The speech coaching process - and you!

Have you ever wondered what happens during speech coaching?

It starts with goal-setting. What do you want to be able to do differently by the end of the process? Some clients want to pronounce American English more clearly, due to either a strong foreign or regional accent. Listeners have trouble understanding them, they report.

Other clients want to be able to speak more effectively at a department meeting, or to give a business or scientific presentation better.

Some clients want help to learn to speak slower, or to be more effective leaders. Others want help learning non-verbal communication, how to make "small talk" or how to speak more concisely, as their supervisor is requesting.

Others have different requests involving verbal communication.

After goal-setting, your communication will be assessed, and then customized training will be developed.

Coaching may take place in small groups, be done individually, or sometimes online. Concise e-books filled with practical tips are also available.

Clients comment that the speech coaching they received made a difference; they reported feeling more self-confident, were delighted that others understood them more easily, or did better with their careers. 

Better speech can have a big impact!

Learn more about Business Speech Improvement's speech coaching options now!

Top Nine Peeves about How Businesses Answer Their Telephones

A LinkedIn group of business professionals was asked for their "pet peeve" on how telephones are answered. Eighty-five responses came in, very quickly.

Pet peeve #9: Reaching a recording that repeats, "Your call is very important to us. We will be with you shortly". The caller was reportedly placed on hold for 45 minutes.

Pet peeve #8: The business associate who answers the call sounds irritated at being interrupted by a call, and is perceived as being disrespectful to the caller

Pet peeve #8 (a tie with the one above): When the company representative says, "Would you please hold?", and without giving the caller a chance to say anything, immediately puts him or her on hold.

Pet peeve #6:  Employee who answers a call with a script and sounds fake and excessively polite

Pet peeve #5: Answering the telephone without saying the name of the business and the employee's name

Pet peeve #4: Answering the telephone with very long scripted greetings instead of just the essentials (see # 6 above)

Pet peeve #3: Answering the telephone using a speaker phone

Pet peeve #1 (tied with the one below): When the company employee's English pronunciation is difficult to understand on the telephone and also may not understand the caller's questions.

Pet peeve #1: When the American-born customer service rep answers the telephone so fast and mumbles so that the caller cannot easily understand the greeting. The customer service rep has said this greeting hundreds of times, but it may be the customer's first time to hear it.

Customers in the USA are more diverse than ever, coming from many nations, may have a hearing loss or be speaking to you in a noisy place. Clear speech is crucial for your customers!

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching in verbal skills, including professional telephone skills for understanding callers with strong accents. Check out your options now; one seminar is closing enrollment soon!

Non-verbal business communication skills

Only 7% of your business communication is conveyed through your words, according to a famous study by Albert Mehrabian, PhD. The rest is conveyed through a combination of your eye contact, facial expressions, and tone of voice. 

Do you have trouble making consistent eye contact, smiling and sounding friendly at  appropriate times, and using gestures to improve your communication, when necessary? Is your voice loud enough, but not too loud?

Start by asking your colleagues and friends for feedback on these issues,  as they are aware of your verbal image most likely. Choose one  goal at the time to work on. Decide when the behavior is done best, and when it is most difficult to achieve. 

These behaviors can be affected by certain cultural beliefs. Ask people who are of your culture, and of the majority culture, to judge whether your behaviors are appropriate.

Business Speech Improvement provides coaching in business communication, including non-verbal skills, accent modification, presentation skills, diction, and more. Click here to learn more about these services!

Speech coaching: by the hour or by the day?

Many people who want to improve their verbal skills, such as foreign-born professionals working in the USA,  ask if they should have a one hour lesson weekly, or do it in full day sessions. In general, full day sessions work very well. Here's why.

In full day sessions, you get the equivalent of 7-8 lessons in one day. Faster progress can be made this way. There is also less time wasted on traffic, and practice is done under the instructor's supervision. For people who are very busy or less motivated, there are very few reasons to cancel the class, if it is all done in full-day sessions.

Professionals from other countries who are in the USA for a short visit especially benefit from this intensive schedule. If they schedule the coaching before corporate events in the USA, their communication will be easier for others to understand.

Some people want to practice between lessons. If it is a public speaking class and students need to write new speeches between the sessions, that may be a valid reason.

Most learners, though, appreciate having the intensive instruction. Some courses also offer a follow-up plan, for skill maintenance. Depending on the seminar, this follow-up can be done on the telephone,  online, or in some other way.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive speech coaching on American English pronunciation improvement for non-native professionals, diction coaching for native speakers, instruction on how to speak slower, presentation skills,  and other topics. Get the details  and enroll online here!

ADHD in the Workplace and Communication Challenges

Do you struggle with ADHD at work and notice you have some communication challenges, or do you have employees with ADHD?

Here are some common challenges relating to communication experienced by adults (including professionals) who have ADHD.

The first is impaired executive functioning: the ability to plan and implement actions. This ability, found in the frontal lobe, allows people to prioritize and

handle complex actions, such as scheduling and much more. More information can be found at http://www.help4adhd.org/living/workplace/wwk16.

Corporate speech pathologists and others now work with people who have difficulty with executive functioning. For example, if getting out of the house on time is the issue, clients can be taught how to develop a more effective schedule and consider the most common reasons they can side-tracked or delayed.

Distractibility, due to noises or visual stimuli, is another issue, and can affect planning and implementing. What distractions can you eliminate or cover up, with a white noise machine or headphones, for example?

Speech rates can be rapid in some people, to the point where others have difficulty understanding them. Some medications also increase speech rate as a side effect, so if your speech rate changes significantly during the day, check the side effects of any medication you are on. If you think the medication is causing the rapid rate of speech, talk to your physician.

Other speech and language issues may co-exist, but not be directly caused by ADHD. For example, central auditory processing impairments may  make understanding messages more difficult even though there is no hearing loss.

Pragmatics, or social language skills, such as knowing how to engage in small talk, start a conversation or end one, may also be difficult for some people.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive, customized coaching  on communication improvement in the workplace. E-books are available as well. Great speech makes business sense!

Rate of speech: Going Too Fast Actually Takes Longer

Two salespeople left me messages today, ones that I actually wanted to hear. Both sounded like they are experienced salespeople, but clearly neither one had considered a problem with their verbal image.

When they left me voice mail messages, they said their telephone numbers at a very fast rate.

It takes longer to write down a telephone number than to say it. People can talk faster than they can write.

When leaving a telephone number for someone else, write it on paper or in the air as you speak; this will give you the correct rate of speech. If you go very fast, because clearly you know your own telephone number, your listener may have to replay the message repeatedly to make sure he has it written down correctly. This is not good for your verbal image; it also is not good for a possible sale!

Yes, many of us have caller ID, but sometimes we want to called at a different telephone number, such as a cell phone number, an 800 number if it's a business incoming call, or some other phone number.

Saying your telephone number clearly and slowly is crucial - even if you are in a hurry.

Do you normally speak quickly? Business Speech Improvement offers an e-book of practical tips:  How to Speak Slowly in Six Steps.      Speech rate coaching for speedy speakers who want to slow down and need help is also available.

Speech improvement: "Why doesn't my speech improve when I work on it by myself?"

As a speech coach, I get this question often.

A person decides to change some aspect of his speech. He tries to say a word differently, and sometimes sounds better. Then when he has a conversation, he sounds like he always does.

Does this sound familiar?

Here's what's wrong with this approach. A baby does not go directly from babbling to having a conversation, and neither should anyone else changing his speech.

Instead, make sure you are working on the right skills to change your speech.

(Many people don't know exactly what to change.) Then practice the skill in the same sequence as when you learned to talk: sounds, words, sentences, short and longer conversations. (Reading aloud can fit in well before conversations.) Over-practice each step, and listen to yourself on a recording, to make sure the skill is truly learned well.

How does having a speech coach help?  An expert speech coach knows  the right skills you need to develop, uses correct exercises to do it efficiently, and gives you sufficient feedback on how well you are doing. A speech coach has the expertise to get you through the process as efficiently as possible, so you don't waste time and effort,  and has the experience to know alternatives to use when needed.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive speech coaching, customized to your specific needs.  If your own efforts to improve your speech didn't work, visit Business Speech Improvement for expert help!

American Slang and Idiomatic Expressions: Between the Insiders and Everyone Else

Have you ever wondered what a group of people was talking about? The words did not seem to fit their literal meaning. "What's up, man?" ,"Sorry, Charlie!" ,  "Bless your heart", "Table it!", and "Mash it" are all examples.

Idioms and slang are ways we distinguish between linguistic insiders and outsiders of a group. For those on the outside,  and that can be people new to English, new to a community, or new to a small work group, there are such things as idiom dictionaries, which are free and online. Although not all slang is included, it's worth checking to see if a particular expression is included. One we recommend is http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/. Note, though, that this covers slang from the UK as well as the USA; be sure to check the location where a given expression is used.

Sometimes the meaning of the expression varies depending on the person's tone of voice, as in the expression "Bless your heart". In that case, it can mean a sarcastic "you poor thing" (with the sarcasm showing the person means the opposite of that) or "you did something wonderful".

Sometimes the expressions are regional or even local, with outsiders left to wonder the true meaning.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching in American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals, and includes coaching in the use of idioms if requested.

Social Skills in the Workplace

A manager came up to me at an event , and told me he had a quandary.

He had a number of highly technically qualified employees who had contact with the public and also had poor social skills. He asked me if help was available.  The answer was a qualified "yes", if the employees knew they had a problem with this and if they truly wanted the help. The amount they would benefit would depend on these two factors,  their willingness to put the skills to work, and some support from an onsite mentor in addition to an outside coach.

What are some of the social skills we are talking about? They would include tone of voice, eye contact, greeting others, knowing how to start, continue, join and end a conversation, awareness of how to  talk with a customer, colleague and supervisor, how to phrase negative messages positively,  how to understand the company culture, and more.

For example, in your office, who makes the coffee, if there is any, and cleans the coffee maker? Does everyone take a turn bringing in baked goodies? Who helps out colleagues who need assistance, or volunteers for specific tasks?

Who is to attend various meetings, and who speaks at them? Who is a leader in your department, even though he or she may not have the title? (That person may have influence over decisions, and knowledge of people and processes.) How do you handle workplace conflicts fairly and appropriately? Should you call your supervisor by his first name, or more formally by his title and last name (eg, Mr. Smith, Dr. Jones)?

Social skills are related to emotional intelligence, or EI.  EI involves understanding your own and others' emotions, and acting on them appropriately.  Social skills involve being aware of how your actions impact your own and others' perceptions of you. Most social skills involve verbal or non-verbal communication.

What can be done to help people improve their social skills at work? The process starts with the supervisor and employee completing questionnaires to determine the areas of concern, and then individual coaching to address those areas.

Business Speech Improvement provides communication skills coaching to adults in the workforce.

It also offers an e-book, Small Talk:Connecting with Others, which is packed with specific techniques, for those whose primary concern is this particular skill.

Performance appraisal: solutions for poor verbal skills

Are you a manager who is working on performance appraisals now, or dreading them in the future? One of the toughest training decisions a manager can make is how to help genuinely talented employees who struggle with a skill set such as communication.

The first step is to be clear about the skill that needs to be improved, and how it impacts the individual's career progress. List a few examples of what the employee said that were incorrect. How does this impact the employee and company?

There are several basic options for improvement:  e-books, books,  mp3 files,  online webinars, and coaching (individual, small group and online).

To change communication skills, the person needs practice and expert feedback. While e-books, books, mp3 files and online webinars are economical ways to impart knowledge, which is good, usually skill practice with a coach is necessary. The feedback provided by the instructor is also vital to determine if the skill was done correctly.

If your employee needs to improve his or her pronunciation, speech rate, telephone skills,  presentation skills, communication skills for leadership, or other verbal skills, Business Speech Improvement offers a wide variety of options. The training is intensive and customized, designed for each learner.

When training is done intensively, less review time is needed because lessons quickly build on each other and there is less time to forget! Employees seem to stay more engaged in their learning, and there are few excuses to skip a session. Little or no travel time is also required, beyond arriving in the first place.

A seminar on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is now enrolling learners.

Past learners have been amazed at how much they've learned in a mere three days!

As one person mentioned, "I want to speak better - but I don't know how."

Business Speech Improvement  provides that intensive guidance to better speech! Visit us to check out the options today!

Worried about your communication skills affecting your job performance?

The telephone rang at Business Speech Improvement with a call from a person I'll call "Pat".  "I really want to improve my speech so I can get promoted."  Another call came from "Bob" (a pseudonym). "My assistant is great, but customers say she's so hard to understand, especially on the telephone.

Do you, too, see the connection between your (or your employee's) speech and job performance?

The first thing you need to do in this situation is to write down examples of exactly what you want to improve. Is the concern due to mispronunciations of various words, and if so, what are they? Is a fast rate of speech, or tone of voice, part of the problem? Maybe the primary issue is giving a presentation in front of  your supervisor or a client. Is the concern due to a regional accent, sometimes called "country speech"? Does the problem occur all the time, only when you are nervous or speaking to a certain type of person or group?

Then, decide how you want to get training. Do you want to get help through in-person or online coaching? These would give you helpful feedback and customized exercises for your specific needs. Another option is inexpensive e-books on communication, which give practical exercises and are available 24/7.

 Business Speech Improvement offers some small group in-person seminars, too; one on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is enrolling learners now. This is a three day intensive, customized seminar with  a follow-up plan.  Get  the help that you, specifically, need, in a small group environment. Time is included so you can practice some of the words you use at your job! Check it out now and find out how past learners felt about this seminar!

Great speech makes business sense; enroll in the seminar or coaching program of your choice and take the first step today!

Offering foreign accent modification training to staff in the USA

The scenario goes like this. An employer hears about the availability of foreign accent modification training for his employees. He thinks about several of them who could certainly use it. Then he worries about either offending them and discriminating against them. The international employee, meanwhile, struggles to improve his American English pronunciation. He worries, too - about the puzzled looks on his listeners' faces, about his career growth and sometimes whether he will be kept on as an employee in the company. He wonders why his employer doesn't offer this training to him, like many employers do in other countries. As one employee told me, "I looked for this training for years on my own. When it suddenly appeared as being available on my computer at work, I immediately applied. I was lucky, and got in the class." The two different viewpoints are because Americans are often more individualistic, and think of their own career growth. We worry about offending others. In other countries, employees focus more on the growth and productivity of the work unit and company. Anything that can help that growth, such as American English pronunciation training for non-native professionals, is worth doing. When employees communicate better, they can contribute more, and more easily. So how does an American employer offer this training without offending a valued employee? Companies often try one of two approaches. First, the training can be offered as optional, fitting in a category of communication courses that are part of the number of mandatory hours of training per year. Two companies that did this reported considerable interest. As employees were self-selected, they were more motivated. A second approach is more directed. At a performance evaluation, explain the problem and the effect on the bottom line. Offer the training at that time, explaining clearly because you care about the valuable employee and his growth. Great speech makes business sense! Business Speech Improvement offers many types of verbal skills training. Training is offered through individual and small group seminars as well as e-books. The company is now located in Durham, NC.

How people can learn to speak American English more clearly - in only three days

People in the corporate world from other countries may want to learn to speak American English more clearly - and fast. Possibly they are going to a meeting in the USA, or to give a presentation there. People in the Raleigh-Durham area of N. Carolina (USA) will now have the chance to experience this. Business Speech Improvement will soon be moving there! The first step, as in solving any problem, is to determine what needs to be changed. What sounds are mispronounced? How are the rate of speech and the intonation pattern (how the voice goes up and down for questions, excitement, etc)? An expert corporate speech pathologist has years of experience and education to determine this quickly. Certain sounds are easier to change than others are. A customized plan is designed, considering the difficulty level of the specific sounds, which may have to do with where the errors are being made, the person's native language patterns and other factors. Finally, the training can start. Using the customized plan for each learner, the group learns the process of change and specific exercises needed to make the sounds correctly. Each learner receives a lot of feedback, to give him knowledge and confidence. Throughout the process, each learner has practice in rating his own attempts, so he can later judge his speech patterns accurately. Finally, when many new sounds have been mastered, learners practice on simulations of their own work situations, such as doing an interview, giving a lecture, making telephone calls or a business presentation. Doing this intensive process for eight hours a day, with frequent feedback and a variety of exercises, has helped many people make real progress. As a satisfied client, an engineer, reported, "Our speech, like our products, should be right - the first time!" People wanting to enroll in the small group and individual coaching programs offered by Business Speech Improvement should visit here. For those living elsewhere, click here for information about our e-books and mp3 files. Training in other speech topics is also available.