Communication Skills Change Everything

Three Communication Skills that can Change Everything.

“As I came to understand and then use these three techniques they have made all the difference for me while becoming an effective and persuasive communicator. I know they can serve you as well.”

Steve Scott

No single skill is more important to our success and happiness than the ability to communicate. Communication is your key to personal contentment and continuing professional growth. The interpersonal skills required to convey information, clearly reveal intentions and illuminate feelings are a mystery to most of us. Let me give you three communication skills that can change everything.

Gaining an understanding of these skills and then using them will empower you to in a way that makes you capable of creating masterful and persuasive communications.

You too can become a great communicator. As with all skills that contribute to the success of super achievers in business and personal relationships; these skills of communication can be learned and your current ability to speak, write and present can become better.

Effective communicators know it is their responsibility to grab a listener’s undivided attention, hold that attention until you impart a clear understanding of what’s being said, and then implant what is felt into the emotions of the listener.

Great communicators use these simple three techniques.

Three Techniques to Become a Masterful and Persuasive Communicator.

1. Hook

2. Salting

3. Emotional Word Pictures

Hook

Simply stated, the first thing you need to do when effectively communicating is to

grab your listener’s undivided attention. We accomplish this with a “hook,” a strong statement, a personal reference, or specific question that grabs a person’s attention at the beginning of the communication. A “hook” instantly brings the listener “into” the conversation.

Here is an example.

“Have you ever looked at your hair in the mirror and wanted to cry?”

Cher was my celebrity spokesperson for a great line of hair care products and the preceding statement was her “hook.” I wrote that line for her to use to begin her conversation with hair care buyers.

Hooking a Person’s Undivided Attention

An effective “hook” is built around three qualities; a strong and captivating statement, a personal reference, or a specific question.

The best hooks contain more than one of these qualities. The line that I wrote for Cher used two; a strong and captivating statement and a specific question. Remember the components of great “hooks.”

1. A strong, captivating statement

2. A personal reference

3. A specific question

During your conversations today look for opportunities to grab your listener’s attention using one or all of these qualities. Writing a good hook is a learned skill that you develop. Like any other skill, you become better by doing. Constantly think, write and try using hooks.

Salting

Once you gain a person’s undivided attention you need to keep that attention at a high level. Personal interest in any particular matter will always ebb and flow.  Interest levels begin to decline as soon as ten or twenty seconds after the start of your conversation or presentation.

You keep a person’s attention level high throughout a conversation or presentation with a technique called “salting.”

You’ve heard the adage, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Well, that’s simply not true. I can make him drink every single time I take him to the water. All I need to do is salt his oats before I get him to the water. The salt makes him thirsty for the water before he ever gets there. We achieve similar results in our personal and professional communications.

In communication “salt” is a statement, a group of statements or a question that creates curiosity about what we are going to say before we say it. For example, in his video seminar on relationships, Gary Smalley tells women that there are two things they do that make a man want to get away from them faster than a speeding bullet. Gary points out that these two things are so devastating to a man’s ego, that it not only makes a man want to get away from his wife, it can even make him seek another woman to heal his wounds.

What a great “salt” for the coming conversation.

Needless to say, every woman wants to know what those “two things” are long before Gary reveals them. His salting not only makes women curious about what he is going to say but effectively draws his audience in with undivided attention.

Emotional Word Pictures

The final key to powerful and effective communication is your ability to create Emotional Word Pictures.

Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin and even the Biblical writers and prophets used this technique to move their listeners and readers to the heights of human understanding and emotion. It is literally the master key that opens the door to a person’s mind and heart at the same time.

Emotional Word Pictures have not only been the most powerful communication technique I have ever used, it is the single most powerful technique used by the world’s greatest communicators throughout the ages like Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and many others.

An emotional word picture is a word, statement or short story that creates an instant picture in the listener or reader’s mind. It effectively clarifies what you are trying to say and communicates a feeling that you want your audience to feel. It can be as simple as a word or statement; or as complex as a short story or analogy. Creating emotional word pictures is a learned technique. With practice they will become your greatest ally in persuading others to listen to what you have to say and do what you believe to be in their best interest.