Communication Tips – Part Two

In our last post, we had a look at three things you can implement straight away to assist with feeling more comfortable and confident when speaking to a small or large group. (Click here to read it if you haven’t had a chance to yet.)

Let’s now have a look at a few more key points you can apply quickly and easily next time you are talking to a group.

Firstly, “start with a story”. Over the last twenty years, I have trained many classes in Information Technology – specifically in programming, process management and database administration. As you can imagine, these topics are very technical in nature with a great deal of dry facts and figures to be delivered to the participants. I remember when I first started training in a classroom environment a mentor gave me a piece of advice that has stuck with me stronger than most pearls of wisdom about communication – if you don’t want to preach, put a story in your speech.

People love stories, and hearing a story allows listeners to create a scene that they can relate to. Audience members can slightly adjust the story so it makes sense to them. It is this process that allows the information provided within the story to be delivered in a more meaningful way than facts and figures hitting them in the face. A story is relatable and entertaining – open your talk with a story, have a story or two in the middle and finish with a story.

The next thing we can do to support our communication is to utilise a variation of the KISS principle – “Keep it short and succinct”. Making a talk short and to the point will always be appreciated by an audience more than a rambling, ill-directed rant. Antoine de Saint Exupéry, a famous French writer and poet said “It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.” I have seen this in action many times – speakers who are unsure of their content or reason for speaking will tend to ramble making their talk go a LOT longer than it would have if there was strong direction and purpose. The more you try to give the audience the more likely they are to lose the message… as a guide, speaking for ten minutes should only include three topics of information!

Finally for this post, while speaking, recognise that communication is a two-way street. You will receive feedback from your audience about how engaged they are with your talk. It is easy to spot if someone is becoming restless – having one restless audience member may be OK, but if more and more start looking anywhere other than on you, it is time to try something different. Quite often (depending on the style of the communication), audience members will ask questions if they are interested in what you are saying and appreciate the information you are giving them. Keep an eye on the audience and adjust your delivery based on what they are communicating to you!

By incorporating these few things into your everyday communication, you will start to be recognised as a confident and engaging speaker. People will want to hear what you have to say.

How do we incorporate these things into our daily speaking? Practice, practice, practice. The more we do it, the better we get.

And once we’ve done it enough, you can’t help but

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