How to Improve Your Business English

One of the most important things to have if you want to achieve anything is to have the motivation to do it. What can motivate you to master your Business English? Perhaps earning a bigger salary, fulfilling your true potential and expanding your career horizons? I can continue this list. I am sure you have your own motivation.

Secondly, I think you should focus on your business area first. It can be marketing or finance, for example. After you have mastered Business English in your area of expertise you can move on to other areas such as business development, management accounting, human resources management and so on.

Finally, structure your learning process. I will divide it into two parts.

The first one is your passive language, namely understanding Business English. This can be developed by listening and reading silently. I recommend listening to the BBC Business News, Bloomberg Radio and the audiobook Get Rid of your Accent for Business, Part Three.

The second part is your active Business English. This can be achieved by working with the Business English Speech app, writing and giving presentations. One of the best options would be to join a public speaking club such as Toastmasters (TM).  In TM you can give prepared and impromptu speeches, get evaluated and receive constructive feedback about what you are doing well and what can be improved. You can also learn how to conduct a TM meeting. This is an essential skill if you want to conduct/facilitate a meeting.

Below are a few practical daily tips:

1. Make notes of 2-5 phrases you hear and repeat them five times several times a day.

2. Write emails on Business topics and check the grammar with Grammarly. Make a note of your mistakes.

3. Read a short article in English 3 times out loud (250 words)

4. Work with the app Business English Speech for 15-45 minutes. This app is written in the style of the Economist and The Financial Times. You can master your Business vocabulary and pronunciation.

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Self-Motivation

Last Monday, on 8 January 2024 I went to my public speaking club Grosvenor Squire Toastmasters (TM). It is the oldest TM club in London. I love this club. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the quality of the speeches and speakers. The speeches were about trivia and delivered in bad English and in a boring way. Speakers talked about cycling, running, and driving. I am sorry but that was neither inspiring nor interesting. I found them rather shallow and lacking depth and meaning. I had a feeling that people did not make an effort in self-presentation and did not work enough to make their speeches more interesting. They just showed up and did them.

I vividly remember the first time I attended a meeting in this club in January 2004, twenty years ago. It was a different standard: eloquent speakers in elegant clothes, interesting speeches. I was learning a lot just by attending the meeting.

I cannot help noticing that with the introduction of smartphones, tablets, and endless types of social media and messengers, also as a result of COVID-19, people changed. The main change I see is many people suffer from informational obesity. They consume plenty of information and do little with it; that in turn makes them lazier and unmotivated to do anything. The performance standards are dropped. Many are fooled that life is happening on Instagram.

My question is: where will it all end? The lazier and the less motivated people are the poorer they will become.

Where do we go from here? How do we meet new challenges and get out of this situation smelling of roses? My answer is conscious living coupled with self-motivation.
Firstly, I want to share with you my actions about how I manage my resources and space:

  1. Become conscious of time
    I record the time I spend on messengers and social media and limit it to a maximum of one hour a day. I know people can spend the entire day in messengers.

  2. Become conscious about information consumption
    Instead of watching and reading I produce blogs and YouTube videos and prepare speeches. In other words, produce myself.

  3. Become conscious about money and your space
    Recently I bought a wonderful teapot for just £10 in a second-hand shop. I felt lucky as in Harrods it would cost £300. Instead of consuming I declutter and make more space. They say the more things you have the more time you spend managing them.

Secondly, how can we motivate ourselves to achieve prosperity and happiness and live to our full potential? Here is what I want to practice:

  1. Keeping high standards of self-presentation and self-image

  2. Being active physically outdoors

  3. Listening to music that makes me move and do something

  4. Communicating with high-energy people

  5. Write down a list of tasks for each day to achieve my weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. Develop the muscles of doing as opposed to passive consumption.

I want to know how you motivate yourself.
Look forward to hearing from you

Yours
Olga Smith
www.batcsglobal.com

Are we born confident? If not, can we ever become truly confident?

We are born with a certain prevailing temperament:

There are four types of temperament:
1. Sanguine (optimistic, social, and associated with the element of air)
2. Melancholic (analytical, quiet, earth)
3. Choleric (short-tempered, irritable, fire)
4. Phlegmatic (relaxed, peaceful, water)

Some temperaments may appear to be stronger and therefore more confident.

Confidence is an action. When you were a little child you did not have the confidence to walk. After many tries and falls you have learned how to walk. Then you did not know how to lace up your shoes and your mom did for you, but then you learned how to do it.

If you want to develop confidence in a certain area just learn and practice to become confident at doing it. Confidence is not the same as perfection. You can do something confidently but not perfectly. For example, I was afraid to speak in public but after delivering 25 speeches I became confident at doing it. Now I can speak in front of a large audience.

I know people who are confident in business but lack confidence in romantic relationships. When they meet a woman they act like clueless geeks and cannot get anywhere with her. The reason for that is that they devote all their time to managing projects/people to achieve the bottom line by a deadline. Becoming confident in relationships requires different skills and practices: listening to and hearing your partner, studying what they like and do not like, and so on.

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How to achieve good, fluent, educated English?

Listen to good English speakers such as Boris Johnson, Stephen Fry, etc. Listen to their speeches and copy the way they speak. For example, Boris Johnson knows how he can deliver a strong message and be heard with the use of specific, powerful, and colourful adjectives and adverbs that add strength, meaning, and urgency:

"profoundly optimistic"
"insidiously programmed"
"a deep human instinct"
"astounding achievement"
"deeply and dangerously wrong"
"vital task"
"overriding anxiety"
”colossal character”

Read classics. References to classic literature will add depth to your words and meanings.

Read poetry. Reciting poetry will immensely enrich your vocabulary. I recommend that you memorise new words, phrases and metaphors in the context, then try to use them in your speech. Aesthetics, colourful language, compactness of expression, and the use of metaphor make poetry a source of interesting expressions.

Remember, how you say it is even more important than what you say. Modulate your voice, stress key messages, and use pauses this will help you to achieve good educated speech. ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
I also recommend the app Business English Speech. It contains 43 lessons from the book Get Rid of your Accent for Business, Part Three, ISBN 9780955330025. It works best with an accompanying video course. This app was designed for top-level professionals, diplomats and lawyers. With this app, you will practice sophisticated English expressions and RP.

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

How do I increase my confidence when I speak on stage?

There are several practical tools:

1.       When you walk to the stage breathe deeply, and walk at a normal pace with a straight back. Avoid rushing.

2.       Once you are on the stage smile and use open body language, open your hands, and greet the audience, again do not slouch, stay straight.

3.       Create eye contact with your audience. Here is some interesting advice from a popular performer: If you are a man look at women as if you want to have sex with every woman in the room.

4.       Start your speech with a loud voice; stress keywords and use pauses.

5.       Avoid rushed speech. Articulate well.

You can master these skills with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

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How effective are the accent reduction training programs?

The answer to this question depends on three factors:

  1. The teacher’s competence and work experience

  2. The student’s ability to hear the differences in sounds and the amount of time and effort he/she is putting into the accent reduction process

  3. The quality of training material: books, apps, video courses

Which teachers to choose?
Accent reduction should be taught by a qualified speech tutor (in the past speech tutors were called elocution teachers). A qualified speech tutor knows how sounds are produced in the mouth, the exact position of the tongue, lips and jaw for a particular sound. This is the key. To achieve the best results book a few elocution lessons.

What is expected of a student?
To reduce an accent one must substitute old habits of speaking with new ones which takes time and effort. It is a process. Usually, we recommend mastering a sound minimum for a week. Some sounds are easier and some may take longer to master. For example, /w/ sound does not exist in Russian. It is produced with lips going forward in a tight whistle and requires certain lip muscles. If the muscles are not trained it might take a while to train them to produce an energised /w/ sound. It’s a bit like going to the gym. If I tell you to go to the gym and come with a six-pack after one session you know that it will not happen. It is important to practice regularly, every day for 15-45 minutes rather than two hours once a week.

How to practice? Which books and apps to use?
I recommend that you download professional accent reduction apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English).
There is also an Elocution Lessons app to master essential English and a Business English Speech app that contains business vocabulary (both are for British English).
All the above apps have accompanying video courses, Get Rid of your Accent Part One and Get Rid of your Accent Part Two.

It is also a good idea to listen to good RP speakers, copy a section at a time, and record yourself.

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How to introduce a speaker

This blog post is useful for people who participate in public speaking events and social gatherings.
To introduce a speaker is a very important task. If you do it right you will make yourself popular.

  1. The main principle to follow is to showcase the speaker's best qualities and talk very highly of his/her achievements, mentioning their awards, work and other contributions. Do your homework and find out the facts about the speaker.

  2. Learn how to pronounce their name correctly and articulate it well when calling the person.

  3. When calling the presenter smile, use a loud voice and upward inflections because it will make you sound optimistic and energetic. Maintain a straight posture and good eye contact with the audience. When the presenter comes to the stage shake his/her hand and make eye contact with him/her.

  4. It would be fantastic to ask the audience to clap: “Let’s give a round of applause to our next speaker Simon Bird.”

  5. Stress the most important words by saying them louder.
    Below is an example of an introduction; I put the most important words in italic font:
    “It is a great owner to introduce our next speaker, Simon Bird. Simon has a Ph.D. in Politics and is a Nobel Prize winner. It is impossible to overestimate his contributions to human rights in this country. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give our warm welcome and a round of applause to Simon Bird!”

You can master the skills of presenting and more with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

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How do you deal with people who don't communicate directly ?

As Oscar Wilde once said: “The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.” In English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon culture people see directness as a form of aggression, and being polite is above being sincere. It is absolutely vital to pay attention to subtle details of communication. Learn and understand these subtleties if you would like to build good business and social connections.

I recommend the following instructions if you want to master the art of subtle communication:

Master your listening skills

  1. Create eye contact with a speaker and look at them with empathy and a smile. People relax when you smile at them

  2. Observe the way a person speaks. Namely intonation, tone of voice, speech speed, loudness, etc. You can learn more about it in the book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advance Level, and the apps Fluent English Speech and 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause

  3. Learn to read between the lines and pay close attention to words, voice, intonation, and facial expressions. Listen to the feelings and emotions behind words and voice, and respond to them appropriately

  4. Imagine that you are a psychotherapist who is talking to a patient and that you are paid for listening

  5. Allow a pause after what was said and connect with what was said

Work on your messages

  1. Substitute negative words with euphemisms, for example instead of saying “poor” say “not bad”, instead of saying “I disagree” say “maybe I understand it differently”, and so on

  2. Avoid giving orders, ask or request instead, for example, instead of saying “Do it!” say “Would you like to do it for me, please?”, and so on

  3. Use a friendly tone of voice and intonation even when speaking about something difficult. You can master it with the app ‎Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

I have lost all motivation and cannot bring myself to get anything done. What can I do?

Advice #1
Fall in love!
Fall in love with another person! Psychologists suggest that we humans are run by our libido.
Fall in love with a country! Start learning a new foreign language in order to feel comfortable in this country.
Fall in love with yourself!

Advice #2
Make a list of things to do every day. Start with doing very simple things: make your bed, clean your shoes, etc. After you have done simple things praise and reward yourself with something nice. Have a beautiful “me” time.

Advice #3
Do a full health check-up and make sure your health is ok. If necessary see a psycho-therapist as you might be suffering from depression and a good doctor will give medicine that can help you increase your serotonin level for example.

Advice#4
Start doing sports outdoors on a regular basis. It can be a power walk, a run or a stretch. Look at the sun and receive sun energy.

Advice#5
Make a list of things that will happen to you if you do not do anything. Imagine this picture vividly.
After that make a long list of things that you like about this world and life in general and go on a sea holiday for 7 days.

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What should I not do for mental peace?

  1. Don’t allow negative thoughts to control your emotions
    Be mindful. As soon as a negative thought enters your mind change it for a positive one and believe that good things will happen to you.

  2. Don’t allow negative information in your brain
    Stop listening to the news (they are mostly negative and you have no control over changing them); avoid negative people and do not listen to them; avoid negativity on social media.

  3. Don’t compare yourself with others
    Nowadays people are victims of clever marketing that makes them think they are not good enough unless they have a perfect face, a perfect body, perfect teeth, hair, etc. We have models like Kim Kardashian who helps big businesses to sell these fake ideals. Just know that you are unique and that is very precious and beautiful in itself.

  4. Don’t just dream, think, or hope
    Act and make things happen. Educate yourself constantly and work all your life.

  5. Don’t rush yourself
    If you rush too much you get stress instead of peace.

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Be in control and exude authority

Good barristers, politicians and business leaders sound confident, in control and have authority in their speech and voice. Can it be mastered? Yes, and I will explain how.

First of all, in order to achieve authority in your voice be in control of your breathing. Good breath control will bring energy to your voice.

Secondly, good articulation will help you sound clear, more energised and powerful. You can master it with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 (British English) or ‎American Accent App (American English).‎

Thirdly, avoid sounding monotonous and saying everything on one level of pitch. Change the pitch, power and pace according to the emotion/meaning of a particular message. We can recommend the app 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause if you want to learn and practice this technique.

To achieve authority, speak in a straightforward way and stress the key messages. To make the keywords stand out use a louder or quieter voice (depending on the meaning). Raise the inflection when saying keywords and vice versa, use downward inflection with unstressed words. Learn more about inflecltion and sentence stress in the apps ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or Fluent American Speech (American English).

Finally, think about physicality and be well in control of your posture and gestures. Have a good straight posture and gestures that support your messages.

What is the best way to practice it? Listen to speakers like Winston Churchill. Watch courtroom dramas and note how effective barristers speak. Here is a practical exercise for you:

  1. Read a speech out loud and record yourself.

  2. Underline stresses keywords and mark pauses in the printed copy of the speech. You can learn how to do it right with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

  3. Read the speech again and record yourself. If necessary repeat this exercise a few times.

If you need help book a few elocution lessons.

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Impact of modern technology on our ability to communicate in person

I believe that since the introduction of smartphones and messengers like Whats Up, Viber, and others people prefer to text and send images rather than speak.

It has both advantages and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is speed and convenience. The disadvantages are that people lose the art of communicating in person and do not know how to enjoy it. They lose their confidence when they have to communicate in person. These people are at a disadvantage in moving forward in their careers. Successful salespeople, CEOs, MDs, and top Politicians must have amazing in-person communication skills.

To master communication in person I recommend:

  1. Learning to speak clearly

  2. Learning to communicate not only thoughts but also emotions and feelings

  3. Learning to use non-verbal messages, such as eye contact, posture and hand gestures to support your verbal messages

Many students who take our elocution lessons often tell us that they want to become confident communicators. Feeling confident is expressed by your body language, voice and words.

I recommend apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause if you wnat to master your communication in person.

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

Android Apps to master English speech

British English:

Elocution Lessons - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal for children and people who just started learning English. This app has 48 lessons. It contains short, commonly used phrases, sentences and verses that are easy to repeat and it also has useful tips for teachers of English. It is actually useful for everyone as it contains essential, everyday English.

Get Rid of Your Accent - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of a regional or foreign accent and to speak with Standard English or RP (Received Pronunciation). It has 42 lessons; it contains effective practical exercises to perfect all English sounds and perfect your articulation.

Fluent English Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app is a follow-up to the Get Rid of your Accent app.  It is ideal if you want to develop fluency in English and sound more like a native English speaker. It contains exercises for difficult and connected speech patterns, natural flow of speech, intonation, sentence stress and onomatopoeia. 

Business English Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app was designed for top-level professionals, diplomats and lawyers. It is the only app on the market that has both English pronunciation and business vocabulary training. It contains 43 lessons with material gathered from interviews with CEOs, CFOs and MDs of global companies and helps to develop proficiency in English.

Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of monotonous speech and become a successful presenter and public speaker. It contains practical exercises for voice modulation and the use of pauses.

Get Rid of Chinese Accent - Apps on Google Play
This app is the same as the app Get Rid of your Accent with an additional bonus - Chinese translations.

General American English:

American Accent App - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of a foreign or regional accent and master Standard American accent. It has 42 lessons. It contains effective practical exercises to perfect all American English sounds.

Fluent American Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app is a follow-up to the American Accent App. It is ideal to develop fluency in your American English speech. It contains exercises for difficult and connected speech patterns, natural flow of speech, intonation and sentence stress

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How can I defend myself if I am being roasted?

Deal with people who challenge you immediately. You might have people around you who cross your boundaries and act in a disrespectful way towards you. Do not bend, stick to your values. Challenge them back by saying immediately (not after 5 minutes, an hour, a day, or a week): ”I feel you do not respect me and I am not prepared to continue this way.”
Express your feelings without judging others. When I was a child, I was too shy to do that and felt like a victim who could not stand for her corner. Thanks to my father I developed the gear to confront people who cross my boundaries immediately.

If you have the courage to confront the bully immediately you will kill two birds with one stone: protect yourself and help the bully to stop. Bullies when not stopped go into the rush and get high on the domination drug.

People are very different. Some people have higher energetic levels and strong leadership skills and they know how to manipulate others. There are people who allow others to control and manipulate them. Why? There are secondary benefits of acting this way: if you allow others to control and manipulate you, you are not responsible, you can blame others for what happened to you and do nothing. This is the reason why victims often choose to be victims - they can do nothing and just put all the blame on the abuser. Then they have the masochistic pleasure of feeling pain and feeling sorry for themselves. Ask yourself a question: What are my secondary benefits for me if I do not deal with people who roast me? It could be keeping the status quo. You need to go deeper and ask why you need to keep this status. Maybe this status allows you to not challenge yourself and go the extra mile to defend your boundaries. A few sessions with a life coach might help you to discover your secondary benefits.

I recommend working on your confidence. Develop a straight posture and open body language. Master your speech, namely voice projection and articulation. It will help you to have authority and power in your voice and you will be perceived as a confident person. You can do it with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

If you look and sound confident people will not attempt to roast you because bullies are looking for people who lack confidence and who cannot reply to them.

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6 practical tools to develop confidence

I have studied this subject for a while, experimented, and observed myself and other people in different situations. I embodied them myself and that became a game changer for me.

I will share my findings about mastering self-confidence with you.

#1 Confidence is not a feeling. Confidence is an action
The more attempts and actions you made the more confident you will become at whatever you do. If you want to feel confident in public speaking deliver as many public speeches as possible to become confident at it. You can learn and then master public speaking with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

#2 Be persistent
Confidence cannot be developed overnight. It is a process of learning and repetition. In order to build confidence in a particular area of your life take consistent  steps toward mastery regularly. Do not allow big time gaps. If you do something once a month you will not become confident doing it. If you persist, then you will eventually achieve success.

#3 Do not get discouraged by failures
A road to mastery is not possible without failures. Admit this fact and treat each failure as a valuable lesson.

#4 Develop your values and stick to them
A person who has values has a foundation to stand on. If people try to make you compromise your values acknowledge that and say “no” to them. Do not betray your values.

#5 Take decisions confidently
In order to take decisions confidently first check your values and make sure your decision does not contradict them; secondly weigh up the pros and cons of taking the decision and not taking the decision; last but not least check your intuition. A good decision is one that is confirmed by your intuition, mind and heart.

#6 Be brave and do not hesitate
Allowing fear and hesitation to control you is a dead end. Fear will not allow you to act. Instead, be brave and act.

If you follow these techniques, you will have confidence that is manifested in high self-worth and actions leading to others respecting you.

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Stop sounding boring and depressing!

A good many of our students are high achievers and they want their speech to be sharp as a sword with which they conquer the world. They take our elocution lessons in order to feel confident to:
- run meetings,
- speak in front of a large international audience
- present sales pitches,
- dominate in political debates,
- speak in the High Court of Justice,
- create educational video courses in the world's top universities, and so on.

In other words, they want people to listen to them.

We first work on the clarity of their speech and help them master RP (Received Pronunciation, actors master RP in drama schools in order to play upper-class characters in classic plays).

However, intonation and inflection are even more important if you want to sound interesting so that others enjoy listening to you.
Here is just one example of how different patterns of inflection can be used.
Most of the time we would use a simple falling inflection at the end of a sentence. Within a sentence that has separate phrases, we would use a rising inflection at the end of each phrase and finish the sentence with a falling inflection. Here are a couple of examples:
“The plane, which is flying to America, was delayed.”
”The giant, who was called Bill, was very frightening.”

Using rising inflection where appropriate will make the speech much more interesting.

Usually, people sound really boring and even depressing if they constantly use simple falling inflection. What I have noticed is that often people from a particular culture have a habit of using simple falling most of the time (for example, in an authoritarian culture like Russia). When I asked them to say something in a different way (with simple rising inflection or circumflex rising) they told me they felt unnatural. Indeed, our intonation and inflection are influenced by the environment we grew up in. Often we outgrow or change our childhood environment and lift ourselves to the next level. Therefore, one might ask: is the way I speak fitting my current environment?

When we record our students’ speech they are often shocked to hear the way they sound. They want to do exercises that can help them sound more interesting.

I would like to share these exercises with you.
1. Listen to good RP speakers; a small section at a time, a minute long or less
2. Analysie their inflection and make a note of when it rises and when it falls
3. Copy them

To get rid of constantly using simple falling use this simple exercise: instead of telling people what to do ask them to do it, and instead of demanding ask for a favour. When we ask a question our inflection rises.

It will also be useful to get rid of negative words in your vocabulary. Think about how you can avoid sounding negative. For example, instead of saying "We had another slow day", just say what happened: "Today our sales reached the same levels as yesterday".

You can learn and practise intonation/inflection and voice modulation with the apps Fluent English Speech and  Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause. The functionality of the app where you can listen, repeat and compare is perfect for mastering the intonation.

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How can I enhance communication skills and foster solid interpersonal connections?

Interpersonal connections may be based on:

  1. Business interests

  2. Personal interests

It proved quite tricky to combine the two, however, there are cases when business and personal interests work well together.

I have analysed my friends with fantastic interpersonal skills and they have two things in common: they are positive and have empathy.

Communication skills are mastered our entire lives. There is always room for improvement if we want to foster solid interpersonal connections.

There are common rules that can help you do that if you observe them.

  1. Develop a genuine and sincere interest in another person. Try to understand what they want. Look a little further and dig a little deeper. Often an overconfident pushy person is hiding insecurities and a shy introvert may turn out to be a tower of strengths. Pay attention to details as the truth usually leaks through tiny details.

  2. When interacting smile, people like that.

  3. Communicate clearly and take into account your interests and the interests of others to reach a win-win scenario.

  4. Be honest in a diplomatic way.

  5. Think long-term when it comes to building relationships.

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Tips to improve public speaking skills and boost confidence

You can boost your confidence by realising that you are a unique human being and that your contribution to this world is welcomed. What you do and say matters and has value. Do not try to copy others, develop your own style, have fun and be happy.

What I have noticed is that people who lack confidence are not happy with their own physical appearance. Such people are often victims of the beauty industry and spend a fortune on plastic surgery and procedures.

By daring to be your natural self, having a haircut that you fancy but that may be not in fashion and clothes that others might find odd looking will boost your confidence; it will shout out “I don’t care what you think of me”.

Secondly, educate yourself and master the skills that you want to have and that might be of value to others. Monetise these skills and become prosperous. Money is a huge confidence booster.

To become a good public speaker work on straight posture, correct breathing, speech, voice, use of gestures, and visual aids to boost your presentations.

Here are a few public speaking tips :
1. Practise articulation exercises regularly. This will help you to have clear and crisp speech

2. Use pauses. It is one of the most effective means in public speaking; it separates ideas, creates a dramatic effect, creates anticipation and so much more.

3. Stress key messages. This technique helps to make your speech easy to listen to

How can I become better at small talk?

Small talk has three main purposes:

  1. It helps to break the ice and create a friendly atmosphere

  2. It is a great opportunity to size up the other person

  3. It is an opportunity to showcase your personality and social status in a subtle way

What can be discussed during a small talk? I would suggest something general, positive and relevant to the situation you are in. The topics of small talk could be weather, holidays, school, university, places, sports, music, art, shopping, etc.

What topics should be avoided during small talk? Topics that are controversial and those that might embarrass, offend or make people feel uncomfortable. Definitely religion, politics, and very private/personal things. Avoid talking about wars, your political preferences, judging people from different religions and cultural backgrounds, your diseases and sex life.

To get better at small talk I recommend that you smile and connect to a person on an emotional level by being understanding and sympathetic This will help another person feel comfortable and safe.

Another thing you can do is adjust yourself to another person and create a rapport. For example, if you are a PhD in Quantum Physics and you talk to a builder may be the topic of your dissertation is not the best way to break the ice! What would work better when you talk to a person try to find some common ground sport for example. Or, if you see that the other person looks very sad your laughter and a smile would feel odd. Perhaps, a neutral expression would work better. Be sensitive to people’s needs and feelings.

I recommend not rushing your speech and allowing space for pauses to make the talk relaxed and pleasant. Do not interrupt the other person, instead listen with full attention and nod along when appropriate. Connect with what was said and continue by saying something to support the other person.

Avoid arguing, and try not to appear superior. Let the other person shine.

How can you showcase yourself during the small talk? First of all by the way you speak and listen. If you boast and interrupt others it can only show a lack of manners. If your speech is bare and primitive that might imply a lack of education. People will understand that you have been properly educated if you use a rich vocabulary.

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