Speak too fast?

One of the most common complaints about a speaker is that he or she speaks too fast, and can't be easily understood. Speech rate can be influenced by many factors, from the rate of the general culture (such as NYC) to a person's health status.

Speak slower! Speech Rate Reduction is an intensive one day workshop offered Friday, July 9th in Chattanooga, TN. It includes work-related speech simulations. This course is not suitable for people with such disorders as Parkinson's or other neurological issues. For more information, visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes and scroll down to "speech rate and timing".

Checklist for assessming your company's communication skills

How well do your employees communicate? Poor communication can turn away prospective customers, frustrate employees, and cost your bottom line.

Rate your company's communication skills!

Check any statement that applies to your company. For some items, you may need to call the company from the outside and pose as a prospective customer or employee.

______1. Employees who are foreign-born and whose pronunciation is difficult to understand at times have all been offered speech training by the company.
The company understands this training can increase communicative efficiency and is very supportive to the employee's career growth.

______2. Local employees can all be clearly understood on the telephone and in presentations to people from other parts of the country.

______3. Employees who give presentations know how to prepare and deliver them effectively.

______4. Managers all have high levels of professionalism in their listening skills, and understand different communication styles.

______5. Sales staff and front desk staff have excellent skills in making small talk with prospective customers and others.

______6. Brainstorming sessions actually result in many new, applicable ideas.

______7. Employees consistently answer the telephone with a cheerful greeting, which is clearly pronounced and easily understood by a prospective customer.

______8. Employees all use standard grammar in speaking and writing, which promotes the company's professionalism.

______9. Employees can all state why their work is important to the company's mission or purpose.

______10. On performance appraisals, all employees receive acceptable ratings on their communication skills.

Key: For each missed area, visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com to learn about available coaching . Concise, practical e-books are also available at www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com/ebooks.

Executive Presence: What Is it?

When you see a stranger coming into your company, at a meeting elsewhere, or even in a nice restaurant, what tells you that he or she is an executive? Is it well tailored and expensive clothes, elegant accessories, posture, diction, a commanding tone of voice, something else, or a combination of these?

Business Speech Improvement is conducting an informal survey of readers. Please answer the question and share your ideas!

Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) provides intensive, customized training in executive communication skills, accent modification, professional diction, sales communication, presentation skills and more! Both group and individual coaching are available.

Business Speech : Persuasion

Whether your job title is manager, CEO, recruiter, therapist, or something else, you may do a lot of persuading in your job. How successful you are depends in part on two skills.

The first is your grasp of what someone terms "radio station WIIFM", or "what's in it for me".
Do you emphasize the benefits that will appeal to the other person first? For example, if you are recruiting someone, do you ask "what are you looking for in a position?" and then mention those benefits first? If you are persuading your boss, do you consider his priorities, whether increased speed or decreased costs?

The second skill is your ability to do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. If you set a deadline of getting back to someone by 4 PM on Wednesday, do you do it, or call the person to explain the problem and set a new deadline? Ignoring your own promises teaches others not to trust your word.

Business Speech Improvement provides Executive Communication Coaching and Sales Communication Training. Both are available for groups and individuals. More information is available at http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes.

Rate of speech: way too fast!

A common complaint about some speakers is that they talk too fast. Listeners are left lying in the dust, figuratively, trying to understand these speakers. By the time the listeners figure out the speakers' message, the speakers are two topics ahead.

Speech rates varies in different parts of the US. New York City, for example, has a very fast rate of speech, while in some parts of the Deep South, it is much slower. A telephone customer service agent in NYC would be well-advised to slow his rate when speaking to a customer from many places in Mississippi or Georgia, for example.

Speech rate also varies with urgency, or in some cases, self-confidence. A person with low self-confidence may be worried someone else will not have patience to listen to him, so the speaker will talk faster.

A slower speech rate should be used when the subject is technical or complicated, such as when an engineer is explaining a complex problem to a customer who is in another field of expertise.

Speech rate can be overly fast due to certain speech or neurological disorders, and may be the first or most obvious symptom of them.

Easy things a listener can do to help a fast speaker are to show he has the interest and patience to listen. Sit down and give the fast speaker your full attention. If that is not enough, speak slowly yourself, to give the fast speaker a non-verbal signal to slow down. (Speaking slowly on an outgoing message for a phone often is very effective at slowing incoming speakers' rates, so you can understand them!) Lastly, you can directly ask the speaker to slow down, and explain whatever you did not understand.

Business Speech Improvement (www.businessspeechimprovement.com) provides intensive training in slowing speech rates..It also publishes an e-book, "How to speak slower in six simple steps", available at http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts ./category.pl?EBooks .

How to ask the right types of questions when coaching

Coaching employees in your workforce is a way to improve their growth and development. Coaches who ask the right kinds of questions can improve critical thinking skills in their employees, and help them to consider more aspects of their work.

There are three types of questions to ask, closed-ended, open-ended and behavioral questions.
Closed-ended questions have two possible answers, such as "Do you have all the materials you need?" They are best for the beginning of the interview, to relax a nervous employee, and for when you need to take control of the situation (with an employee who rambles, for example).

Open-ended questions allow for many possible answers, and may start with when, how, in what ways, under what conditions, and many other terms. Examples might be "What do you suggest comes next?" and "How would you analyze this situation's strengths and weaknesses?"

Behavioral questions ask how a person handled a situation in the past, the outcome and what he would change if it occurred again (or what he learned).

When asking open and behavioral questions, it is very helpful if the coach waits a few seconds after the person has finished answering, to allow time for additional responses.

Business Speech Improvement provides training in Executive Communication Skills, on both an individual and small group basis. For more imformation, visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes .

Body Language and Caring

Do you really care about your employees and your work? If the answer is "yes", would people know that by watching your body language? I recently took 4 flights. On three of them, the flight attendants routinely (and boringly) gave the safety instructions, but looked at the passengers when speaking. On the 4th flight, the attendant recited the correct talk but looked out the window or at her lap the entire time. She appeared not to even care about what she was saying. If she didn't care, why should we, the passengers?

As a manager or leader, your body language is closely studied by your employees to determine whether you are satisfied, in a good mood, or otherwise approachable. Are you conveying positive or negative body language?

Executive Communication Coaching is a one day intensive seminar to be taught in a rare Open Enrollment class May 12th. The deadline for enrollment is Tuesday, April 27. Learn more about body language, listening skills and other crucial skills today's leaders need! Enroll today at http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes .

What's the best way to learn to speak English better?

One of the most common questions I get as a communication coach from my professional clients from other countries is, "How can I speak better English quickly?" I then ask them, "How much time do you speak English now?"

Many times people from other countries only speak a limited amount of English at work or when in the community shopping. At home they speak their native language, and many of their friends are from their native country, so they speak that language with them as well. Some also take English as a Second Language classes, or for those more fluent, classes in a local college.

But the best way to learn a language is to surround oneself with native speakers of that language and actually speak it as much as possible. At work, ask to get on company or departmental committees, or get involved in your neighborhood association or a recreational activity that involves speaking. This is not selfish; when you speak better English, you will be able to help your children and spouse with their English as well. The more you speak English, the easier it will be. Many communities and some companies have free classes available for spouses as well to help them become more involved in their new communities.

For those from other countries who want to improve their American English pronunciation, Business Speech Improvement offers a three day intensive class on Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals. Visit http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler/scripts/category.pl?Classes to enroll in the next session!