Are you one of the many, many people with a Learn a Word a Day calendar sitting on your desk? Do you try to incorporate new and complex words into your everyday professional conversation to sound more articulate? You might be hurting your career!
Equating an impressive vocabulary with being intelligent and capable is a common mistake in the business world. While having a large enough vocabulary can certainly help you to get your idea across, using words that are overly complicated or obscure can have the opposite effect. If people are unfamiliar with the words you’re using, nuances can be missed, or your message can be misunderstood completely. In addition, using obscure words just for the sake of it may give the impression that you are pompous and unapproachable, making it difficult to establish friendly relationships with clients and colleagues.
This mistake is commonly found with non-native speakers of a language. Unsure of their grammatical or linguistic skills, many attempt to overcompensate with unnecessarily difficult words, hoping it will prove that they have mastered the language. However, when language is difficult to understand, many people will tune out and your message will be lost. While you certainly want to maintain professional language and avoid slang, overly lengthy or obscure words will ultimately hurt your message.
Instead of just expanding your vocabulary, focus on truly improving your communication. Speech that is clear and confident is much more powerful than a string of fancy words. Put time into developing crisp articulation, a dynamic speaking voice and strong non-verbal communication skills; it will take you much further than that Word A Day calendar.
Do your professional communication skills need improvement? Let us help you make your speech and communication your most powerful professional tool! For information on the New York Based Speech and Accent Reduction services offered by Corporate Speech Solutions please give us a call at 212-308-7725 or visit us on the web at www.corporatespeechsolutions.com. Not in NYC? No problem! We also provide Skype and video conferencing services.
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