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At your workplace, anything from a presentation or a meeting to a conversation with your boss can be critical for your career. The ability to string two words together coherently might seem like it’s no big deal, but speaking effectively can be challenging if you add the pressures of the workplace to it.
If you’ve ever felt tongue-tied during conversations at work or frozen while giving presentations, or even if you think you’re already a great speaker but want to become better, Harappa Education’s stellar faculty have some useful insights for you.
1. Your Content Matters
Every piece of communication has a purpose and a message. There is always something you want to say, whether it’s telling your colleagues about something or trying to convince your boss to promote you.
Harappa founder and chairman Pramath Raj Sinha thinks the best way to get your point across is to say what you have to in three succinct points or the Rule of Three.
2. Check Your Tone
Now that you’ve got your content covered, how you present it matters. The first step is to make sure your tone matches your words. People can notice if the emotions in your voice are incongruous to the emotions in your words.
Harappa faculty Preeti Singh further explains why tone is important in navigating workplaces and how you can work on it.
3. Volume, Pitch, And Pace
Another key element for effective communication is modulating your voice effectively. Your volume, pitch, and pace can drastically change the way your words sound to your audience, whether it’s in an interview, a meeting, or a presentation.
Harappa faculty Preeti Singh has a fun demonstration where she highlights how volume, pitch and pace, when used correctly, can add luster to your words.
4. Body Language
It is easy to forget that body language and other non-verbal cues play a big role in making you an effective speaker. How you sit, walk, move your hands, etc, are critical to how effective your words are.
If you want to change your body language or control it, you first need to be aware of it. Harappa faculty and coach Saurabh Mittal has some advice on how you can do that.
5. Public Speaking
Meetings and one-on-one conversations are difficult on their own but public speaking is a monster that many are too afraid to face. The paralyzing fear induced by the thought of speaking in front of multiple people is very real.
Harappa faculty and former journalist Manisha Natarajan has some tips on how you can tame that beast.
These five tips will go a long way in making you more confident in your ability to dazzle everyone with your oration. However, these just scratch the surface. Speaking effectively takes a lot more than just this.
Luckily there is more where that came from in Harappa Education’s Speaking Effectively course.
And if you liked these videos and want to see more, subscribe to our YouTube channel HarappaTV.
You can also enroll for the Online Writing Proficiently Course from Harappa Education and develop strong writing skills. Learn how to structure and write work-related documents clearly with our Online Courses and make your world of work better.
Aishwarya Agarwal is an associate specialist in the Curriculum team at Harappa Education. She has studied History and Liberal Arts and moonlights as a stand-up comic. This was a well-kept secret…until her cover was blown.
