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Conference calls are a challenge for multiple reasons: technical problems, time zone difficulties, and confidence issues — especially if you’re speaking in your non-native language.

You have 100% control over your confidence, so let me share 3 tips to help you with that.

3 Techniques To Feel Confident On Conference Calls

1. Prepare

It’s worth taking the time to prepare. Think through the questions below before your call.

• What is the call about?
• What can you say on the call?
• What questions can you ask?
• Who else will be on the call and what can you ask them?

Write down your answers. Rehearse aloud, so that you can speak smoothly. You’ll feel more confident on the call.

2. Speak early

Watch “A Conference Call in Real Life” for an example of someone who doesn’t speak until the end of the call, and no one knew he was there (plus lots of other hilarious examples of conference call challenges).

If you delay speaking, you may think, “Oh, I’m so nervous. I don’t want to speak.” You put pressure on yourself and you’re probably not even listening properly to what the other people are saying, so you’re not able to contribute to the call anyway. That is “mottainai” — it’s a waste.

And if you delay speaking, someone else may raise the point that you had in mind, so you lose your opportunity.

Speak up early. You’ve taken that step out of your comfort zone. You can relax. You can listen to the conference call. You can maybe even speak up again 🙂

3. Use body language

This may seem a little bit strange when you can’t see each other on a conference call.

But, if you’re speaking Japanese, think about when you’re on the phone and you say, “Hai, hai,” while bowing.

Think about your posture. If you sit up more, it’s easier for the oxygen to flow. It helps with the quality of your voice.

Smile as you’re talking — especially if it’s good news. The smile will affect the tone of your voice, and often people can hear that.

Use gestures to help you release the nervous energy.

Body language not only impacts others, but also impacts you.

Watch this great TED Talk by Amy Cuddy to learn more.

 

So these are your three techniques to help you feel confident on conference calls: 1. prepare, 2. speak early, and 2. use body language.

Give them a go!

*     *     *     *     *

Would you like to communicate with more clarity and confidence in your workplace in 2017?  Ask more questions? Give more powerful presentations? Facilitate meaningful meetings? Turn conflicts into opportunities?

Well, why not snuggle under your kotatsu over the New Year holiday, grab some mikan and your copy of 英語の仕事術, so that you can feel refreshed and prepared to go into 2017 and really make a difference? Say bye-bye to mottainai in 2017.

And here’s a bonus!

Buy 英語の仕事術 by December 23 and email me. I’ll put you on the special guest list for  a complimentary webinar from 10 a.m. on January 21 (Japan time).

I’m going to tailor the webinar to make it as valuable as possible for you. So, if you buy 英語の仕事術 and email me by December 23, I’ll contact you in early January to ask you which communication topics you most want to learn about.

And of course, I’ll be open to Q&A on the webinar the time as well.

All you need is a computer, tablet, or smartphone with an Internet connection to join.

Say bye-bye to mottainai in 2017.

Get your copy of 英語の仕事術 by December 23, email me, and join the special webinar. Wahoo!

Video transcript

Hello and welcome to Facebook Live Friday. I’m Helen Iwata of Sasuga Communications, and I’m here to help you create communication habits for success and happiness in global business.

Actually I’m laughing a little bit because I’m recording this — streaming this — from home, and my husband is leaving for work a little bit late today. And he just came in the door and he’s like, “Hello! Welcome to Facebook Live!” So I’m having a little bit of a laugh.

So today our topic is how to feel confident on conference calls. We’ve been talking so far about how to overcome nerves when giving presentations, how to get people to speak up in meetings, how to get people to shut up in meetings so that other people can speak up, and now this other topic that people often struggle with is conference calls.

So there are multiple reasons why conference calls are a challenge because there are the technical problems, there are the time zone difficulties, and also a lot of people lack confidence to speak up on conference calls, especially if you’re speaking in your non-native language.

And I can see people joining, thank you so much. I love to see the little thumbs up and hearts going past. That’s wonderful, thank you so much!

Whether you’re joining live or watching the recording of this, thank you very much for your time. I really, really appreciate it.

So as usual today I’ll follow the structure of first talking about tips. I’ll be sharing three tips to help you feel more confident on conference calls. And then I’ll have Q&A time, where I’ll be welcoming your questions from people who are here live.

Feel free to type in a question or comment. Anything’s fine at any time as I’m talking. And I’ll look at those comments a little bit later on.

I’ll also be talking about something special for people who have bought this book [英語の仕事術]. This! Can you see where I’m pointing? This book, which I mentioned last week. So I’ll be mentioning that too a little bit later on.

But first — and hello, Oka-san! Great to see you here. I can sometimes see the names of some people. I know we have a number of people on the call. Thank you for joining live. This is wonderful! So are you ready?

Tip number one: Prepare.

Often we forget to do this for conference calls, and it’s something that is quite simple. It is really worth taking the time to prepare.

What is the call about? What can you say on the call? And even if you don’t have some information to share, maybe you have some questions that you could ask. And if you can think of those questions in advance, it makes it much easier for you to speak up and to feel more confident about it.

Also find out who else is going to be on the call because maybe there’s someone that you want to ask for information. And whenever you speak up on a call, it helps to build your presence.

So prepare. Write it down. And you may even want to rehearse.

So I would even say you could write a script for yourself of what you want to say. When I talk about presentation skills in person, I say don’t write a script because if you have a script, you’re in your head. You’re thinking, and it’s difficult to connect with the audience. But if you are on a conference call, usually people can’t see you, so you can have your notes and you can read them out. And especially if you practice a few times in advance, you can read it more smoothly. So this is a really useful tip I would say is to prepare. Write it down and rehearse. That will help you to feel more confident.

Tip number two: Speak early.

So there’s a fantastic video that you can find on the Internet. It’s called “A Conference Call in Real Life.” And it has this great scene where there is one person who you just see at the very end of the sketch that he was on the call the whole time, but he never spoke up so nobody knew that he was there.

So to avoid that, speak early. Also, if you delay speaking, you may think, “Oh, I’m so nervous. I don’t want to speak.” If you delay that, you’re putting pressure on yourself the whole time and you’re probably not even listening properly to what the other people are saying, so you’re not able to contribute to the call anyway. That is “mottainai” — it’s a waste.

So speak up early. There’s more opportunity to talk about topics. For example, if you talk later and somebody else already talked about the thing you wanted to talk about then you’ve lost your opportunity. So speak up early.

Thank you for the thumbs up. Yay! Love it. Please feel free to click the thumbs, click the hearts, it’s wonderful.

Speak up early and then you can relax. You’ve done a little bit there. You’ve taken that step out of your comfort zone. You can relax. You can listen to the conference call. You can maybe even speak up again. Take another step out of your comfort zone. Speaking up early is really, really important.

And tip number three, this one may seem a little bit strange when you think about conference calls and maybe you can’t see each other, but use body language.

So if you think about it when you’re speaking Japanese, when you’re Japanese and you’re on the phone and you’re like, “Hai, hai” [bowing] and actually you do bow right?

So it’s natural to use body language. And when you’re speaking on a conference call, for example, think about your posture. If you sit up more, it’s easier for the oxygen to flow. It helps the quality of your voice and with your voice tone.

Also, smile as you’re talking, especially if it’s good news that you are talking about! The smile will affect the tone of your voice, and often people can hear that.

Also you can use gestures because using gestures helps you to release the nervous energy. And it’s not just that this impacts the other people who are hearing you, but it impacts you too.

There’s a great TED Talk by Amy Cuddy, where she talks about how our body language not only affects other people but it also affects us. So if we are hunched over, we don’t feel so confident, but if we open up, we feel much more confident.

So think about your posture on your conference call, and sit up. If you have this kind of phone or often it’s one of those on-the-desk-type of phone situations or from your computer — whatever it is, you can sit up. Think about your posture, and you can feel more confident.

So those are the three tips, first of all prepare, speak early, and use body language.

So I’m going to take a moment to say hello to people whose names I can see who joined. Thank you, Endo-san, great to see you here. Fantastic. Good! What happened? There we go. I just kind of changed my darkness there. I wonder if it came across at your side too.

So feel free to put comments in and, the people who are joining live, thank you! Any questions that you have, you can pop them in in Japanese, 日本語、大丈夫ですよ！ And I’ll then answer those questions in a moment.

But first of all, I wanted to tell you about something special for people who have already bought 英語の仕事術 as well as for anybody who buys 英語の仕事術 before December 23.

So I talked today about three tips for conference calls. I talk about 22 tips for conference calls in this book. I also talk about listening and questioning, presentation skills, facilitation skills, and dealing with conflict.

These are all skills that are helpful in the global workplace. And even though it’s 英語の仕事術, a lot of people tell me that this book is useful, no matter what the language. It’s about communication skills.

So if you’re feeling that over 2016 maybe you didn’t communicate well quite as you could have at work. Or maybe you’re not really reaching your potential? Perhaps there’s something you could do?

Well, how about over the New Year — and I’m talking especially to people in Japan here — get your kotatsu, get your mikan, and have a nice relax and refresh and read your copy of 英語の仕事術, so that you can feel really well prepared to go into 2017 and really make a difference.

So something that is special for people who are buying the book by December 23 is that I’m going to run a complimentary special webinar for people who bought the book. This will be held on January 21 from 10:00. That is Saturday, so I hope it’s something that you can join.

And all you need to do is buy the book, send me an email. Tell me you bought the book and I will sign you up for this complimentary special webinar.

What are we going to be doing on the webinar? Well I want to tailor it and make it really useful to the people who show up on that webinar. So in early January, I’ll put out a poll, find out what people are most interested in in those communication tips, and I’ll create a training based on that specially for the people who are joining.

And of course I’ll be open to Q&A at the time as well. So I hope you can take that opportunity.

And I can see a comment here from Alan: “Is there some reason why it’s mirrored backward?” It’s probably just to do with the way that Facebook Live is showing this to you. And maybe I’m mirrored backward as well in some kind of strange way! I’m not sure, but I can assure you that on the copy of the book, the writing is the right way around and you can get one yourself and have a look because I know that you read Japanese. Thank you for your comment, Alan. And great to see you here as well.

So any other comments from people who are on the call? And please feel free to type in. I know sometimes if you’re joining during your commute, it’s a little bit tricky to write.

People who are watching the video of this, thank you for taking the time to watch the video. You can type in the comments on the Sasuga Communications Facebook page as well and I’ll be checking those. I’m happy to answer questions there as well.

I’m going to do a quick time check and welcome you to write more comments or questions, while I do that and take a sip of water.

It is 8:42 in Japan, and here’s my usual sip of water. Good morning Bob! Great to see you there!

So we’re just at the point of I’ve talked through the three tips and we’re seeing if anyone has any questions or comments and if not I’ll be signing off very, very soon.

So to do a quick recap, the tips I shared with you today to help you feel confident on conference calls are 1. prepare, 2. speak early, and 3. use body language.

And don’t forget if you already bought or if you’re going to buy 英語の仕事術, let me know by December 23 and you can get your place on the special complimentary webinar for people who have the book.

Okay, I am going to say goodbye. Thank you so much. Maybe I’m going to eat the mikan. Bye!