Conversation Starters

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Are you looking for conversation starters? How does one start a conversation anyway?

Don’t you admire people who waltz into a room and immediately find themselves immediately sharing jokes with someone, while you’re standing alone, all self-conscious, hoping for something to happen?
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The thing is, we all feel nervous when encountering strangers for the first time. We all wait for someone to come and talk to us.

Take the initiative and talk to someone. Chances are, that person will be relieved that you did and you would have gained valuable experience as well as an increased sense of confidence.

Starting a conversation with a stranger can be daunting, but the rewards can be great. Here are some conversation starters that can help you start a conversation.

Greet and introduce yourself – The most basic technique available. All you need to know is the word “Hello” together with your name.

State a fact – This is something that is known as small talk. If you’re seated in the audience waiting for the show/speech to start, you could turn to the person seated beside you and say: “Lots of people seated here today.” or something to that effect, just to try to break the ice.

Make an inquiry – This is an easy one. Just ask someone around you a question. Everybody likes to feel important, and asking them a question is a way to say: “I think you are knowledgable and I want to hear what you have to say.”

Use a leading question – A leading question is one which attempts to guide the respondent's answer. Leading questions which lead the conversation to a certain topic could easily serve as a good conversation starter, and will depend on the situation at hand.

Ask open ended questions – Open-ended questions are questions that encourage people to talk. They help in establishing rapport and helps gathers information about the speaker. These questions avoid simple brief response such “yes” or “no.” which may easily kill off the flow of the conversation. These include questions such as “Tell me more about yourself.”

Pay a complement – This is something that will definitely endear you to the other person fast. Everybody likes to be complemented, and as long as it is done sincerely, from the heart, there is absolutely no drawback.

Look for items on the person to comment – This technique is usually used in tandem with paying a complement. When you look at a person, immediately identify something nice which that person is wearing and mention it.

John Maxwell, one of the world’s leading experts of leadership, has a 30-second rule. He advocates saying something nice to each person you meet 30 seconds upon meeting them. If each individual in this world follows this rule, the world will indeed become a better place to live in.

The above are proven conversation starters that can be used to help break the ice with a stranger.

When employing these conversation starter techniques, do remember to employ the basic techniques of interpersonal communication such as practice active listening as well as becoming genuinely interested in the other person. Follow the five techniques of good interpersonal communication.
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This will not only allow you to get the conversation started, but also to get it moving as well. Start talking and practice better interpersonal communication, today!

Establishing Effective Communication Skills

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Effective communication skills are indeed important, not only in our interpersonal relationships but also within the workplace. Fortunately, communication skills can be learned, and can also be improved upon over a period of time.

Apply the five following techniques of effective communication. These basic principles will help you achieve improved interpersonal relationships as well as outstanding workplace success.

Technique 1: Listen

It is ironic that the passive skill of listening is a core component of good communication. Listening focuses your attention on the other person, allowing you to be audience-centric your interactions.

Listening also allows the other person to get his or her point across and thus may cause him or her to reciprocate your kind attention and listen to what you have to say. Listening has also the added bonus of supplying the time needed to perform the next step well.

Technique 2: Speak Slowly and Clearly

The next step to better communication is to speak clearly at a suitable pace. Have you ever spoken to someone who rambled continuously in an incomprehensible manner? You can avoid this by framing your thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

When you do speak, do not rush; speak slowly, in a clear and logical tone. With the diverse nationalities in today’s globalised workplace, speaking clearly becomes even more important in the communication of thoughts and ideas in the workplace.

If you tend to get nervous when speaking, try this tip. Imagine the person whom you are speaking with to be a small child, and that you are trying to explain something simple to him. This will help to reduce any nervous tension out from your voice. However, try to avoid sounding condescending.

Technique 3: Be Considerate

Always be mindful of the other person’s feelings. Speak in terms of the other person’s interests. Don’t ramble on and on about something that the other person is not interested in. Do smile, and maintain good eye contact.

Technique 4: Give Complements

Everybody wants to be appreciated, and so the person who is able to give this recognition will be extremely valued. A complement, given sincerely, is a simple and effective way to create bonds with any individual you desire. It costs nothing to give, and is of infinite value to the person receiving it. John Maxwell, leadership expert has his 30 second rule. Give the other person a complement within 30 seconds of meeting him or her.

Technique 5: Have Confidence

Confidence helps you to communicate in many ways. People enjoy communicating with other people who appear to be confident. Maintain eye contact, smile. Initiate contact if the other person is shy. Show off your personality.

Be mindful of these five techniques highlighting the basic principles of effective interpersonal communication the next time you interact. Interpersonal skills are indeed important in our everyday life. With time and practice, you will definitely before a more effective and successful communicator.

Becoming a Better Manager

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How do you become a great manager or a great leader? Are the two terms even the same?

Every organisation requires the services of great managers. The individual that is able to delegate tasks with grace and ease, exhibit the positive, can-do attitude together with the ability to motivate will definately be highly valued.

Manager Equals to Leader??

To begin, let me first clarify some differences that distingush between a manager and a leader. A leader provides vision as well as the motivational force to drive a project while a manager is in charge of managing and distributing resources, and juggling tasks essential for the success of the project.

Leaders are more proactive while managers are more reactive. Leaders promote new directions while managers enable the existing directions.

Having said that, actually, the characteristics of both managers and leaders are actually quite similar; both in terms of their qualities as well their capabilities. They are not mutually exclusive to each other. A good manager can become a good leader, while a good leader must often perform managerial roles. Sometimes, a good manager must even be both.

So, what does it take to become a good manager? Here are five key traits that a good manager should possess. (Many of the traits discussed here involve better interpersonal communication skills which serves to highlight the importance of this blog)

1. You have to be comfortable dealing with people

As a manager, people form your greatest resource and your main task will be to utilise your resources to skilfully accomplish the shared task. As such, you have to be comfortable when dealing with people. Better interpersonal communication skills are essential for the job here.

Part of a manager’s role is the delegation of tasks. A good manager has to be skilled as well as comfortable in the delegation of tasks. He has to feel empathically and to carefully analyse the situation before making the correct task allocations.

Some tips on how to delegate more comfortably without arousing any resentment will be to perhaps ask questions before giving direct orders. This will make the task appear to be the employee’s idea, and the result will be that the employee might become more accommodating and perhaps even enthusiastic to perform to the task assigned.

2. A good manager motivates their employees to strive and achieve

A good manager is able to keep his or her employees motivated and this can be achieved through the magic of encouragement. A person rewarded for their work and contributions, similar to a trained animal, will be more motivated and further encouraged to repeat this same positive behaviour and internalise it into their systems. Everybody likes the positive reinforcement that encouragement brings, and the astute manager will be able to use this to his or her advantage.

3. Managers need to rally their employees around the shared goal of the company

When people work toward the shared goal of the company, they work towards a vision greater than themselves and everybody benefits as a result. Managers able to impart this shared vision with their employees increase the chances for success for their team. They may accomplish this by relating/linking personal benefits that the employee may enjoy together with the shared goals of the company.

4. A great manager empowers their employees

Great managers need to challenge their employees to take up responsibility. Great managers need to recognise that they cannot accomplish everything by themselves, and hence need to learn to share some of the responsibility with their employees. As leadership expert John Maxwell once said, “If someone else can do something 80% as well as you can, then let them do it.” A manager has to be able to share the responsibility and this can be accomplished by the principle of empowerment.

5. A great manager has a positive attitude

In business as well as in life itself, attitude is everything. A great manager carries a positive attitude in the things that he does and this rubs off on the employees over time. A great manager serves as a role model for his or her employees and this starts from having a great attitude.

Ultimately, a great manager is somebody who can make the sum of a team greater than a collection of individuals.

Great managers handle people with grace and ease, caring for them and encouraging them to achieve their goals. Finally, a great manager allows the team to flourish and creates value to each individual as well as to the company. I hope you will become inspired to become a better manager today!