When there’s a serious message to deliver, we often ponder the words we want to use, redrafting them, and practicing how we’ll deliver them, until we think we have it right. But despite all our best efforts, many messages are not understood as intended. One reason this occurs is because we tend to communicate messages the way we like to hear them, without considering how our listeners might hear them. Combine this tendency with the …
Communication succeeds when your message is received. Experts counsel that less than 10% of the words you speak are heard and accepted. How your message is communicated accounts for about 40%, with the remaining 50% being related to what your audience observes while you’re delivering your message. Successful communications connect with the audience in 4 ways: What people see (visual connection): All communication creates an impression of the communicator that either strengthens or weakens the …
