The great communication discovery of recent times is to go against the times. Ironically, we live in an era of maximum communication, in which information is being developed at every moment through technological means and we are more and better communicated, but we communicate less and less and worse in person.
In a world accustomed to communicate by technological means, it is we, the people, a special value, the main actors, who can be and manage to make the best possible communication.
That is why we want to share with you some fundamental keys to handle every time you want to communicate leaving a mark on those who listen to you.
We are in a world full of "attention thieves". Recent studies have shown that every day we have less capacity to pay attention. So little that it is less than eight seconds, less attention than a fish. Today, a fish pays more attention on a continuous basis than a human being.
So if you only have eight seconds to be heard, it would be a good time to stop saying things like 'Hello! My name is Patricia, I am delighted to be here with you all, we are going to have a very nice morning...', because by the time you finish saying that, you will have lost the audience's attention.
No one will ever have to convince us that we have a voice, and we will know how to use it in the best possible way with techniques and resources.
What percentage of your professional success has to do with how you use that voice, has to do with communication? We are not only referring to communicating with audiences of hundreds or thousands of people, in a speech, at a press conference or a radio program, but in the day-to-day, when negotiating a salary increase, the development of a new project.
Now, if your answer to the previous question is between 80% and 90%, how much time do we invest in communicating well?
There are no miracles, all those people we know as "communication monsters", such as Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, had as a clear priority that for the success of their missions, communicating well was the only way for everything to shine.
Everything in us communicates. According to researcher Albert Mehrabian, when we address an audience and want to be remembered, words make up as little as 7% of our total speech, voice (emphasis, nuances, pauses) will make up 38% and body language will make up as much as 55%.
It is important that when communicating, instead of concentrating only on the words, we are aware of where everything else in our body is, what we are communicating with everything we don't usually pay attention to.
Stage fright usually has to do with lack of preparation. How many times, if we are going to make a public speech, do we go to the room beforehand, check the lectern, see how the audio and lighting work? Great speakers never leave these factors to chance, because it is not just a matter of ensuring that all the elements of the speech are well put together, but that all the external factors that can contribute to making our speech shine are also under control.
We are too used to speaking in blue, in left-brain terms, in terms of reasoning, in terms of numbers. What makes messages stick is not the words we choose but the emotions we provoke. In other words, people won't remember you for what you say, but for how you touch their hearts.
Beyond the audiovisual supports you want to rely on, let them help you, but don't let them steal the limelight. If we want the audience to give us their full attention, do not use images or distracting elements, but rather a blank screen so that people can focus on what we want to tell them.
