While meetings are a great concept in theory—an opportunity for everyone to share ideas and be kept up-to-date on important business—anyone who has ever worked in a corporate environment is all too aware that meetings are often not quite as effective as intended. What can you do to ensure your next meeting is a success?
Effective speaking: When speaking in a business meeting, be aware of the two big “C”s: clear and concise. When speaking to a group of people who may have very different communication styles, it’s important to keep your message as clear and simple as possible in order to avoid miscommunications and confusion. Being concise is equally important: meetings that drag on and on are everyone’s worst nightmare. When speaking in a meeting, make sure you are making your point in the shortest, most direct way possible.
Effective listening: Often people spend their time in meetings planning out what they want to contribute to the conversation. While it’s important to put some thought into what you want to say, this can often lead to missing the contributions of others. Make sure to really listen when someone is speaking, rather than just making eye contact and nodding while plotting your next discussion point. To keep your focus, continually recap in your mind the key points of what the speaker is saying.
Ask questions: Despite everyone’s best efforts, communication breakdowns are inevitable. If you don’t fully understand someone’s point or have missed a key part of their idea, don’t be afraid to ask questions or request clarification. Odds are if something is unclear to you, there is at least one other person in the room who is confused as well.
Want to learn how to turn your speech into your most powerful business tool? Give us a call at 917-841-2965 or visit our website at www.corporatespeechsolutions.com and find out how one of our trained and certified corporate speech-language pathologists can improve your communication and your career! Don’t live in NYC? No problem! Our services are Skype ready.