Communication Coaching
It’s not always easy to say what’s on your mind, and sometimes maybe it’s too easy. It just plops out without any filter. A modulation somewhere between both ends of that spectrum is most constructive and effective, and it can be learned. It takes knowledge and practice. It also requires taking a chance on yourself so that you can feel better understood, which results in you understanding others better as well.
Taking Chances
How many times have you had something to say and not said it? Why did you hold back? It’s important to analyze this behavior, because that’s what it is, a behavior, and it’s a learned behavior. It’s not hard to fix. You’ll need to start noticing it, documenting when it happens and what you wanted to say. What’s the pattern? Then, and this part is not easy but imperative, you need to start breaking that pattern.
Speaking Up & Speaking Out
You want to sound impressive when you speak, or write, right? You want to make a good impression, a lasting one, and maybe even an impact on the listeners or readers. But you feel like you don’t. Impactful albeit genuine expression does not happen naturally. Such exquisite expression is a learned skill. Both speaking and writing are learned communication skills that can always, for our entire lives, be improved upon. For one thing, the world keeps changing the avenues of communication, but we also can get communicatively rusty if we aren’t using our skills, especially depending on the environment. Effective expression can be learned and relearned, and needs to be.
Effective Expression
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”
— Georgia O’Keefe
Georgia O’Keefe communicated her depth through her paintings, but it’s hard to believe she was ever afraid of anything let alone terrified. She wasn’t any different than the rest of us.