Communication, the ability to talk to other people, is one of the most important skills you can develop in life. We communicate with other people all
How to Talk to Anyone
Why You Should Want to Speak to Absolutely Anyone
Communication, the ability to talk to other people, is one of the most important skills you can develop in life. We communicate with other people all of the time.
Sometimes it's easy but at other times it can seem impossible.
This book will give you the tools to become a more natural and effective communicator. You'll become better at talking to people you already know and discover what it is that stops you interacting with people you don't.
By the end, you'll be communicating more confidently and more often, and your communication will be sharper; giving you a better chance of getting the outcomes you're looking for, more often.
Part One covers the fears associated with starting conversations, from the fear of rejection to worries about what other people might think. You'll also find out how you can reverse the negative feelings that are inbuilt in most of us about communicating with strangers.
Part Two is a walkthrough of the four main stages of an interaction. You'll learn lots of new skills to help you get more of what you want from a conversation or communication, including how to identify who to talk to and who not to talk to,
how to open the conversation, how to get people interested in what you've got to say, and how to lead them in the general direction you'd like the conversation to go.
Part Three is a master class in making your communication even better, by working on voice and other conversation techniques. It also covers common pitfalls and you'll learn how to deal with difficult conversations such as telling someone they've made a mistake or asking somebody to do something for you.
Of course, armed with all this information you need to take action, get out there and start talking to people. That's where the daily development plan comes into play at the end of the book. This plan gives you a day-by-day process to start really easily and gradually build up your skills and confidence.
Then you'll be able to talk to absolutely anyone – if you want to that is!
Communication Is All about Understanding
The person you're talking to needs to feel that you understand them and, of course, they need to understand you as well. It is only when you reach a place of mutual understanding that real progress can be made and rapport can grow.
There are two main levels of communication:
1. Primary communication – the actual words you say and the direct
meaning that somebody gets from those words.
2. Secondary communication – when people assume or deduce something
that you didn't intend from what you say.
Secondary communication is what happens outside the actual words you say –
from the impression you create to the multiple interpretations your words are open to.
Let's say you tell somebody that you're paying for a friend to go on holiday. You may assume that they'll think you're a generous person, but the real secondary communication might be that the listener gains a negative impression of your friends. They may think you have friends who survive on handouts: not at all what you intended your communication to achieve.
Many communication problems come back to the “communication gap”; the difference between what you mean when you say something to someone and the meaning they take away.
