"People who are sure to achieve success are those who can communicate effectively with words used in their writings, verbally and public speaking presentation skills" - LA Reid
Many years ago my brother, LA Reid, gave me that piece of advice above. I never gave the validity of his advice a second thought. I immediately knew my brother's words were powerfully valid, as he has been a very successful IT Consultant working for companies like IBM, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, NYC Health and Hospitals. LA was even the IT point person for New York City Mayor's office the night the scary date change took place from 1999 to 2000 (remember Y2K?). I knew he was employing his own advice to achieve success. LA's words impacted me, like a sucker punch out of no where.
Over the years LA's very simple advice has proven to be an unbelievable source of success for me. Executing his advice made me a better positioned employee and later a very confident entrepreneur.
Simply communicating effectively with peers, senior management and clients makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary results to organizational positioning and the bottom line in your income.
Implementing a steady 6 month plan to improve communication skills, creates an amazing internal metamorphosis. From the time my brother gave me that advice, I decided to do 3 things over the next 6 months.
- Improving our vocabulary improves all 3 levels of communication. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by reading the New York Times Book Review, included in the Sunday paper. A low cost alternative is to subscribe only to the New York Times Book Review. You acan have it conveniently mailed to you every week. Keep a dictionary handy, as you read through the book review. You are sure to learn at least 5-10 new words, depending on how many articles you read. Keeping up with the latest literature and books published becomes a by product to enhance conversations with people. Encouraging our high school children to read the New York Times Book Review tumultuously increases their vocabulary to ace that part of the SAT. Starting your child as a freshman in high school, is the best time.
- Presentation skills can be improved by reading Dale Carnegie's " How to Develop Self-Confidence And Influence People By Public Speaking". Even a few minutes in a meeting giving a status report is public speaking. Use every meeting as an opportunity to practice your presentations skills. Every conversation at the office, a per chance one-on-one meeting or team meeting provides an opportunity to practice, practice, practice public speaking. This is crucial to being able to deftly pursuade teammates, senior management, your childen or significant other to buy into the beneficial or profitable opportunities you present.
- To learn how to say more with less words, while improving your writing skills, get a copy of Elements of Style by E. B. White and William Strunk Jr. This book is quick reading. It will become a life time reference for writing succinctly. It was the best gift of learning a college professor gave to me, as part of his required books to purchase at the book store. He also recommended reading the New York Times Book Review. English teachers can take lesson out of this play book for using Elements of Style. Forget about that 5,000 page text book for learning the "proper" English. Elements of Style is relevant to the real world of communicating effectively with people, when we write.
Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid
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