I started yesterday a list of ten tips to improve your communication skills so that you can stand out — in a good way — from the crowd and thereby keep working in a worsening economy.
I wrote five tips yesterday, and here are the remaining five tips.
Tip 6. Put it in writing.
Bosses, fellow employees, and customers have less time to meet with you as the economy worsens and they feel increasing pressure to focus on the essentials.
Do them a favor by putting any of the following in email messages:
- action items;
- confirmations;
- deliveries of documents;
- information;
- questions;
- requests.
You can even start your email subject line with “Action:”, “Confirmation:”, “Delivery:”, “Info:”, “Question:”, or “Request:”, so that your message recipient will know right away why you are writing to him or her.
By following this tip, you will:
- learn to become succinct in your communications;
- let others respond on their schedules; and,
- develop a reputation for being thoughtful about others’ time.
Tip 7. Write more often.
This tip both supports tip #6 and is an outgrowth of tip #6.
This tip is really simple: By writing — and rewriting — what you want to say, and by doing this daily, you will improve your ability to organize your thoughts.
In contrast, most meetings, whether by telephone or in person, do not encourage organization of thoughts.
The regular habit of writing will force you to become better at organizing your thoughts, which is essential for better communication.
Tip 8. Write more succinctly.
This is another tip that both supports tip #6 and is an outgrowth of tip #6. This tip also supports tip #7.
To automatically write more succinctly, use lists. (Did you notice that these tips are in a list?!)
If you are not accustomed to writing lists, then learn about mind mapping at Wikipedia, start using mind mapping, and convert your mind maps into lists.
People generally love lists because lists show that you thought about what you wrote and because they facilitate skimming.
Tip 9. Grow your vocabulary.
I saw a television infomercial the other day that claimed that the average size of a U.S. high-school student’s vocabulary dropped from 25,000 words in 1950 to only 10,000 words in 2000.
High-school students probably are not the only ones with weaker vocabularies these days.
Here are three recommendations to help you to grow your vocabulary:
- check an online source such as Dictionary.com daily for a “Word of the Day”;
- get a page-a-day calendar that shows a new word and its definition every day;
- read a book specifically targeted at expanding your vocabulary.
Although this fourth recommendation might seem odd at first, also consider taking a course in medical terminology. I took one many years ago, and it dramatically improved my knowledge of the Latin and Greek roots of many English words, which is essential to understanding their meanings.
Tip 10. Give speeches.
Giving speeches increases your visibility and increases your self-confidence.
Increasing your visibility — whether in your job, with your customers, or in your community — leads to greater awareness by others of your skills, knowledge, and aptitude. This greater awareness in turn can lead to promotions, requests for bids, and even more opportunities to let “the world” know about you.
Increasing your self-confidence is crucial to performing better in job interviews and to handling sales calls and marketing presentations with greater ease. Your increased self-confidence will put others at ease and will increase their confidence in hiring you or giving you business.
Tip 11. Keep reading this blog.
I could not resist adding this bonus tip. I enjoy delivering more than promised!
If you already read my blog daily, thank you; you know its value.
If you are new to my blog, then I invite you to review the archives and then start reading it daily for even more ideas to improve your communication skills.
Remember: Learning never ends!