5 Points to improve your Conversation Skills

In my life, there have always been a lot of words, a lot of talking. From my very childhood on, I have been a professional talker and got paid for speaking in front of thousands of people, in front of small groups, with a few people or with individual persons. It doesn’t matter whether you are addressing the masses or a single person, there are certain things that you should take care of and I would like to write about them today.

1. Take care whether the other one is actually interested or not

Have you ever been in the situation that someone was talking to you but you could have cared less about the topic he was stressing? I have often been in this situation, I had very little to no interest at all what the other one was saying and wondering why he was telling me this all. When I cannot relate to the topic, when I don’t think it is something I would like to or need to know.

So whenever you are talking to another person, please check whether the other one is listening to what you are saying! You can see that in their faces, you can see it in their body language! If they are bored, stop talking!

2. Talk to the point and stay with the topic

If you want to say something, say it. A lot of talkers start and come from one topic to the next, making a whole thread of topics. They never reach a conclusion but the main topic, the one they started with, gets lost and is forgotten.

I don’t have interest in the fifty other topics you are talking about, so please don’t increase and extend the talk artificially.

3. Keep it short

If you want to put out a message, don’t stretch it! The one you are talking to may not even have as much time as you do. More importantly: the shorter you will keep your talk, the more impressive it will be! It will go into the mind straight away without much decoration around it!

So if you want to express your opinion and give your message, do it in less words – that is much more efficient!

4. Don’t interrupt an ongoing conversation

I see this all the time: two people are talking, a third joins and simply takes over the conversation. You should not do this. Don’t interrupt!

Although this seems to be a point of manners all over the world, I have learnt that people take more care of it in the west. Here in India, a lot of people just want to express themselves and often don’t care whether another person was talking. It looks, sounds and feels mannerless!

5. Listen to the other one

With this, we get to the last point, which is also very important: don’t just talk about your opinion and listen to yourself talking. Let the other one talk as well and listen to him or her! Take interest in the other one’s talk! Only then you will get the other one to listen to you another time again!