 |
 |
|
 Print Friendly
 Email to Friend
|
|
Invest In Yourself
|
|
|
Article 3: Communication Training
Simply put: Self-employed individuals cannot afford to be poor communicators.
“When you’re self-employed, you are your business,” says Bill Lampton, Ph.D., the founder and president of Championship Communication, www.commlampton.com. “You are the face and personality of your business to the world, so you must be able to communicate this in a way that attracts customers to you.”
Beverly Inman-Ebel, the founder and CEO of TLC: Talk, Listen, Communicate, www.talklisten.com, agrees. “How self-employed people present themselves is extremely important to the success of their business,” she says. It’s kind of an old cliché, she notes, “but you really do have just one chance to make a good first impression.”
The hardest thing for most of us — especially small-business owners — is to spend more time listening and less time talking.
“We’re all anxious to talk about our products and our business, but it’s much better to start off conversations with potential customers by asking open-ended questions,” says Ebel.
This may sound simple, but it takes practice, says Ebel. “In our training sessions, when we do role plays most people revert back to their old habits of talking first and listening later. Communication training lets you fail in a safe environment.”
In her training sessions, Ebel teaches not only verbal, but also written communication skills, including e-mail. People often misread e-mails because it’s hard to communicate tone and emotion. “So I stress trying to set the proper tone at the beginning of each e-mail message, and being as brief as possible.
“Also, if you’re emotional, don’t send an e-mail. You can write an e-mail draft, walk away and cool down and then come back and read it later, or let someone else look at it before you hit the send button.”
If you need communication training, there are many options to choose from, ranging from community college courses and seminars to one-on-one coaching, mentorship and organizations like Toastmasters International.
One-on-one training and coaching is more customized and focused, of course, but also more expensive, “so you have to consider what the training is worth to you,” says Ebel. “If you go this route, the most important thing is to make sure there’s a good fit between you and your coach or trainer.”
Lampton stresses the need to put into practice what you learn. “If you take a course in public speaking, for example, try to get booked as a guest speaker at civic club event. Also videotape yourself speaking or watch yourself in a mirror, then go back and critique yourself and look for ways to improve.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print Friendly
Email to Friend
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Invest In Yourself
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Select an online seminar from the Success Skills Archives:
|
|
|
 |
|
|
If you liked
this seminar, check out these related topics:
|
|
