Most people want to perfect their communication skills, but have a hard time on who to go about it.
An article by Aja Frost in themuse.com suggests some small changes that can boost your professional communication skill.
The author claims cutting down three words from her vocabulary is what made her improve.
The author suggests to avoid using the word 'actually' because it is like correcting someone.
As a proof of the statement, the author gives an e-mail conversation with her editor.
'Erin: That wording felt a little misleading, so I changed it.
Me: Actually, I pulled that sentence from the [company] website!
It’s not an awful response, but a better one would’ve been:
Thanks for your feedback! I used that sentence because I found it on their site.'
Aja feels that the second sentence communicates the same info while sounding more respectful and friendly.
The next overused word is 'Sorry', it is so much used that it has almost lost its importance.
It is not necessary to say sorry at times when it is not really needed.
The author says that 'I apologize' is more preferable than saying sorry.
Sometimes saying sorry tends to feel non-genuine, while the usage of 'I apologize' carries some weightage.
The author also suggests some alternatives for sorry like 'You’re right, I apologize, Going forward I will…, I understand why you’re upset.'
The author suggests to avoid that usage of words that represents only the self.
Instead of using the words Me/Myself/I the words 'You, us, we, the team, our company, our department can be used.
Though these may be seem simple, it is really difficult to get rid of the usage of these words, but once successful the difference will clearly be visible.
