As it’s Halloween this weekend, I am sharing Scary Communication Sins, that many of us commit! I’m not going to SPOOK you, but encourage you to listen and watch what others do: listen and learn!
We all make mistakes when we speak; I’ve certainly made some real Wolf Howlers in my time, but I’ve learnt from every mistake. But there are a few people out there who constantly make mistakes and don’t appear to be very aware of their scary mistakes.
In the latest Superstar Communicator Podcast, I share the Seven Deadly Communication Sins. Listen here.
These include:
1. The non-listener. The person that is either looking over your shoulders to speak to someone more important or who fiddles with their phone whenever a message flashes up. GRRR!
2. The individual who talks AT you; oblivious to you, your questions and non-verbal communication that you’re bored stiff.
3. The person that not only has technical problems when they are speaking, but who then blames the poor techie. Of course things go wrong, but if you check everything beforehand, you will feel better about yourself.
4. The ghost who hides behind powerpoint. Either they spend the time reading the powerpoint slides, or they have their back to the audience.
5. The incomprehensible Ghoul: the person that for whatever reason, is inaudible or you can’t understand what they are saying. Perhaps they mumble, use vocabulary you don’t understand, speak too fast or with a strong accent.
6. The exhibition stand ghosts; you are aware of them, but they aren’t aware of you – or to put it bluntly, they ignore you! They fail to engage you in conversations and look bored!
7. The scary monster who doesn’t know their audience. Either they pitch a speech that doesn’t engage an audience or they make inappropriate comments. The number of times I’ve read recently that eminent scholars have made derogatory comments of females to educated female audiences continues to astound me..
I challenge you to start looking for these scary speakers and communicators – and make a pact to avoid Halloween scary Communication sins!
The Apprentice Female Teams