6 tips to increase your confidence when communicating

Published: 20 Nov 2020 Tagged: anxietyCommunicationConfidence Coachnervousnessshynesstips

Any social environment has its own ‘hierarchy’ of people whose voice is more respected, more listened, more followed. These people can help others reflect or decide different things with their contributions, but sometimes other people in the same social environment can contribute with the same quality inputs or even better ones, but for some reason they don’t. Sometimes they are too shy or become anxious and nervous when they need to expose their ideas, then they simply prefer to not participate with their ideas. In order to encourage reluctant communicators to feel more confident, we listed six useful tips below:

• Clear views. When you know exactly what you want to say or write, you can use the proper words and expressions to communicate these views with no possibility of misinterpretation by the audience. But don’t forget, you must adjust the language, jargons and expressions to the context of the audience.
• Preparedness. If you need to present a report at a company, or role play in a theatre play, or even give a simple opinion among friends at a bar or restaurant, you must be prepared for what you need to say. You need the arguments fresh in your mind, you must be ready for people questioning and asking for more evidence, be aware of unexpected participations.
• Conscience of limits. Depending on the audience and how they want to question your arguments, you might feel intimidated and might use questionable arguments. If you get to this moment, your credibility in the topic decreases. Therefore, know the limits of the ‘good’ arguments, the ones that everyone understands and can follow to a consensus, and stick to them.
• Invite to discussion. If you have explained an important topic, find some time before going to the next topic to invite the audience to discuss, question or comment anything they might feel interesting. By doing this, you can fix the message among the audience and have an even more solid ground to start the next topic.
• Adjustment to social hierarchy. Sometimes, there will be someone in the group who is older, or from a higher corporate level, or specialised in something related to the topic you will talk about. Make sure you keep every member of the audience comfortable with the way you speak and the arguments you use. Don’t intimidate people from a lower corporate level, but don’t defer to a workmate just because that person is a higher-level colleague. Make sure everyone feels included and respected by their knowledge and viewpoints.
• Be yourself, always. Sometimes you might think that you should say or act like someone else because that person seems more admired when communicating. Just be aware that some characteristics are yours and should never be changed, while you can add some strategies to boost your communication skills. Learn how to differentiate them and keep your unique traits, they make you memorable when talking or writing to your audience.

These are just a small number of tips to reduce your reluctance to communicate your ideas to other people. If you want more support, feel free to contact us and learn about our Confidence Coaching program!