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Welcome to our page of tips. Visit often as we periodically renew this page.
7 TIPS FOR CHECKING IF YOU ARE COMMUNICATING CLEARLY
1. Below are several "metrics" or ways of measuring whether or not your conversations and presentations are clearer. If you are speaking clearly and concisely, your listeners:
- respond warmly and attentively throughout the conversation or presentation: their eyebrows are raised, their eyes are rounded, and they lean forward while you are talking
- give you more eye contact
- follow your directions more accurately
- ask you fewer questions for clarification
- appear more relaxed: smiling, shoulders down, hands relaxed
2. Read nonverbal signals that others are confused. Confused listeners often:
- avoid eye contact
- tilt their heads
- squint their eyes
- close their mouths
- lower their eyebrows
- cross their arms and legs
- turn away from you
3. Avoid vague words
NOT: It would be great for them. Using the process will make a difference.Another way to speak clearly is to avoid unclear words including it, that, this, those, they, he, she, them, and we. Unfortunately, you may use these words while feeling assured that your listeners know what you are talking about. You talk as if you and your listeners are looking at the same picture. The solution is easy. For at least a few weeks, you should avoid the words above in your speech. For example:
INSTEAD: The new distribution process will reduce your costs by at least 12%. If you eliminate excess forms, you will reduce wasteful paper handling dramatically.
Expressions can also be vague: other areas of interest, some things, none of the above.
4. Stop repeating yourself
When you note when others do not understand you, you may repeat yourself time after time, hoping to "get through" to your listeners. This technique seems logical, but the large volume of speaking caused by repeating compromises success. This "recycling" of information and comments has got to go. One way to reduce speech recycling is to change your thinking about speaking. More is not better. Instead, program yourself to realize that you need to say only a few sentences in a conversation before giving your conversational partner a turn.
5. Say one thought in each sentence
The desire to "say it all" also may plague you. If you recognize yourself as a "say-it-all" type, then you probably speak in very long, overloaded sentences. Research shows that the average adult listener can hold only sixteen words in short term memory, so you should not be surprised when your listeners do not remember your 30 word sentences. Try this: say only one idea per sentence, then end the sentence and start a new one. In fact, rather than just starting a new sentence immediately, insert a pause between sentences so that you can think, edit, and observe the reactions of your conversational partners.
6. Start in the right place and stay on track.
You may start too far ahead of either what your listeners’ remember about the subject or how much your listeners know. You may waste time providing excessive background information and off-topic comments. You need to remember to provide brief introductions to your topics to warm up and orient your listeners. "Brief" means two to five minutes for a presentation and a short phrase for an e-mail or voice-mail message. You should always start each conversation with a few sentences to review previous conversations and to remind your listeners of information that they will need to understand the rest of the conversation or presentation.
7. Tips and Techniques
Finally, here are a few quick ideas to eliminate rambling.
Finish each idea before proceeding
- Tolerate silence.
- Shorten your sentences.
- Picture your idea in your mind, as if on "video," before speaking.
- Picture your words on a screen in your mind before you say them.
- Put the most important information in your sentences at the beginning or end.
- Slow down by as much as 70% to allow more time to think.
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