What are your New Year communication skills resolutions?

New year and new communication skills goals

It’s that time of year again. January is the month when successful goal-oriented people reflect on the past 365 days; examine their past successes and failures and decide how they CAN make things better. There is something very significant about the beginning of a new year that gives us the opportunity us to reflect and set goals for future self-development.

Successful people set practical, intelligent and worthwhile goals. The world economy is steadily becoming tighter and more and more competitive. It is therefore becoming more and more important to obtain a competitive edge. Skilled and talented communicators tend to rise above others and get ahead of the unskilled and disadvantaged masses. Successful and confident professionals build their businesses on excellent communication principles and strategic communication skills.

Set some communication skills goals

No matter how successful or experienced you may be, this is the time of year to put some thought in to what you would like to achieve in 2020 and beyond. So much about success rides on how much we plan and how much we develop those skills which will ensure our professional and personal success.

No matter what your career is, at the end of the day is is all about communicating well. It is only through effective communication that you can attract clients, build excellent client relationships and influence your clients to buy in to your products and services.

“People don’t plan to fail. They fail to plan” – John J. Beckley

Communication skills 2020: The steps are simple

Here is a simple process to help you do a quick communication audit of your life. It will help you to set communication skills development goals for 2020:

1. Review your last year and place where you are currently at.
2. Decide what is no longer serving you and what you want to change
3. Make a list of what you want to achieve in your career, relationships and life
4. Choose which communication skills are going to help you to achieve your new goals
5. Create an action plan to develop the skills you need to develop in order to succeed. Find a great experienced communication company / coach to teach you the skills you need to succeed. Feel free to contact john@johnfrench.co.za for a free communication audit and assessment.

Some ideas to improve your communication skills in 2020

Here are some communication tips to help you to lift your game and improve your success in 2020:

1. Set communication goals. First define what it is you want to communicate BEFORE you begin to speak, present, write, sell or negotiate. If your mind is focused, your communication messages will also be. Define your communication goal in one short sentence every time before you begin to communicate.
2. Manage your stress. Stress sabotages communication and destroys business relationships. We simply cannot communicate effectively when we are stressed. Stress negatively impacts our body language and vocal ability and sabotages your overall communication messages.
3. Simplify your communication messages. Keep your communication messages clear and simple to be easily understood. Remember, it was Einstein who wisely said: ““If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself”.
4. Become more Emotionally Intelligent. Business in the 21^stcentury is becoming increasingly more intuitive and relationship-oriented. People only want to do business with people they like. Enrol on an E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) course. EQ is a central component of all Communication Guru communication programmes.
5. Answer e-mails and voicemail messages within 24 hours. Failing to respond timorously must surely be South Africa’s worst communication habit. Show your clients that you are responsible and professional. Acknowledge all your voicemail and e-mail messages within an internationally recognised standard of 24 hour period. Manage expectations if you cannot give a 24 hour response.
6. Use the magic words whenever you can and smile, smile, smile!Irrespective of whether you were taught to say “please” and “thank you”, please learn to use these two magic words. Politeness conveys respect and makes your stakeholders feel emotionally safe. A smile will influence your vocal tone over the telephone and can light up the darkest room. Learn to become a positive influence wherever you are.
7. Communication proves that The Law of Attraction works. The attitude you project when you communicate determines how you are treated in return. It is the simple Law of Cause and Effect. Choose your approach and attitude wisely each time you communicate. It becomes your invitation to others to treat you in a particular way.
8. Learn from your mistakes.Ask for regular feedback from those you trust in your workplace. Make a plan to develop your weak communication areas. Remember, it is only a mistake if you decide not to learn the important lesson that comes along with each unfortunate experience.
9. Improve your communication habits. There really is no such thing as a bad communicator. There are simply bad communication habits. Great communication skills training will help you to become the best communicator you can be, and it will help you to maximise on your unique personal strengths.
10. Enrol on a communication course this year.The best sports professionals never stop going for coaching – ironically, the better they become, the more coaching they attend. If you want to rise to the top, you need to keep improving your communication skills and upping your game. Complacency will keep you stuck in your present comfort zone, or even worse, your life and outlook will become smaller.

Conclusion

If you develop your communication skills in 2020 you will see how magically life improves. It is almost impossible to succeed if you cannot communicate effectively.

Have fun improving your communication skills and good luck!

Communication tips:

1. Ask yourself what kind of first impression you need to create to open the door to further engagement and opportunities.
2. You can improve your professional communication skills by paying attention to your non-verbal communication: your posture, body language, hand gestures, facial expressions and eye contact.
3. In face to face communication, you can improve your verbal communication by paying attention to your voice: your voice projection, clarity of speech and friendly tone of voice.
4. Keep an open mind, pay attention and use effective listening skills to listen to your colleagues’ points of view and accommodate their personality types and communication styles.
5. Be careful of falling into communication traps like believing all the fake news in the media and getting into online arguments. Think about the consequences before you publish anything online or send any thing through a company server.

If you would like to improve your communication skills, or for more information on our various communication skills training programmes, e-mail the Communication Guru John French at john@johnfrench.co.za

Here is a link to Communication Guru, John French’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-french-73499939/