when it comes to good communication we
all know it's an essential skill for
establishing and maintaining positive
relationships on top of that in the
workplace good communication leads to
better outcomes including stronger teams
better collaboration and overall clarity
but what exactly is good communication
the reality is what defines good
communication can change from one
language and one culture to another
so if you're struggling to make positive
first impressions
build rapport or maintain open
communication channels in english at
work this lesson is going to help if you
don't already know i'm anne marie with
speak confident english everything i do
here is designed to help you get the
confidence you want for your life and
work in english now if you've been
following me for a while you know that a
few months ago i did a lesson titled
demonstrating charisma at work
if you enjoyed learning about the power
of charisma and how to demonstrate in
english then this lesson is a great
follow-up throughout this lesson today
you'll gain insight on how to improve
your communication skills at work so
that you are using positive
communication with your team co-workers
and clients
to help us navigate through this lesson
successfully i'm going to share with you
four specific positive communication
techniques with each one i'll also
introduce strategies to help you be
successful
as you watch i recommend that you take
note of the techniques and strategies
that feel most comfortable to you or
align with your communication style as
you know we all communicate differently
and there may be techniques that feel
like they fit you best and if that's the
case make sure to take note of them
as always i'll also include example
phrases sentence starters and more so
that you have all the language you need
to implement these positive
communication techniques
technique number one is use positive
language it seems obvious that in a
lesson on positive communication we want
to make sure we know that we're
selecting positive words or vocabulary
when we communicate
making positive word choices
is a sure-fire way to show respect and
immediately get off on the right foot in
a conversation
and here are three strategies you can
use to help you implement this technique
strategy number one select polite words
selecting polite words allows us to
always show respect and maintain a
positive tone
listen to these two example sentences
number one stop talking i need a moment
to think and number two
could you hold your thoughts for a
moment i just need a moment to think
of those two example sentences did one
of them sound more polite and respectful
to you
most likely it was sentence number two
but why
first i used modals for example could
could you wait for a moment and i'd i'd
like
and second i made a request as opposed
to a demand
the second strategy you can use for
selecting positive language is
particularly useful when giving feedback
rather than using negative words we can
use the negative form of positive words
i know that sounds complicated so let me
give you an example
let's imagine that one of your
co-workers has proposed a new service or
product that just doesn't fit with your
company's mission or vision
rather than say that's not what i'm
looking for or that's not the right fit
you could use something like
that's not as innovative as the products
we're hoping to compete against
did you notice the difference
let me say those again
the first option is that's not a good
fit or that's not what i want number two
that's not as innovative as the products
we're hoping to compete against
here's another alternative i understand
you worked hard to come up with an
innovative solution
but it wasn't along the lines of our
company mission
in those two alternative sentences i'm
using some rather complex structures
that allow me to use negative forms of
positive words
for example in that first alternative
i'm using the positive word innovative
but in a slightly negative form using
that not as
innovative as
in the second example i'm using positive
language such as i understand
and then going on to say but it wasn't
along the lines of our company mission
those little adjustments in our speech
again help us make positive language
choices
and now the third strategy we can use
for this technique
is minimize negative connotations
through qualifiers
qualifiers are words like slightly
a bit
not quite
a little
kind of
and these qualifiers soften a negative
tone so again if we're providing
critical feedback we can certainly
minimize the negativity by utilizing
those qualifiers here's a good example
rather than say
it's taking too long to complete this
report you could add a qualifier to
minimize the negative connotation and
say
it's taking a bit longer than i expected
for this report to be finished
and now technique number two for
positive communication at work is to be
sincere and show interest
everyone loves to be listened to and
everyone loves to feel interesting
by showing genuine interest in someone
else you're giving them that gift and
working to establish or maintain an
overall positive relationship beyond
using body language and active listening
skills to show that you're paying
attention
or that you have sincere interest in
someone else you can also use open-ended
questions
doing so not only allows you to learn
more about a person's experience but it
also allows you to potentially find
connections that you can build stronger
relationships upon
some great examples of question starters
you can use for an open-ended question
include
tell me more about
tell me more about how you got started
in this profession or what is your
experience with
what is your experience with this
software
what is your experience
with tackling these challenges at work
what is your experience in leadership
and a third similar question starter is
how was your experience
how was your experience at the
conference
how was your experience giving the
presentation
these simple questions are extremely
effective in showing your sincere
interest in others helping you make
positive first impressions and
maintaining strong relationships
and now the third technique for positive
communication at work is use i and
validate you if you've watched some of
my previous lessons on professional
communication in english then you know
how powerful i statements can be when
sharing our opinions or giving feedback
particularly
when we're sharing opinions that are in
opposition to others or in giving
critical feedback on top of that using i
statements is a great way to take the
spotlight off of another person and put
it on yourself which is important
when we need to set clear boundaries or
again provide critical feedback
here are two strategies to embrace that
technique strategy one use i statements
when giving feedback to avoid placing
blame or increasing the tension
we all know that giving feedback and
receiving feedback is already difficult
so here are some effective sentence
starters to help you do that i've
noticed that you're great at
and i'd like to help you improve in
in that example sentence i'm validating
the other person
by letting them know some areas where i
see a lot of strength
and i'm using that as an opportunity to
introduce areas for improvement as well
here's another way to do that i'm
impressed with
however i think we need to work on
a second way to embrace this technique
is to use similar sentence patterns when
you need to set clear boundaries at work
for example
my expectations are and i think
again we're using those i statements to
reduce tension and avoid placing blame
another example
thank you for
however i don't feel comfortable with
let me share an example of how we might
use that imagine one of your co-workers
has recently taken over one of your
projects and that was not something you
wanted to have happen
rather than simply feel angry and say
nothing about it you can use this
strategy to effectively
express your frustration
and set some boundaries
and you can do that with the sentence
structure i just shared thank you for
taking charge of contacting our clients
however i don't feel comfortable doing
minimal work and going forward i'd like
us to maintain an equal workload do you
notice there i'm not placing any blame
i'm validating something the other
person has done but i'm also setting
clear boundaries by stating what my
expectations are and using those i
statements and now our fourth and final
technique for positive communication at
work and on teams
is to recognize and show support
recognizing others whether it's because
they've finished a challenging task or
accomplished something
and showing support when it's needed are
effective ways of showing appreciation
and that leads to lasting strong
relationships in the workplace
showing recognition and support also
help others to feel valued and heard
so here are two ways you can do that
with sincerity
strategy number one compliment others
when it's appropriate now when i say
when it's appropriate what i mean is
when someone has done something
significant or perhaps they've finished
a particularly challenging task maybe
it's been a tough week for everyone at
work but you want your team to know that
you have valued their time and input
here are four great sentence starters to
help you give compliments at work
number one i appreciate i appreciate the
extra time you've given this week a
second option
i'm proud of you or i'm proud of your
i'm proud of your team's efforts
in successfully getting that contract
finished a third option you did a
fantastic job with
you did a fantastic job with that
presentation
and one more
you truly excelled in you truly excelled
in over delivering to our clients a
second strategy you can use to implement
this technique with sincerity is to
support others whether it's supporting
their ideas their opinions
or providing hands-on support when
they're struggling to meet a deadline or
get something finished
when you show support to others not only
is it a form of recognition in english
but it's also a way of introducing a
culture of open communication network if
you're struggling with how to put your
words together to effectively show
support or empathize with others at work
here are a few options
i understand this will be difficult or i
understand that this is new however i'm
here for you if you need any help
although this task has some challenges
i know you have the skills necessary to
complete it and finally i know the
initial approach wasn't successful might
i suggest
and then offer your suggestion here's a
common situation where this strategy
might be particularly useful imagine
that someone new has just joined your
team
and they're feeling a bit of anxiety
about a particular task that is
challenging for everyone to show that
you are supporting your new team member
and showing empathy you could say
i understand that this is all very new
however if you need any advice i'm here
to help and with that you have four
techniques that you can immediately
begin implementing for positive
communication in english at work and on
your team
to finish up i have a couple of
questions for you at the start of this
lesson i recommended that you take note
of the techniques and strategies that
align with your communication style so i
would love to know which one
seemed most compelling to you what
strategy are you most excited about
implementing in your english
communication and my second question
did you have a moment of insight or an
aha moment while listening to this
lesson
again at the start i talked about how
positive communication differs from one
language and culture to another
perhaps there's something you experience
in the past that just didn't make sense
but now
suddenly it does
you can share your thoughts questions
and comments with me in the comments
section below
if you found this lesson useful to you i
would love to know and you can tell me
in one very simple way
give this lesson a thumbs up here on
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thank you so much for joining me and i
look forward to seeing you next time