How Are Your Interpersonal Communication Skills Limiting Your Career?
If you aspire to senior management and executive roles, the level of your interpersonal communication skills is crucial. Whether you’re leading a team, negotiating deals, or presenting strategies, your ability to communicate clearly and assertively can make or break your success.
Despite your industry experience and expertise, you might be struggling with pain points that are limiting your executive presence. It can be frustrating and damaging to your confidence too, as this as an obstacle to your career progression.
This article delves into the most common pain points I encounter in my work as an executive communication coach, and what you could possibly do to overcome them.
Most Common Pain Points in Interpersonal Communication Skills
① You have something good to share, but you keep quiet instead of speaking up.
② You need to repeat yourself a few times before your listener understands you.
③ You overthink or people-please.
④ You struggle with your words and sentences, even though you have no speech impediments.
⑤ You want to be more assertive, but fear offending others.
⑥ You try to cut short conversations & disengage as quickly as possible.
These are the some of the most common pain points brought up in my coaching room.
The good news is that they can be worked on, and practiced with an executive communication coach. Just like how you learned your technical skills, interpersonal communication skills are learnable as well – you don’t need to be ‘born with it’.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Overcoming the Fear of Speaking Up with Better Interpersonal Communication Skills
As an executive or senior manager, you likely have valuable insights and ideas. However, the fear of speaking up can be paralyzing. You might worry about how your words will be received, fear judgment, or simply doubt the value of your contributions. This hesitation can lead to missed opportunities and a lack of visibility in crucial discussions.
An executive communication coach can help you address these fears by building your confidence and providing strategies to articulate your thoughts clearly. Through coaching, you can learn to trust your voice, understand the impact of your contributions, and overcome the anxiety that holds you back from sharing your valuable insights.
“Working on myself with Ellery’s coaching, I’m able to access my courage to voice out what I want, and to voice my opinions without worrying about what other people think about me.”
Enhancing Clarity & Reducing Repetition in Your Interpersonal Communication
Being called to repeat yourself multiple times before your listener understands your message can be a terrible feeling. It’s time-consuming, leading to miscommunication and decreased productivity. I’ve also heard many executives say it makes them feel demoralized and embarassed.
Improving your interpersonal communication skills involves learning how to convey your message succinctly and clearly from the outset. For a good number of my clients, this alone greatly restores their confidence.
In executive communication coaching, you can work on refining your messaging, ensuring it is clear, concise, and compelling. By focusing on structuring your thoughts and practicing active listening, you can reduce the need for repetition and ensure your message is understood the first time.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Manage Overthinking & People-Pleasing to Strengthen Interpersonal Communication Skills
Some executives and managers find themselves caught in the trap of overthinking and people-pleasing. Overanalyzing every word and action can lead to indecision and inefficiency, while a tendency to people-please can result in compromised leadership and burnout.
In my experience, these people are usually well-intentioned and caring. They want to do a good job while taking care of the people around them. But these intentions can trip them up if they do not have the ’emotional muscle’ for priorities and boundaries.
An executive communication coach can helps you break these patterns. By developing greater self-awareness and learning to prioritize your own values and goals, you can make more confident and decisive communications. This shift not only enhances your leadership effectiveness but also promotes a healthier, more balanced approach to your role.
Better Flow of Speech - The Most Obvious Aspect of Good Interpersonal Communication Skills
Even without a speech impediment, many executives struggle with articulating their thoughts and finding the right words. This challenge can undermine your authority and effectiveness in high-stakes conversations.
Believe it or not, this issue is most often emotional in nature. Nearly none of my clients have speech impediments, yet they report their minds blanking out and suffering a loss of words.
With me, I provide you a safe environment to practice and refine your speaking skills. Through experimentations involving role-playing, active listening, and structured feedback, you can become more fluent and articulate in your communications.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Balancing Assertiveness & Sensitivity in Interpersonal Communication Skills
Finding the balance between being assertive and not offending others is a delicate art. You want to be seen as a strong leader, but not at the expense of alienating your team or colleagues. This fear can lead to either being too aggressive or too passive, neither of which is effective.
Executive communication coaching can help you develop a communication style that is both assertive and empathetic. By understanding the nuances of tone, body language, and word choice, you can learn to assert your ideas confidently while maintaining respect and consideration for others. This balanced approach fosters a positive and productive work environment.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Stronger Interpersonal Communication Skills Allow You To Engage More Meaningfully
If you often find yourself cutting conversations short and disengaging quickly, it is likely another sign that there is work to be done in the area of emotional mastery. Meaningful – and important – conversations will inevitably evoke much emotion.
Where there is risk and reward, there will be discomfort. The ability to dwell in emotional discomfort is crucial for building relationships, understanding perspectives, and driving collaboration.
In the safety of the coaching room, I guide you through experiments that identify your emotional triggers, and uncover your blindspots. We then co-create strategies that optimise your responses. Through my somatic techniques, I can equip you with methods that are simple yet effective for maintaining a clear and focused mind even in the most challenging situations. These somatic techniques can be easily replicated in real-life scenarios, allowing you to boost your interpersonal communication skills and maintain your professional image.
“His practical tools enabled me to increase my confidence in handling difficult situations and stakeholders… His techniques are effective because they work both in your mind and in your body.”
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
The Role of an Executive Communication Coach in Developing Interpersonal Communication Skills
When you work with me to enhance your interpersonal communication skills, you can expect the following methods of support:
Personalized Feedback & Guidance
Through practical experiments in the coaching room, I can provide personalized feedback that target your specific challenges and goals. You’ll gain insights into your communication patterns and receive tailored strategies to improve them. This customized approach ensures that every minute we spend together is 100% relevant to your goals.
Building Confidence
Confidence is key to effective communication. Yet, it’s time-consuming and too risky to practice building confidence out there in the real-world.
Executive communication coaching helps you build confidence by providing a safe space to practice and refine your skills. Through consistent practice and positive reinforcement, you can develop the self-assurance needed to communicate effectively in any situation.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Developing Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a critical component of effective communication. When you develop greater emotional awareness and empathy, it’ll enable you to understand and respond to the emotions of others. This skill is particularly important in high-stakes conversations, where the ability to navigate emotions can make a significant difference in outcomes.
Together, we’ll customize practical techniques that you can replicate at your workplace, to be more emotionally-agile.
Benefits of Improving Your Interpersonal Communication Skills
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
Coaching Is For Self-Driven Individuals
Coaching is a form of super-customised learning, focused solely on your needs. It is one of the most dignified forms of professional help, because you choose the topic, direction and depth of what you wish to work on.
In fact, my clients are NOT ‘broken’ in any way. They are capable, creative and self-initiated individuals who want to live out their full potential. Many of them are high-performers at their workplace.
They just want support to help them hit their objectives more quickly and with less pain.
If taking ownership of your growth appeals to you, coaching is might be suitable for you.
WhatsApp me now and find out how you and I can work together on your communication and confidence.
WHATSAPP COACH ELLERY
“Everybody needs a coach.”
~ Bill Gates