Business Communication

Week 4

Elements of Verbal Communication

Verbal communication involves several key elements that work together to convey messages
effectively. Here are the primary components:

1. Sender: The person who initiates the communication by encoding a message.

2. Message: The information, ideas, or feelings that the sender wants to convey.
3. Encoding: The process of transforming thoughts into verbal symbols (words) to create
a message.
4. Channel: The medium through which the message is transmitted, such as spoken
words, written text, or digital communication.
5. Receiver: The person or audience for whom the message is intended.
6. Decoding: The process by which the receiver interprets and makes sense of the
message.
7. Feedback: The response from the receiver back to the sender, indicating whether the
message was understood or how it was received.
8. Context: The environment or situation in which the communication takes place, which
can influence how messages are interpreted.
9. Noise: Any external factors that can interfere with the clarity or understanding of the
message, such as background sounds, distractions, or misunderstandings.
10. Nonverbal cues: Although primarily verbal communication involves words, nonverbal
elements (like tone of voice, pace, and body language) can significantly impact the
message's meaning and reception.
Understanding these elements can enhance the effectiveness of verbal communication in various
contexts, from personal conversations to professional settings.

Public Speaking

“The art of effective oral communication with an audience.”

Tips to Improve Public Speaking

1. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare!

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not
associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself.
Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and
ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time
to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material,
practice — a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.
2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.
Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as
much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level
of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.
Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose,
central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible.
Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most
devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don’t become a talking head — in any type of communication. You will establish
better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have
to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience’s
attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don’t Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact
with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to
jog your memory and keep you on task.
8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.
Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to
itself, but instead conveys the speaker’s ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with “Today I’m going to talk to you about X”? Most people
don’t. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude
your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should
enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience’s attention.

Verbal communication skills are essential for your success.

In today’s world of constant emails, video calls and phone calls, communicating effectively is
necessary for success. Whether in business, relationships, personal life, and more,
communication skills are crucial.

These 9 tips will help you improve your verbal communication skills. Whether in person, on a
zoom call, the phone or over email, these skills will open up doors so that your audience will
value and appreciate what you have to say. Here are 10 verbal communication skills that you
should master:

1. Think before you speak

Whenever possible, organize your thoughts in advance. Aim to communicate in a simple manner.
This helps you to avoid mix-ups, pauses, and poor word choice. When possible, take time to
think through your thoughts. Write them out before you deliver your thoughts. When this is not
possible, take the time available to you to get a roadmap of your thoughts. Organize them, and be
conscious of how the other person may perceive what you say.

2. Be clear and concise

Even the smartest of readers respond best when writing is no higher than 6th or 7th grade.
Speaking is no different. If they cannot understand what you say or write, chances are your
audience will lose focus. Speaking simply is the new smart.
Use simple words, not complicated ones. Trying to come across as smart will in most cases turn
the other person off. Avoid confusing sentences, words, and phrases. Use as few words as
possible to illustrate your point, without leaving room for misinterpretation.

3. Speak with confidence- not arrogance

Confidence is the difference between rejection and acceptance. Speaking with confidence is
rarely the words you use, it is how you say them. Having confidence in your speech and manners
will build trust and gain the respect of your audience.

Key things to be aware of to speak confidently are:

 your knowledge of the subject matter.

 your word choice (words such as “I will get you that proposal” is more confident than “I
will try and get you the proposal”. Just make sure you can back up what you say.)
 Tone of your voice.
 Your body language.
 Making eye contact with your audience.

4. Master your tonality

If you want your audience to fall asleep, speak in a monotone voice. Don’t be engaging or
animated. Don’t ask interesting questions. If you want someone to be engaged, what tonality
would you want to hear from someone else? Use that voice, and your tonality will improve.

Instead of sounding timid, here are some key points to improve your tonality:

 Use voice inflection to add emphasis to important points, as well as to gloss over things
when needed.
 Vary the pitch of your voice to express emotion, statement, a question, or more. If you
ask a question, in English we make the last syllable in a sentence higher pitched. In a
statement, our pitch will decrease on the last syllable.
 Record your self speaking, and play it back. While it may be tough to listen to at first,
awareness is the first step to improvement. If you do this in a business setting, consider
tools such as call monitoring and call recording to help you in this process.

5. Listen with intent

Everybody loves a good listener. In fact, people pay freelancers on sites like Fiverr.com just to
listen!

Arguably more important than speaking well, is listening to others. It WILL improve your verbal
interactions. People who listen more are perceived as being smarter.

There are 5 stages to active listening:

 1. Receiving
2. Understanding
3. Remembering
4. Evaluating
5. Responding

Listening demonstrates you genuinely care about others’ thoughts, inputs and feelings. A simple
question such as “Do you want me to try and solve this, or listen?” Can help you listen more
intently and build trust with that person.

After listening, show them you were listening by summarizing what you heard. Ask them
clarifying questions if needed. This will help you to build trust and rapport, a key component of
becoming a master of communicating.

6. Be aware of non-verbal communication cues

Your body language has a bigger impact on how people perceive your attitude than even your
words. Be aware of your gestures and facial expressions. Small things such as tapping your feet
or crossing your arms can send a negative message. Make sure your body language is sending
the message you want to share.

In addition to being conscious of your own non-verbal communication, it is helpful to understand

what others’ non-verbal cues are conveying.

7. Consider your audience’s perspective

Being an expert on a topic is great. Knowing what level of understanding your audience has is
necessary. Just because you know a topic doesn’t mean the people you are speaking to do too.

Consider what someone with no knowledge of the subject would need to hear. If you are pitching
a product to a potential client, remember they may have never heard of your product before. As a
general rule, speaking so the least-knowledgeable person can understand what you say won’t
steer you wrong.

8. Avoid jargon and confusing phrases

Using jargon someone does not know is a surefire way to cause them to lose interest. Nobody
likes to feel out of the know. Avoid jargon, and if you do need to use it, clarify what it means so
everybody you are speaking to can follow along.

I remember my first few days as a marketer. Everyone was using words such as “b2b”, “CTA”
and “CRM” and expected me to keep up. I felt lost, confused, and hopeless. Don’t let your
audience be in the dark, and you will be looked upon as a great communicator.
9. Relate to your audience

If people cannot connect with what you are saying, they will stop listening. You need to
associate with others’ interests.

Do they enjoy watching a certain sport or activity? Do they live a certain lifestyle? Meet those
you are speaking with where they are, or you will come across as disconnected and un-relatable.

10. Tell a compelling story

Humans love stories. In fact, our brains are wired to LOVE storytelling.

Do you want to make people laugh? Tell them your funny story from that trip you went on.

Why do drama movies and books work so well? People are connected with the story and
characters, they grasp onto every word.

When you can tell a good story, it does more than just keep people’s attention. They will
remember the story. They will remember how they felt as a result of you sharing it.