Improving Communication Skills at Work

You say something, you give your perspective, you give your opinion, sometimes people agree, sometimes people will disagree, sometimes people will like what you're saying, sometimes people aren't going to like it. And those things are going to be beyond your control. I'm Dr. Grace Lee and you're listening to the Career Revisionist podcast for executives, team leaders, people and managers and ambitious professionals from all backgrounds. It's for those among us who can't stay stagnant and admire anyone who demonstrates exponential growth. We challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and into higher levels of leadership. And we are determined to rise confidently in our industry so that we can make our greatest contribution using our knowledge and expertise. We have worked hard to become great at what we do, but only so we can achieve the goals that give our lives meaning and purpose. And while we persevere through a college education to get us here with our technical skills, we understand that to get to the next level where we desire to be, it requires a different kind of skills. We're not comfortable with failure because we experience satisfaction when we are advancing. And while some of us work well under pressure, all of us perform the best when we are part of a winning team. And instead of just hoping to achieve what's important to us, we choose to become a more optimized version of ourselves to make it happen. We're not just A players. We are A plus players and we are the source of consistent output that makes positive advancements in the world around us. All communication is public speaking. And communications are important for career growth at all stages of your career growth. When you hone your public speaking skills, what you can do is develop yourself as a thought leader. You can inspire and motivate your teams and you can also get buy-in for your ideas and be known for that which you want to be known for. So in this video, what I'm going to share with you are four key areas of focus that you can use to increase your communication skills in the workplace. Key focus area number one is powerful presentations. In some time or the other, you're going to be doing presentations, whether it be in front of your direct managers, in front of your team of direct reports or your highest level managers or stakeholders and so on, there will be a presentation. Now in a presentation, you do have some time to prepare. And chances are you know when the date of your presentation is going to be and sort of who's going to be there as well. So one of the most important skillsets under the umbrella of powerful presentations is to understand your audience and it's not just about knowing who's going to be there and their job titles and what they do in the company is more than just that. It's understanding the deeper levels of what do they truly value? What is a priority for them? What are their wants? What are their needs in the moment and having a real time understanding of that? Because when you truly understand your audience deeper than on the surface level, this is how you can create a powerful message in your presentation that matches the audience where they're at. So that's the first part of powerful presentations. The second part of powerful presentations is to understand how do you adjust to the different formats of presentations? Because chances are at some point you're being able to be doing a keynote address, you might be doing a panel discussion, it could be a progress report, it could be a communication in the boardroom, it could be a communication with the stakeholders and or it could be focus groups. So there's various different types of presentations. So this is important to be able to adjust to giving different formats of presentations. And the third area of powerful presentations is to be able to understand how do I deliver a very strong organized message? So this is where you understand what are I going to include in my presentation? What am I not going to include in it? And how do I organize and package the information or the data or the ideas or my perspectives in that presentation in such a way that it makes sense chronologically and it also makes sense in terms of delivery and receptivity. And then finally the final area of powerful presentations is understanding how do I conclude my presentation with a powerful call to action? Because let's face it, you're not doing the presentation for the sake of doing a presentation. You have an intent coming into it, there's a purpose for it. And the end of that presentation, there's something that you want them to do. It could be a proof of your budget, it could be that you want them to say yes to your idea, it could be that you want them to see things from your perspective, but there's a call to action there. So then the third, the final part about a powerful presentation is how do you deliver a powerful call to action so that you can get an engage and motivate your audience to take that action that you want them to take. So this is the very first key areas of focus, which is a powerful presentation. Key focus area number two is inspiring impromptu. Now impromptu is quite different from a powerful presentation, namely because when you are giving an impromptu communication, you don't have time to prepare. It's right there on the spot. For example, it could be you pass your boss in the hallway and they just stop you and say, hey, can I get a progress report on this? It could be almost at the end of a meeting, there's a separate discussion that starts to happen and your higher ups are asking you for your opinion on something or they're asking you to contribute to the discussion that was just said. And in that moment, you've got to respond, you have to say something. And that is impromptu, there's no time to prepare. You don't have the benefit of editing and deleting your message because all eyes are on you in that moment. Now, a lot of people tell me that impromptu is much harder than presentation for that reason. So when it comes to focusing on giving an inspiring impromptu conversation, one of the most important things to do is to be able to manage your nerves in that moment. How can you stay calm and present in that moment? How can you actively listen to what is being called of you? Or how can you be sure that you understand the prompt of what you are expected to say in that moment? So this is your ability as well to handle a Q&A in that moment when you're being asked questions that you understand what is being asked of you. And therefore in that moment, you can respond incitfully and you can respond precisely. So this is your ability to be able to package the information that you have inside of you to be able to respond in those ways. And also to be able to handle the more challenging questions that require more dynamic responses. How do you know what to say in that moment and are you addressing the question thoroughly and incitfully? So that's important component of impromptu. And the final most important part of impromptu as well is to be able to adjust and pivot when necessary and to stay on track. And this is one of the hardest things about impromptu is how do you get back on track when you lose your track or when you start going down a rabbit hole? How do you take those social cues from your audience members to know that they are feeling that they are addressing their question, that they are interpreting what you want them to say, what you want them to interpret it, in the way you want them to interpret it. And how can you take those social cues in the moment to realize that what you're saying is a value to them. And if it's not a value, how do you analyze and adjust on the spot? So these are important that impromptu there's movement happening in that moment and there's a back and forth, there's a dialogue. And at the same time, the dialogue is a physical and mechanical dialogue, one withers audio. And there is an energetic dialogue as well where you're picking up on cues from individuals. And this can happen whether or not you're in person with them or on video, it can happen either way. Now, the final part of impromptu giving an inspiring impromptu message is to be able to handle the more personal challenges. So what do I mean by personal challenges? These personal challenges include things like how do you recall information? How do you remember what you wanted to say? How do you remember what happened and they were asking for something about the past? So this is the recollection of information, the package of information in that moment and to be able to respond to anxieties or nervousness that you have in that moment. So these are examples of personal challenges. So impromptu is very important that you have a method on how to handle those more personal challenges that are not visible to your audience members as they look at you. But you definitely feel them on the inside. And those personal challenges might be the thing that's holding you back from being able to be good at impromptu discussions. So this is the second key areas of focus. The first one is a powerful presentation and the second one is an inspiring impromptu. So if you're listening to this and you're saying, well, impromptu is more difficult for me. Maybe you're finding that presentations are more difficult to you or those aspects of both that are difficult to you. And if you want help with this, then I invite you to work with me. In the description below, the very first link is an application where you're going to be speaking with a member of my team. And this is where we're going to explore whether or not it is the right fit for us to work together. And if it is, you're going to have the opportunity to learn very hands-on field-tested methodologies on how you can improve those skill sets. On presentations and impromptu conversations, how to manage the inner challenges as well. And every single week I provide this training and opportunities for you to practice. And practice in a way where you can get real feedback on how to improve and exactly what to improve. So if you're serious about developing this skill set, then click the link below and I look forward to working with you on the inside. Key area of focus number three is to govern glossophobia. So what is glossophobia? I talked about this in a separate video. Glossophobia, the word glosso, refers to the tongue. Fobia refers to the fear. So glossophobia is just the fear of public speaking. And the fear of public speaking is a really huge fear because when it comes to the human population, it has been noted that the fear of public speaking is one of the top fears of all the fears that people can have. And the fear of public speaking is no more than just communicating in front of an audience member where in that moment when we're speaking in front of them or presenting in front of them, we feel that there's somebody in that audience member who has more knowledge or more achievements than we do. And in that moment when there is that perspective, then we get nervous. We get anxious. We fear that we're not going to leave a good first impression. We have all of these thoughts that are failure. We have all of these thoughts of criticism and embarrassment. and so on, and those are the symptoms of the fear of public speaking. So this is really important when you govern Glossophobia, it doesn't mean that you never feel the fear again, but it certainly means that the fear doesn't paralyze you to start, and then gradually you're going to notice that the anxieties become less and less, and when you are in front of the room or when you are present with certain individuals that used to make you nervous, that they no longer do, and instead you see them as your equals. Like have you ever experienced that, that your presentation is going quite well and all of a sudden someone walks into the room where someone comes onto that Microsoft Teams or someone comes on video, and that person is a senior member of the company, and whenever they're around or just the mere thought that they're listening, you just get nervous or all of a sudden you go blank and you lose your train of thought, sometimes there's certain individuals that have that effect on you because of their position or because of whatever it is. And I'm sharing with you the essence of why that happens is because of our perception that those individuals have more knowledge or more achievements. So this is really important when you govern Glossophobia, then you remove the barriers to be able to speak in prom too, you remove the barriers to be able to share your ideas authentically and freely in presentations, and this is how you can step up to lead the way that you were meant to lead. And key focus area number four, this one is the most important and this one is sustaining self-governance. So let's talk about self-governance, what is self-governance? Self-governance is your ability and your capacity to be able to manage yourself, to be able to manage your emotions, to be able to manage your mind, to be able to manage your presence so that when and manage your whole self and all areas of yourself, when you have self-governance, this is when the noises stop. This is when the anxiety calms down. This is when all the volatility of our emotions, the fears and the anxieties that we have, this is when it calms down and when it calms, we can truly be present. Have you ever noticed that? Is that as soon as the emotions become volatile within us, it's very difficult to really listen to what people are saying and sometimes we're so concerned about, what am I going to say next? We're so concerned about making an impression that we don't even keep track of the discussion at hand and we can't even remember it. It's so hard to be present and calm of mind to be able to know what's going on and really listen to what people are saying and that can be an obstacle in terms of making the right contribution that people want to hear you make. So your ability to be present is so important in impromptu and it's so important in presentations, it's so important in creating meaningful relationships in the workplace as well. So your ability to be present depends on your self-governance. How can you manage your mind? How can you manage your emotions so that you don't allow your emotions to take over but also so that you don't absorb the emotions from other people and take things personally? So there's two ways. It's a two way. And as well, this is what allows you to be more authentic in your communications, authenticity so that you can show up as yourself, not show up as someone that you hope to be or try to be like someone else but that you can show up as your whole self, bring your whole self into that communication. Your ability to be authentic will escalate your leadership as well because when you are authentic, you're not afraid to say what you want to say. You're not afraid to be to get criticism. You're not afraid to have people disagree with you because as you know, sometimes that is going to happen. You say something, you give your perspective, you give your opinion, sometimes people agree, sometimes people will disagree, sometimes people will like what you're saying, sometimes people aren't going to like it and those things are going to be beyond your control. But when you are authentic, the focus is not going to be about being liked, the focus is not going to be making a good impression. The focus is just going to be on how can I bring my whole self to this and be of service to my audience. So this authenticity and that presence allows you to lead in ways that are truly, truly impactful. [Music]