Bizpro Ltd – Virtual Assistants

Communication: an art form!

Today I had the pleasure of talking to the communications officer of a well known London hospital. Interestingly enough, they felt the need to explain to me what communications is, and that a hospital porter may not communicate in quite the same way that a consultant surgeon would. They went on to give me a very ‘helpful’ analogy of borrowing money: ‘If I were to go to a relative stranger to borrow ten pounds, it would feel a lot less comfortable to me than asking a friend, and the words I would use would be different. Whilst I tried hard not to be offended by this ‘revelation’, the whole conversation got me thinking that even those that are paid to do communications for a role perhaps don’t always realise that communication is important on so many more levels than just talking!

Communication is about understanding, too. No one likes to be patronised, (least of all me!), but on the same token, people don’t like to be confused. Understand your audience and pitch to their level.

One of the most obvious things about communication is to hear. Most people are too busy thinking about what they are going to say next to actually hear what is being said. Think about it. Do you?

Body language is equally an essential part of communication. How you sit, stand or hold yourself can make a big difference to your pitch, and how you come across to others. Likewise, look for signs from the person you are speaking to. If they are rolling their eyes or looking around a lot, perhaps they are not really hearing you and you need to amend your pitch slightly to get their attention again.

The other area to think about is trying not to labour the points you want to get across. People don’t enjoy being lectured at, and you never know, they may end up writing a whole blog post about it!