Do you feel your lack of confidence when speaking with people stops you from making a good impression in the work place? Do you ever wish you could be more confident at work, express your opinions more clearly and not be intimidated by face to face communication with your superiors or important clients?
If this strikes a chord with you and you are interested in learning how to gain confidence with work place communication to enhance your career then you may benefit from learning how to improve your public speaking skills.
Having confidence when speaking in public doesn't just apply to people delivering seminars to large groups of people or slick sales people, if you speak with colleagues or clients in any capacity then you too could benefit from learning the skills of a good communicator. Remember the mark of a good communicator is not being exceptionally witty, clever, entertaining or super polished but someone who is able to easily join a conversation, contribute their thoughts and ideas clearly and efficiently and enjoy verbal interaction with people from all walks of life.
With improved communication skills behind you, you will find that your working life is greatly improved. Your ideas and opinions can be evaluated by others more easily, annual reviews will become a less stressful time where you will be confident in actively participating in the process and negotiating salaries, benefits and promotions etc will be subjects you no longer shrink from. Managing a team of people will be less daunting prospect and you new skills will inspire and encourage your team to perform well.
You may also find that improving your communication skills for the work place also has a positive knock on effect in to your personal life, at home with your family and in other situations where you might normally have shied away from contributing. Imagine being asked to deliver a toast at an important family occasion or being asked to be Master of Ceremonies at a friends wedding, events that you would normally have hid in the back row when attending!
So how do you go about improving your communication skills? How does a shy and uneasy speaker acquire the skills of a confident and dynamic speaker?
At the heart of the matter is the process of un-learning your fear response to speaking with others, in both group situations and one on one scenarios. This is not something you can just wish to happen and 'hey presto' your fear response has vanished. You need to go through the process of re-educating your mind set to lift away the fear response that makes you uneasy with speaking with others and replace it with a healthy, calm attitude towards speaking in the workplace and in general.
This re-education can take place in the form of a specially designed public speaking confidence self hypnosis program where you will be expertly guided along a journey where your sub-conscious mind, the gate keeper of your fears, will be re-trained to reverse the damage done by negative thoughts and images related to speaking in public. Self hypnosis will also teach you how to use strong visualisation techniques to become your ideal speaker and how to combat the influence of past negative speaking experiences.
Just imagine if 30 days from now you were able to speak one on one with your boss about your contributions, aspirations and goals in your role at work or chair an important meeting with clients or handle staff recruitment, annual reviews or disciplinary meetings for example - all without the slightest hesitation or twitch of nerves, wouldn't that be truly amazing?
So if you believe you could improve your status in the work place by becoming a more confident, self assured communicator, self-hypnosis might be the answer you've been looking for.
To be honest, in my thirty years in industry they have always been a cause of concern.
Last week's edition of BBC's The Apprentice was all the evidence we needed to accept that enough is enough and something must be done - but what?
A few years ago I was working on an IT project with some young guns in London. The head of department announced that he planned a seminar where each of his team leaders would have to present their team's activities and justify their existence.
After the spluttering and choking, I had never seen a room empty so quickly.
Most of these guys had worked for the company for some time, experienced professionals, and they should all have had the skills to comfortably overcome this hurdle.
But nobody wanted to present their case. Nobody wanted to stand up in front of their peers and sell themselves and their teams.
I had never heard so many excuses. Some were already saying that they wouldn't be available, even though a date hadn't been set. Some decided to pass the poisened chalice to subordinates or to contract staff.
There really is a serious problem in our educational development when experienced executives are unable to express themselves in public with confidence, coherence and clarity.
When the day of the seminar arrived, a number of team leaders were either ill, absent without leave or mysteriously whisked off to New York or Paris diligently pursuing their team's A-rated goals. No time for seminars.
It was a great embarassment when the departmental head called the event off at short notice and at great expense.
Last week's edition of The Apprentice demonstrated and encapsulated the problem. Simon Ambrose, a graduate of Cambridge University was given the challenge of presenting products on a daytime TV programme. The results cost the channel thousands of pounds in losses.
His presentation of quite basic products resulted in an endless flurry of OK, OK, OK,OK ? right, yes, now, alright, so, and?. And so it went on.
Even Sir Alan Sugar in a moment of irony questioned? ?How many times is his going to say OK? Get him off?'
The real problem is that we often mistake academic achievement for intelligence, we often mistake intelligence for charisma, and we often expect the intelligent and charismatic to be excellent communicators.
It's not fair to single Simon out as he is just one of hunderds of thousands of young executives who cannot present a coherent message. Simon was doing his best, but I wonder about the standard of his role models. However, I was concerned that his colleague Naomi, suggested that he had taken lessons in public speaking.
There is a problem ? and in the business community, we must face up to it.
Poor communication costs the economy billions of pounds every year in terms of wasted time in meetings, briefings and more formal dissemination of verbal information. How can we expect our managers to become excellent communicators without the required training.
Speaking is a skill and like any other skill, it can easily be developed with professional assistance and supportive feedback.
At the next opportunity, please watch The Apprentice, The Dragons' Den or Channel 5's excellent ?Selling Yourself'. How many of these people enhance their credibility in their presentations?
Is there somebody in your company destroying its credibility?
Both Lisa Dyke & Vincent Stevenson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Lisa Dyke has sinced written about articles on various topics from Backpain, Marketing and Communications and Public Speaking. Lisa Dyke has put together The Mind Training Series which is a high quality range of self hypnosis audio programmes, for more information on curing the fear of public speaking please visit. Lisa Dyke's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
Vincent Stevenson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Marketing and Communications and Public Speaking. How to succeed with speeches and presentations.There is no need to fear speaking in public.Know the techniques and build the skills.Speak like a professional.