Claudia Raab's Blog

Would you like us to reveal a secret? Here we go: It's a myth that having excellent communication skills only implies being able to speak brilliantly in public. Having excellent listening skills is equally important.

Here are some tips to devolop better and effective listening skills:

1. Ask questions and repeat what has just been told to you. If someone tells you a story or provides you with important information repeat what they have said to be absolutely sure you understood their message correctly and also because if you repeat it you can remember it more easily.
2. Take notes! Write down what you have been told - preferably shortly after your conversation! You'll be amazed how much you'll forget without having it written in black and white. You'll also impress others with your knowledge who will not remember as much as you in a couple of days or weeks or months to come.
3. During your conversation maintain eye contact. I always tell my coachees "Eyes are the windows to the soul". Finding the "soul" of the person you are talking to will make it easy for you to connect and establish rapport with that person and vice versa.  Maintaining eye contact will convince them you are really interested in what they say and will help you keeping focused on the person who talks to you which is utterly important for an excellent outcome.
4. Lean slightly forward when you are seated. This will also signal you are interested and helps you concentrate on your conversation partner at the same time.
5. Eliminate distraction. Dedicate your time and yourself to the person who is talking and show authentic interest in it. Turn your mobile phone off. Multi tasking is no no when it comes to a listening. I'm convinced you are great at multi tasking but it's simply not on the agenda when you should be listening to another person that is face-to-face with you.
6. Practise your listening skills. Start focusing on improving you listening skills today in any conversation you may have: With your colleague, the post man, your daughter, etc. Every conversation counts and will prepare you for important conversations. 

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Emails are great and have triggered one of the biggest changes in business communication in the past two decades! Many business people ‘speak' to their clients, colleagues and suppliers mostly via email. They are fast, you can write and send them any time of the day without fearing they'll disturb the person adressed. Plus they are quick to write since they are much more informal than a proper paper letter!

Or are they not? Well, yes and no! There's a range of faux pas we can commit when being too informal. Here are a couple of tips if you want your email to be a success and show you've mastered the email etiquette:

• Start your emails with a greeting (Dear Chris, Hi Susan, etc.) and end with a sign-off. Even if you have a mail signature, make sure you add ‘Regards' or ‘Thanks' at the bottom and I suggest you still and your name - it's just much more personalised.
• Treat your email like a mini letter. Be sure to use correct grammar, punctuation and spelling rules you would in a letter, especially in an external email.
• Use the ‘Cc:' field and ‘Reply to All' sparingly. Only send emails to people who need them. We all get enough emails without inbox filler about things we're not really involved with or details we don't want to know. They are time robbers!
• Be careful to use the ‘high priority' option. If you overuse it, you'll get ignored when it really is urgent.
• Compress large attachments, and only send when they are necessary.
• Be selective about personal emails that you forward on to others.
• Be specific in the subject line. An email saying "Monday, May 25, Marketing Meeting Agenda" is much easier to recognise and find in a crowded inbox than one called "Meeting."
• If you have to respond to a confronting email, don't do it straight away. It's easier to write than to speak to someone face to face; you'll regret it! Take 10 minutes to do something else and let off some steam before replying.
• And don't forget that it's sometimes simply a nice chance and gesture to walk across the floor to speak to a colleague in person or pick up the phone - we are all humans and love a chat from time to time.

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