To extract value out of your words is to become a successful persuader. Speakers with good verbal skills spotlight more credible, competent, and convincing. Following on, how to make your words more powerful promotes ideas that have you extracting the most value from your words, to secure the cooperation of others, advance your cause, and become more successful.
Here Headlines How To Make Your Words More Powerful
1. Use Affirmative Language
Talk positively, and use words that communicate precisely what you expect to happen. For example, faced with an unenthusiastic worker, you can say, “when you finish your report today, we’ll all celebrate by ordering pizza.” Not “If you finish your report today, we’ll all celebrate by ordering pizza.”
2. Speak Assertively
Describe yourself, beliefs, and achievements positively and confidently when talking. Go for “I believe…” Not “well it’s only my view, of course, I could be wrong, but I would say…”
3. Accept Responsibility
Kick the language of victimisation. Instead of blaming others when you speak, take control and accept responsibility for your circumstances. Use your words to shape your circumstances for the better. On this, avoid this kind of statement. “That’s not my section. You’ll have to talk to someone else to help you.” This is better. “I’ll assist you. I’ll get the person responsible to contact you.”
4. Talk Win-win
Use win-win phrasing to stimulate cooperation when negotiating. In line with, to turn win-lose to win-win, replace “that’s not practical; it’ll never work” with “that’s a new approach; let’s talk about it and examine its positives and drawbacks.”
5. Communicate Decisively
Avoid waffling or vacillating. Go straight to the point and say exactly what you mean. Decisiveness shows you in a confident and credible light. In harmony, throw over” I think this will probably meet your needs” for “this matches your needs exactly and delivers what you want.” Clearly, decisiveness starts you gaining upon the ideas of how to make your words more powerful.
6. Speak The Language Of Integrity
By avoiding phrases that make people question your honesty and sincerity, you convey integrity. Further, shove over “to the be perfectly honest, we had to reprimand John for poor performance” for “we had to reprimand John for poor performance.” Without doubt, integrity helps you to flesh out the ideas of how to make your words more powerful.
7. Keep Off the Intensifiers
Intensifiers like “very,” “definitely,” and “surely,” weakens our language, and makes us sound weak and ineffective. In keeping, let go of “I’m going to work very, very hard to succeed” for “I’m going to work hard to succeed.”
8. Shun “Hesitations” And “Fillers”
Hesitating a lot and relying on fillers like “as uh” “umm” and “well” portrays us powerless. Fillers express uncertainty and a lack of confidence.
9. Refrain From Tag Questions
A question at the end of a statement is known as a tag question. Tag questions communicate uncertainty and damage credibility. Here is a tag question to avoid. “This option will cost too much, don’t you think?” Openly, the ill of tag questions prevents us from coming into the use of ideas behind how to make your words more powerful.
10. Stay Away From Disclaimers
Disclaimers feature as introductory expressions asking the listener to show understanding or be tolerant. Disclaimers start the listener doubting, disagreeing or questioning your expertise. A classic disclaimer to kick headlines. “I’m not an expert in this field, but…”
11. Ditch Hedges And Qualifiers
We employ hedges and qualifiers when we are unsure of something or afraid to assert ourselves. When we become uncertain, we say, “I sort of liked that proposal.” Better, “I liked that proposal.”
12. Keep Clear Of Irritators
Irritators stand as phrases that annoy the listener while conveying vagueness, uncertainty, and incompetence. For example, saying, “I know I’m not communicating this clearly, but you know what I mean,” implies that you can’t be bothered clarifying your thoughts.
13. Try Not To Be Overly Polite
Over-politeness conveys powerlessness, timidity, and uncertainty. Avoid using please and thank-you too often. However, it is appropriate to apologise when you make a mistake or inconvenience someone. What is more, it is not constructive to apologise for a situation over which you had no control. This statement puts a construction on this. “I apologise about the power failure.” In this situation, it is better to simply state the problem and detail your solution.
14. Ask What’s In It For The Other
Whether you are selling an idea, product or service, it is constructive to remember that the person you are trying to convince wants to know, what’s in it for me? To answer this question helps you to be more convincing. Benefits cement the sale, as they are warm and tempting. Others respond to your persuasive proposition to gain something they do not have or to avoid losing something they now possess.
Plus, these three questions help us to develop a unique selling point. What benefits will the other derive from my proposition? Next, what proof or evidence can offer to show it will work? What is unique or different about my proposal?
15. Put A Positive Spin On Your Message
Words often spark an emotional reaction within us, altering our moods, attitudes, and feelings. For example, the word “hopeless” can trigger negative associations that start our faces sagging and our pulse rate dropping. In contrast, words like “patience” and “courage” has an opposite effect. Following from, positive words make us feel confident, secure, and comfortable; negative words, uneasy or depressed.
Clapping on, these attention-grabbing words can help us to accentuate the positive in our presentations or proposals. Free. Fun. Guarantee. Benefit. Easy. Health. How to. Love. Money. New. Now. Proven. Results. Safe. Save. You/your. “New” and “free” frequently stand out beyond others. Advertisements and sales letters are often peppered with words and phrases suggesting “news.” Introducing. Announcing. Now. The first. At last. Finally.
16. Use Euphemism To Take The Sting Out Of Words
When the truth is unpalatable or harsh, experienced communicators often use euphemism to take the sting out of words and make them bland, to pacify an audience. For instance, under President Reagan, the MX missile was renamed the Peace Keeper. During wartime, civilian casualties headline as “collateral damage.”
17. Leverage The Magic Of Antithesis
Opposite meanings are juxtaposed in the same sentence, in an antithetical statement. The sentence features like a seesaw with the two parts balancing each other. Here is an example from President John F. Kennedy. “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” Similarly, this is from Charles Dicken’s classic “A Tale Of Two Cities.” “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Memorable antithetical statements have words balanced on both sides, short and simple, and often ends positively.
18. Employ Repetition For Effect
To use repetition effectively to increase persuasiveness, confine your repetition to key words and phrases. Examples from President Lincoln feature. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” delivered in Gettysburg in 1863. From his second inaugural address, we have “with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right.” This is from Churchill when he paid tribute to the pilots of the Royal Air force for their heroic role in saving England during the battle of Britain in 1940. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much, owed by so many, to so few.”
Conclusion
An effective persuader and communicator who advances the cause of his proposal or presentation, extracts the most value from his words. How to make your words more powerful boasts of ideas that help you to appear more convincing and credible.
