4 ways to Improve Communication
Very few even business owners work on their struggles to improve their communication skills. While most are decent with their native language, in this global business environment, you need to be great at English too at least.
According to a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each, they lost an average of?$62.4 million?each year due to communication problems.
When I started as a debater, my English SUCKED! Well, I never became fluent like a native speaker or anything but it got to an average position for a second language. It is not that hard to improve your speaking skills if you are willing to work for it. But it can become challenging when there are
Here are the 4 things you can work on to instantly make your communication a lot better:
1. Think in the language you're speaking
Most people think in their native tongue and then translate that thought to another language they speak. It creates a lag and the conversation never flows. You're constantly trying to catch up on what they are saying, processing, thinking a reply, and translating.
When you're speaking your native tongue, it comes naturally to you. Slowly you have to force yourself to think in the 2nd language. I used to talk to myself to improve my broken English thoughts (lol!)
2. Record yourself & listen
We all think we talk very charmingly. Well, that couldn't be further away from the truth. Recording yourself and listening to it is quite embarrassing. But you will automatically pick up on a lot of "Umms" "I think" "Literally" "Mhmm" etc. which are either just filler words or words that you repeat every sentence. Try being cautious of them in the following conversation and slowly churn them out of your conversations. This will take a while as this won't come naturally either.
3. Speak A LOT in front of a mirror
There is no better way to get better at something than practicing it a lot. Speaking isn't any different either. The best way to improve communication is by just communicating a lot. A lot of people are shy and introverted and thus never express their thoughts.
Speaking in front of a mirror is also a psychological exercise. It helps you look at your physical presence while you speak which often gets ignored. You can become comfortable with the idea of you speaking. Often the biggest hurdle for any communication strategy is to understand that you can easily do as well. seeing yourself slowly improve, helps break that barrier.
4. Listen Carefully
Communication is not a one-way street. Your ability to understand your counterpart is almost equally as important as your expressing yourself. To achieve that, try to pause while someone else is speaking, let them make their points, process, and only then reply.
If you are struggling with understanding different accents and languages, one of the things that worked for me was to watch movies without subtitles. That forces you to pay attention. At first, you will miss a few movie plots or have to rewatch a few episodes of a series but slowly your ears will adapt to these.
Communication is one of those skill sets that can get you very far in your career. Even if you are a solo business owner, you'll still have clients/customers. The better you are at it, the more successful you'll be. It is almost as simple as that.
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