The Fourth Deadly Sin and How to Avoid It
Want to be more clear and persuasive in your professional communication? Here are a few rules lifted from my recent blog (http://www.purposeful.ca/blog) :
1. Keep still until your mind is clear.
2. Don’t assume that your listener can read your mind. Drop some hints.
3. Finish your thoughts.
4. Be sure you and your listener are thinking about the same thing. Perhaps your mind has moved on to better things, but if your listener is still “back there” you need to signal that you’re now “over here”. Eye contact is very useful for this.
5. Speak, or write, in coherent and complete thought-chunks. Our language actually has rules about this.
6. Speak, or write, appropriately to the audience. How I address the court, for instance, is quite different than my language with buddies over beer.
7. Understand that teaching or persuading means leading the listener from “there” to “here”. Know where your listener is just now, and know where you want to take him. Then plan the journey.
8. Along the journey, hold the listener’s hand. Make sure you’re together step by step. “Check in” frequently with eye contact and questions such as “Am I making sense?”
9. Always communicate with respect. Even to little kids and beggars. Life is a long journey.
Blog: The Fourth Deadly Sin of Communication (http://www.purposeful.ca/blog)