'It's not what you say, it's how you say it!'

Do you ever have conversations where you walk away and think ‘Well that was a waste of time, they just don’t get it!’
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Do you sometimes wonder how many times you are going to have to tell someone how to do something and don’t understand why they can’t grasp your instructions?

Do you ever talk to someone and then realise that they actually stopped listening about 5 minutes ago and they now have a glazed expression on their face?!

Effective communication is one of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today and not getting it right can cause damage in a number of ways.

In addition, there are now many channels of communication with pioneering technology making it harder and harder for us to keep up with how to use it.

People are time poor, so etiquette seems to have gone out of the window, for instance it’s very unusual to receive an email that begins with Dear and ends with Yours sincerely and it seems that less is very definitely in favour of more, almost to the point of rudeness in some cases.

‘Proper’ spelling has been replaced with ‘text’ speak, which is increasingly hard to decipher by those of us who are over the age of 25. In addition, the use of mobile phones and computers has also cut out the need to communicate face to face.

So it’s no wonder that when we do find ourselves in a situation where we are communicating verbally we have difficulties getting ourselves understood.

You could be in a meeting and can’t command the groups’ attention or you’re just not getting anything back when you are in a one to one situation.

Failure to communicate successfully can not only affect your bottom line but it also damages your relationships and your reputation.