Confident and Effective Communication through 3 Basic Skills

Effective communication is the foundation of all relationships and critical to success in both personal and professional spheres. While effective communication requires certain innate skills, there are some basic techniques that anyone can learn to become a better communicator. This article highlights three essential skills for improving effective communication: overcoming fear of public speaking, maintaining eye contact, and applying the 50/70 rule. Mastering these simple yet powerful skills can transform you into a confident and compelling communicator, opening doors to various opportunities.

1. Need to identify the origin of fear

Typically, fear stems from worries about the audience’s reactions, criticisms, and negative judgments. To overcome it, always remember that everyone is also concerned about themselves. Instead of focusing on yourself, pay attention to listening and observing the audience’s reactions. Prepare your speech carefully, practice it many times, and be confident in yourself. In addition, body relaxation techniques like deep breathing, balance in posture, and smiling will also help dispel anxiety.

To be more confident when presenting to a large number of people, we should also note some points such as: Start your speech with a story, a question, or a short statistic to grab the audience’s attention. Use body language naturally throughout the speech, avoid standing still in one place. Additionally, tell one or two funny stories to liven up the atmosphere and make the speech more vibrant. Finally, re-emphasize the key points and conclude with a clear call to action.

2. The confidence when looking straight into the other person’s eyes

This is often a weakness for many people when communicating, especially with strangers or superiors. To improve it, start practicing looking into people’s eyes on screens, then service staffs when buying coffee or milk tea. After that, apply it with friends, colleagues until you are truly confident looking into anyone’s eyes. But don’t stare, subtlety is needed.

To enhance this skill, we should practice in various environments. For example, when shopping or dining out, try to look straight into the consultants or servers’ eyes when ordering. In group meetings and workshops, focus on looking into the presenter’s eyes to show respect. Diverse communication situations will help us flexibly adjust eye contact and be more confident in all circumstances.

3. Apply the 50/70 rule

Accordingly, when we are speaking, maintain eye contact with the other person about 50% of the time. The remaining 50% can look at other points to avoid being seen as too clingy. In contrast, when listening to others, try to maintain eye contact about 70% of the time to demonstrate concentration and attentiveness.

In summary, although simple, these three skills are extremely important to help us become more confident and attractive in communication. To improve skills, we need to persistently practice and flexibly apply them suitably to circumstances. Personal confidence and attractiveness will open up many good opportunities in both work and life. Let’s start training these simple but very important skills right from today.