest in exactly what they are saying. Following up with questions about what they have just said not only shows we are
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