How to Speak So Others Listen!
By Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2008-2010 by Gary Screaton Page. All rights reserved.
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Here are ten useful guidelines for becoming an effective and welcomed companion. They can help you become a more effective conversationalist:
(1) First listen! Then talk about what matters; avoid trivialities.
(2) Choose your company wisely for a profitable interchange of ideas. The best companions, like the best books, uplift, inform, and entertain.
(3) Study the character of your companions. If they are your superiors, learn from them. Ask them questions. Then, be an attentive listener. If they are your subordinates, render them the best service you can. Always be respectful of others regardless of their station in life.
(4) Fill you mind with suitable topics for use when the conversation wanes.
(5) Make a note whenever you hear something especially new, valuable, or instructive. Enter it as soon as you can into a notebook you keep for such conversational jewels.
(6) Always aim to be pleasing in what you say. Never ridicule!
(7) Avoid making hasty statements or drawing conclusions too quickly. Take time to weigh the different sides of a subject. Take a broad view of things.
(8) Let the conversation drift naturally from one subject to another. Do not hold too tenaciously to one subject. Your companions may wish to talk about other things of greater interest to them.
(9) Make yourself inconspicuous in conversation. Never display superiority. Keep a modest manner. Doing so will be to your credit.
(10) Bear patiently with those holding opposite views to your own. You just might be wrong. Don’t miss an opportunity to learn from them.
[Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D. is a Registered Psychotherapist and author of Pressing Your Own Buttons: How to Take Control of Your Life So Others Don’t™ at www.pressingyourownbuttons.com]