How to make those changes...

Hi friends!

In the last month in these pages, you would have read a lot of tips and pointers on improving communication. I hope that some of you have tried to make those small changes. Hopefully some of you have even benefited from those changes.

However, some of you, very rightly so, have thought that tips are a dime a dozen. So what is new? How do I actually make those changes in real life?

This update is for you. Read on!

The first step to putting tips to practice, is to understand where you are. A very honest and comprehensive self assessment is needed.

A short and quick version would look something like this. You can make your own self assessment based on your work or life.

Sample assessment

The scale is marked this way:
1. Does not apply to me at all
2. Somewhat or sometimes applies to me.
3. Frequently applies to me.
4. That is surely, positively me.

S1. I have a clear, audible voice.
1 2 3 4

S2. I can quickly organize my thoughts to get the point across.
1 2 3 4

S3. I like telling stories about everyday things.
1 2 3 4

S4. I am generally nervous about speaking in public.
1 2 3 4


You see, making a list of points for assessment is easy. The difficult part is to be honest with our responses. Some of us think nothing of our abilities whereas others think that they are the best at whatever they do. In most cases, these are not honest assessments.

But yes, we are all human and cannot precisely measure our abilities. What can we do?

1. Be honest with yourself. Use technology to help you. Record and play your presentations and speeches.

2. Ask a couple of trusted friends to make their own assessment and persuade them to be honest too.

How does this assessment business help you?

First, you may be surprised to find that you may not be as bad as you thought.
Second, you will know where to focus next.

If you find that you have a good voice, you could use that to your advantage in your presentations. You may also find that you need to work at collecting your thoughts together. Well then, this is the area that you work at. You can direct your efforts to the area where it is most needed.

Howzzat for simple yet effective?

See you in these pages next week, when I talk about the next step towards making those improvements.

Keep those comments coming.

This post is going up a day early as I am traveling and not sure about net access.

Thank you!

Gayatri