 People use many verbal communication styles at work, which makes communicating effectively that much harder. Being more conscious of our audiences' communication style enables us to flex our communication style, which improves our ability to communicate effectively. Ineffective communication at work is commonplace, and this firstly wastes a lot of our time, because we need to resolve confusion by answering questions and restating our message in several different ways for it to be received properly. Secondly, it wastes our energy. As we get frustrated, confused, worried, angry, the emotions involved in communicating take up a lot of our energy. And third, it can damage relationships through misunderstandings, which makes working together much harder. We all want to avoid wasting time and energy. Communication between people is complex, and understanding different communication styles improves how we communicate. Today, we're going to go through. Firstly, effective verbal communication is more than talking. Secondly, four different styles of verbal communication. Third, simplicity being the key. And fourth, three huge influences on communication. The three influences on your verbal communication will literally make or break how well you communicate at work, so do stay for these. My name is Jess Coles, and if you're new here in Hans Dot Training Shares, people management expertise, resources and courses to speed up your journey to become a great manager. And I've included links and additional videos in the description below, as well as the video timestamps, so do take a look at these. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. When working to improve our verbal communication styles at work, the first thing to really understand is that effective verbal communication is more than talking. Let's just touch on what we mean by effective verbal communication. How you speak is part of communicating. Effective verbal communication requires, firstly, you to clearly convey information to your audience. Second, your audience to receive that information correctly. And third, your audience to understand the information. For example, you could be speaking clearly with great positive body language and tone of voice, yet using language the other person doesn't recognise, such as technical terms, team or company specific sayings, acronyms or other non-common language. Or your non-verbal language might be in conflict with the words you're saying, resulting in your audience being confused and therefore not receiving your message properly or at all. Or your audience may have very different assumptions and reference points to you. Therefore, how you convey information is received with a different meaning than you intend by your audience. These examples are just some of the reasons for miscommunication, or why what you're saying is not taken in or not understood properly. Good communicators tailor the style of delivery of their communication to what is best for their audiences. When using face-to-face communication skills, a huge part of how to communicate effectively is using the feedback from the other person in front of you to flex and change how you're communicating. So they receive the message correctly and understand it. So the next way to improve our verbal communication styles at work is to be conscious of four different styles of verbal communication. Understanding our own verbal communication style preferences is a critical first step in improving face-to-face communication. There are several different models on verbal communication styles that we can use to improve our conscious understanding. When we understand our own preferences, we can consciously try to adapt these to match the preferences of our audience. If flexing our communication styles increases the chances of the information we are communicating being received correctly and understood. I'm going to touch on these four communication styles. Firstly, analytic communicators. Secondly, personal communicators. Third, intuitive communicators. And fourth, functional communicators. When we are communicating, we will use different levels of each of these. We will, to a greater or lesser extent, subconsciously adapt our styles to the other person and they'll be doing likewise with us. Making yourself conscious of what is happening gives you greater control over how well you can communicate. So let's dive into the four styles. Features of an analytical communicator are, firstly, they use a lot of data, numbers and facts within their communication. Secondly, they don't really like ambiguity, they use a lot of very specific language. And third, they don't use many emotional words or convey feelings as much. And when speaking to an analytical communicator, include facts and data, be clear and concise and logical in your communication. Be prepared to answer questions and give them time to think and reach conclusions themselves. Features of a personal communicator are, firstly, lots of use of emotional language and focus on reconnection. Secondly, they assess what you are thinking and feeling through how we're communicating. And third, they tend to listen well and value building and maintaining personal relationships. So when speaking to a personal communicator, use more emotive language, be authentically yourself to build relationships better and actively listen to what they say. Show you are considering impacts on relationships, particularly when discussing decisions and actions. Features of an intuitive communicator are, firstly, a focus on the bigger picture rather than worrying about all the details. Secondly, they make decisions quickly and cut right to the chase. And third, they tend to be impatient in their communication style and don't analyze too much. When speaking to intuitive communicators, keep your communication quick and to the point. Share the big picture vision and focus on the end result and provide a variety of ideas for them to think on. And if you can, use visuals to help land your points with them. Features of a functional communicator are, firstly, they like the details, timelines and well thought out plans and processes. And secondly, they prefer a step-by-step thinking and the same in their communications. And when speaking to a functional communicator, provide clear context and structure in your communications. Connect each part of the conversation to points in the plan or process and explain how actions or steps impact the overall goal or result. Flex your communication to the person you're speaking to. If you're speaking to a group, then try to cover the key points to talk to each of the communication styles. So the next way to improve our verbal communication styles at work is to focus on simplicity being the key. Making your messaging as clear and concise as possible while covering all the points needed by different communication styles takes skill and practice. You don't want your message being long, complicated or poorly structured. This makes the information you're trying to communicate hard to take in and hard to understand. So remove irrelevant information, stories, paragraphs and words. Keep the main thing, the main thing in your messaging. The simpler you can make your messaging, the more likely it'll be received as intended and understood as intended. The simpler and clearer you can make your messaging, the less of everyone's time you'll take up, including your own. Make your messaging simple. Then finally to improve our verbal communication styles, we should consider three huge influences on your communication. In my view, these three influences on your verbal communication style at work are huge. They will literally make or break how you communicate with your team, manager and other stakeholders that you need to speak to. They are. Firstly, communication is always a two-way street. Good communication is as much about active listening as it is about talking. Good verbal communication is a back-and-forth process. So pay attention to the verbal and non-verbal communication of the other person. See what is landing well and see what is causing confusion. Change how you are communicating to improve how they are receiving it. Ask lots of questions to check their understanding and provide summaries of what they are telling you so you can check your understanding. Secondly, practice humility. Two key elements are vital. Firstly, keep in mind that your view or understanding may be wrong. This keeps your mind open to new or better information and solutions. And secondly, communication is not about you. It's about your audience. So talk how they like to hear. Use the language that they know and understand. Thirdly, trust and your reputation matter. Both are huge influences on how your message is received and understood. With little trust or reputation for dishonesty, your message may not even be received through being ignored, for instance. Your actions, not what you say, build trust and your reputation over time. Make sure your actions and reputation help not hinder your face-to-face communication skills. Communication styles when meeting face-to-face do matter. Work to consciously be aware of your audience's preferences and flex your own verbal communication styles at work to best suit your audience. Effective communication needs three things. Firstly, you need to clearly convey information to your audience. Secondly, your audience needs to receive that information correctly. And third, your audience needs to understand the information. Without this, you're going to waste a lot of time and energy. Make your verbal communication styles focused on building two-way communication, showing your open-minded and listening and make sure that your actions and reputation support your communication. To recap, we've been through. Firstly, effective verbal communication is more than talking. Secondly, four different styles of verbal communication. Third, simplicity being the key. Fourth, three huge influences on your communication. If you have any questions on improving four verbal communication styles at work, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.