Business communication pitfalls — how to avoid them and common bad advice
Communications expert Sophie Clark already shared her views with me on why business communication matters and some suggestions for how to anyone can improve in part one of this three part series.
In part two, we dig deeper and discuss common communication pitfalls and some of the bad advice circulating out there.
Sophie’s clients are everywhere from Los Angeles to Sydney and in between. People from small and big companies like Warner Music, Morgan Stanley, BT, HSBC, Coca-Cola through to entrepreneurs.
What are four of the worst pieces of advice you have heard people be given around communication?
- “Fake it till you make it” — This is alright if you’re learning in a big new role, but if you “act” when you speak, people will see through it.
The need for authenticity and for your personality to come out is so important, never more so than during virtual video calls in COVID time.
So don’t put on a show. If people are looking to invest in your business, they are looking to invest in YOU.
Business leaders often think they need to be formal which appear wooden and guarded, so it’s harder to build rapport, trust and a relationship. The more you can just have a conversation with someone the better. This is how most people want to connect.
A flowing conversation is easy to listen to in a world with so many distractions and short attention spans.
2. “When you are nervous imagine the audience is naked”. This is awful advice. Imagine them just as the normal human beings they are e.g. dancing listening to George Michael in their kitchen, getting frustrated putting an IKEA wardrobe together, crying watching The Notebook.
Anything that normalises your audience as much as possible will help with nerves.
3. “You must always have an agenda.”— Most of the time, agendas highlight how long it’s going to take to get to the interesting and useful stuff. “I’m going to tell you first what I’m going to tell you” can waste valuable time. So try and share your proposed plan in a sentence or two, don’t preamble too long and avoid definitions. Get into the meat and bones for them quickly. The earlier you do, the quicker your audience will be more engaged.
People prefer to be hit with the useful, relevant content straight away.
4. “Filler words are endearing and they are ok.” — I heard another coach say this once and I nearly fell off my chair. They are not endearing. They are the easiest way to seem under confident, unprepared, inexperienced and most importantly, lose clarity in your message. About 99% of clients have filler words they don’t know they say; ‘like’, ‘eeerr’, ‘so….’, ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’, ‘right’.
So record yourself talking, work out what your filler words are and consciously work on removing them.
The two other words I suggest my clients cut out are ‘background’ and ‘context’. Both make your listeners want to sleep or think about their laundry. Use ‘short summary’ or ‘key facts’ instead and make sure you keep it short.
In the third and final post in this series, Sophie highlights some insights and recommendations specifically for business leaders to consider when engaging with their teams.
