This month's topic is a simple but terribly ignored one, communication.
Everyone attempts to use it every day, both socially and in business, but somehow the method and techniques we use never seem to work when we want them to. The goal of effective communication should be for the listener to say, “Me, too!” versus “So what!” Learn to express, not impress is the watchword.
The following are some bullet points by an expert in this business, Jim Rohn, who is touted to be one of America's foremost business philosophers:
• It's not the matter you cover so much as it is the manner in which you cover it.
• Be brief on the logic and reason portion of your presentation. There are probably about a thousand facts about an automobile, but you don't need them all to make a decision. About a half a dozen will do.
• Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.
• Effective communication is 20 percent what you know and 80 percent how you feel about what you know.
• What is powerful is when what you say is just the tip of the iceberg of what you know.
• Don't mistake courtesy for consent.
• The more you know, the less you need to say.
• Don't be afraid to borrow if someone else has said it well. Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” That is so well said. You could stay up all night and not think of it.
• The more you care about someone, the stronger you can be.
• Don't operate on the heart with a hatchet. The same is true with words. Communication is the ability to affect other people with words. Don't overplay your comments.
Everyone attempts to use it every day, both socially and in business, but somehow the method and techniques we use never seem to work when we want them to. The goal of effective communication should be for the listener to say, “Me, too!” versus “So what!” Learn to express, not impress is the watchword.
The following are some bullet points by an expert in this business, Jim Rohn, who is touted to be one of America's foremost business philosophers:
• It's not the matter you cover so much as it is the manner in which you cover it.
• Be brief on the logic and reason portion of your presentation. There are probably about a thousand facts about an automobile, but you don't need them all to make a decision. About a half a dozen will do.
• Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.
• Effective communication is 20 percent what you know and 80 percent how you feel about what you know.
• What is powerful is when what you say is just the tip of the iceberg of what you know.
• Don't mistake courtesy for consent.
• The more you know, the less you need to say.
• Don't be afraid to borrow if someone else has said it well. Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” That is so well said. You could stay up all night and not think of it.
• The more you care about someone, the stronger you can be.
• Don't operate on the heart with a hatchet. The same is true with words. Communication is the ability to affect other people with words. Don't overplay your comments.