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3 Essentials To Improve Your Communication In 2017
1. Have Courage
Step out of the comfort zone! We need to do this to learn something new. And because communication affects other people, we’re often concerned about how others will respond. So we hesitate to do something different. But we need courage to take that risk and help us grow.
2. Have knowledge
There has never been a better time in the history of human beings to get knowledge. We have knowledge everywhere — in books, online information, in-person training, and online training. We have no excuse for saying that we don’t know how to do something.
3. Practice
If you just gather the knowledge, but don’t put it into practice, that’s mottainai – it’s a waste or a shame. Practice giving presentations or facilitating the opening of a meeting in front of a mirror or using a smartphone to video yourself. Practice with friends and family. And start to put what you’ve learned to use in the workplace bit by bit.
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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. I’ll contact everyone who signs up for the webinar in early January to ask which communication topics you most want to learn about.
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! I’m Helen Iwata of Sasuga Communications and I’m here to help you create communication habits for success and happiness in global business.
And as you can see, we’re a little bit in the festive mood here at Sasuga Communications. And whatever you celebrate — whether you celebrate Christmas or whether you celebrate something else — I hope you celebrate something — I wish you all very best for it.
And I love this time of year because it’s a time to spend with family and friends. And I also like to reflect over the year, what’s happened over the year, and think about the coming year. What can I do differently in 2017 ? And I can see there’s plenty of opportunities to do things differently.
So what about your year 2016 and how was your communication during the year?
And welcome! I can see people joining. Fantastic! Lovely to see you here live and hello to people who are also watching the video.
So how was 2016 for you in terms of your communication? Could you have maybe listened a little bit more effectively? Asked some more question to get better results or to avoid misunderstandings? Maybe presented with more confidence and more clarity? Maybe spoken up a little bit more on conference calls? And what about facilitating meetings? Could you have done that a little bit more effectively? Or dealt with conflict in a way to turn that conflict into an opportunity?
So there are so many ways to improve our communication skills and this is something that I’m so passionate about because I’m always working on this myself too.
And our topic today is how to improve your communication in 2017. I can see people joining. I can see Claire here and Phil here. And I’ve missed a few other people whose names are kind of scrolling up the screen for me. Feel free to press the thumbs up and the hearts. I love to get thumbs up and hearts. It makes me feel very happy when I can see you there. Yay! Hearts! Thank you! Wonderful. And Marian, good to see you back with us. It’s great. So I can see, sometimes I can see the names of people, sometimes I can’t see your names. And Jacqui’s here saying, “Hi Helen.” That’s wonderful!
Feel free to comment at anytime as I’m talking. I may catch some of the comments as I’m talking and I may stop to go through the comments a little bit later on as well. Okay, Marian: “We need a little Santa emoji.” Yes, maybe. Well, I got the hat and I’ve got the tree, so I’m doing my best. Okay.
Our topic today is how to improve communications in 2017, and I have 3 essentials to share with you. These are things that I think are so important and if you put these into practice, they will really make a difference for you. So I’ll talk about them and then I’ll pause for some questions or comments. Please feel free to put your questions and comments in anytime. I can see we’ve got a pretty active group. It’s wonderful. I’m looking forward to pausing for comments a little bit later on.
So what are our 3 essentials?
The first one is have courage. And I talk about this quite a lot. This idea of stepping out of the comfort zone. You really need to do this when you’re learning something new. And especially with communication, I think it’s really important because communication affects other people. And we’re often concerned about how we impact other people. What will other people think of us? And that’s why we maybe hesitate to do something different in our communication because there’s a bit of a risk there. But you have to take that risk to do something different and then get the benefits from it. So having courage is the first essential to improve your communication in 2017.
And, hello! Thank you for the big love from the Trophy Cabinet. Oh, going back many, many years. I’m so happy to see you here Phil as well, that’s wonderful. So that’s the first one, courage. Have courage. So, so important.
Second is have knowledge. Sounds pretty simple right? We are in no better time in the history of human beings to get knowledge. We have knowledge everywhere. So we have books, we have information online, we can go to in-person training, we can go to training online. There is so much out there. There is no excuse for saying, “Oh, I don’t know how to do something” because it’s all there. So have the courage to take the step and get the knowledge and then you are all set.
The third essential is practice because if you just keep the knowledge in your head, it’s not going to do you any good. You need some practice.
Thank you for the thumbs up. Love seeing the thumbs up. And it’s great to see that Cat’s joined as well.
So you need to put into practice what you’ve learned. A lot of people spend time reading books, reading online articles, even going to trainings, but then not putting what they’ve learned into practice, and that is mottainai. When I talk about mottainai, it’s a waste. So really put these things into practice.
How can you practice? Pretty simple. You can practice a lot of things on your own, maybe when people are not looking, for example. If you’re practicing your presentation, you could do that. I talked about the mirror or using a smartphone to video yourself. It’s a really effective way to practice. You can also do that for example, if you want to practice your facilitation skills. How do you open up a meeting? Record it and see what you could do better. You can also practice with friends. You can practice with family and also putting things into practice in the workplace — actually using the things.
So it’s pretty simple what I’m talking about here. I said the first essential is courage — have courage, have the knowledge and practice. It’s very, very simple.
And recently I’ve noticed there are quite a few people coming to me and saying, “Oh, can you give me some advanced facilitation technique or some advance techniques for something else?” and people are asking for advanced when they haven’t even put those basics into practice. So I really encourage going back to basics — maybe that’s the thing for 2017. Looking at those basics and really making sure that you’re doing those things.
It’s great to see we have such a wonderful group on the call — on the Facebook Live. So I’m quite happy to receive questions or comments from you. “It’s beginning to look like Christmas.” Yes, absolutely. Just scrolling through here to see what we have. I think I got all the comments. Oh, hang on, what’s this one? Oh, no, that’s a comment from Facebook. Hearts! Thank you! Give me the hearts. I love it. Alright.
So if we have no questions or comments at the moment, I’m going to move on and keep talking, but do feel free to add some in live or if you’re watching the recording of this, you can also put them in Facebook, and I’ll look at those afterwards, and I will respond to them.
So the other thing I wanted to tell you about — and I mentioned this last week as well but I’ve got this little illustration this week too. Can you see? So as I said last week, think about it’s coming up to the New Year time and it’s a traditional time to snuggle under your kotatsu — nice and warm — eat your mikan. I think I’ve eaten all the mikan. I don’t have one handy to demonstrate with. Hearts, hearts, hearts. Wonderful. You’re enjoying your mikan, you’re under your kotatsu, and you have your book 英語の仕事術 and that’s the way you can learn all of these things that I’ve been talking about.
英語の仕事術 has five chapters and talks about listening and questioning, presentations kills, conference calls, facilitating meetings, and conflict. So these are five really important areas for global business. And as I talked about, it’s not just the reading, but putting into practice, so there are activities in here, there are checklists to help you to put these things into practice.
And there’s more! The bonus is that — oh, I can’t even speak now, I’m so excited! By December 23rd if you buy this or if you already bought it and you email me at [email protected], I’ll put you on a list for people who are going to join a webinar on January 21st from 10:00 Japan time and that will be a 45-minute webinar where we will be really working on some communication skills.
What we will be focusing on remains to be seen because in early January I’ll contact the people who have registered and find out what are the most popular topics and then I’ll design that webinar so that it’s really valuable for the people who show up because to me it’s so important to deliver value to people who show up and make the effort to really work on their communication skills.
So I’m really excited about this. I’m looking forward to seeing who is going to sign up. And this is open to anybody who has already bought 英語の仕事術 and it’s also open to people who buy 英語の仕事術 before or buy by December 23rd. I’m looking forward to seeing that.
So what questions and comments do you have? Oh wow, I can see my video’s being shared already. I’m not even finished and it’s being shared. This is a wonderful thing, thank you so much. Wonderful, wonderful. So we have still a few people on the call. Why do I keep calling it a call? It’s a Facebook Live. Do you have any questions or comments for me today? If not I will do a quick time check. It’s 8:42, so it’s close to finishing time, but do feel free to type something in if you have a question or comment. What do you have?
Oh, this is what I always do at this point, don’t I? I take my sip of water. Yay! I love kind of the matching a little bit of red with the hat. It’s very well coordinated. Of course, I thought this through. Alright anything else? Anything you want to say? It’s probably time to wrap up. It’s been a lot of fun. I like this sparkliness in the background and the festivities. I haven’t had any sherry yet. Honest, really I haven’t.
Okay, so we talked about how to improve your communication in 2017 and 3 essentials, and thumbs up! Yay! The 3 essentials are have courage, get knowledge, and practice.
Have a fabulous festive season and I look forward to receiving emails saying “Yes! I’m ready to join the webinar.” Looking forward to it. See you! Have a fabulous day! Bye!