Communication

Communication.

 
As a practitioner of NLP I am so aware of how intricate, complicated and confusing the subject of communication is, and yet we do it all day AND for a living. I would encourage any person dealing with the public to educate themselves as much and as often as they can on the various methods of communicating. If there were one thing that I could point a finger to and say, that is what destroys relationships, results and lives, it would be bad communication practices.
Communication tips
It’s an interesting word and one that many people wax lyrically about and yet the simple fact is that so many of us don’t do it well.
I have a favorite saying that I use frequently with people I mentor.

“The meaning of my communication is in your response.”

So often we don’t get the response we are looking for and our first reaction is to put that onto the person we are communicating with rather than to question where we might have gone wrong ourselves.

I recently went to a networking function and was amazed by how difficult it was for so many participants to share their ideas and what they had to offer. There are a few must do’s when it comes to meeting business colleagues and prospective “buyers” of you or your product.

1.  Share something of yourself.

There are many people out there who offer the same product that you have, so how do you distinguish yourself from those around you? Your customer is buying from you. Who you are and how you got to be where you are is significant to your career.  Before I believe what you tell me about yourself, you must believe in yourself first.
A great exercise to do is to draw a timeline of your life, putting in all the highlights that you have achieved. This will significantly change how you view yourself and what you can offer others.  More importantly when the time comes to share something of yourself, you will have better resources from your memory bank to share the right thing at the right time.

2. Know what you’re going to say.

As strange as it sounds, so many people don’t rehearse their pitch. They stumble and fall over their words constantly and fail to deliver their message with clarity and precision. Rehearsing who you are and what you do makes a significant difference to how you are perceived.  Make your pitch exciting.  An example of this is when people ask me what I do, I tell them I am a Mentor who brings out the hidden gold in people in business. There are hundreds of others out their doing what I do, so distinguishing myself from them is an important aspect of my pitch.

3. Mirror and Pace your audience.

Forget everything you ever learned about body language when meeting people for the first time. If you want to build instant rapport with someone, observe how he or she moves, their voice tone and the words they use. Mirror all these things immediately and you will find that you have instant rapport with them. The best example of this is when you observe close friends interacting.  They move their hands in a similar way, talk at the same pace and are almost at one, quite unconsciously. As simple as this sounds it is one of the most powerful ways to gain trust from someone you don’t know quickly and effortlessly.  I’ve been practicing this technique for years and trust me; I’ve never been caught out and can assure you that I always get the most out on any interaction.