6 Must-Have Tools for Effective Communication at Work and in Life
In this increasingly virtual world, effective and assertive communication skills are more important than ever.
Using your voice is the best way to share your thoughts, ideas, and needs with others. But what if the idea of speaking up makes you freeze in place?
Most of us are raised to be passive in our communication style with our parents and elders, meaning that we aren’t taught the skills necessary to be assertive later in life. Instead, the idea of speaking assertively feels uncomfortable and rude, triggering the feeling that someone will react negatively to you or be upset with you. This is all learned behavior from when you were young. To really change it, you have to break those associations from the past and learn new ways of communicating with your peers, employers, and family.
Below are 6 new skills you can learn right now to drastically improve assertive communication with the people in your life:
Planning:
If speaking up makes you nervous, write down what you want to say. It doesn’t have to be full thoughts or sentences to start, just list some ideas, words, or key phrases you’d like to be able to communicate more effectively and assertively. You can put it all together later
Keep it Simple.
Get to your point quickly and clearly. This is not the time for long stories or talking “around” the point. People check out quickly when they don’t know what you’re trying to say, so avoid a lot of lead up to your message
Listening.
True assertive communication goes both ways. If your goal is to improve your communication, you have to work on your listening skills. People are much more likely to hear you than they feel they’re being heard as well. Listening can also help you learn their communication style, which leads back to Step 1: Planning.
Clear Language.
Don’t water down your message with a lot of filler words like “maybe” or “sort of”. This undermines the clarity and confidence of your message.
Eye contact.
Eye contact goes a long way to feel engaged with another person. Keeping appropriate eye contact will help you feel more confident and help the other person feel seen, heard, and interested.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Especially if you’re new to assertive communication, practice is your new best friend. You can run through what you want to say with a friend or even by yourself but think it through and practice what you want to say. If it sounds passive to you, it probably is. See what words you can remove to make your message clearer and simpler.
Practicing one new skill a few minutes a day, a few days a week is the best way to create new habits!
Want to learn more about assertive communication in New York, NY?
Check out this blog on assertive communication or begin our assertive communication workshop in New York, NY.
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