3 Communication Mistakes You Should Avoid
Stop doing this and your communication will improve
These 3 communication skills are small details that make a huge difference. Most people are not aware of it. If you think this content is useful, you should search for a Toastmaster meetup to learn more about it. I practiced it for more than 2 years, and I became more confident today, communicating better and having more engagement in my communication.
Language Vices
The first mistake to avoid is to use a tom of language vices. What is a language vice? “Hummm,” “Ehhhh,” “Ammm,” or any other sounds you make between sentences and words. Have you noticed people doing this? It is really easy to find it when we pay attention to this detail. The main reason for this mistake is that people are uncomfortable during the silent time, and the solution for this is to be comfortable with having silent moments when you communicate.
Easy to say but hard to execute.
The best way to improve it is to have feedback from someone when you are speaking or to record yourself and watch how many times you use language vices during your communication. Practice is our best friend to be better and have less language vices.
Being prolix
Many people are prolix and are not good at being direct enough in their communication. They spend too much time saying something that could be done in one-third of the time spent.
Imagine when you ask someone one specific question, and this person gives you many other details that are not related to what you asked.
Example: “What is your age?”
The answer: “I was born in Brazil, I lived there all my life, and because I did not like the hot weather, I moved to Canada when I was 27 years old, so I spent 5 years in Canada, and today I am 32 years old”.
This is just one example, and sometimes, it could be fun to say all the details, but unfortunately, this is not the case in most of the time. Especially when we are working in a fast-paced environment, and you need to be more direct in the communication between multiple parts. Imagine a team meeting where we have limited time. You are being prolix to answer a simple question. Yes, this happens a lot, and you should not be doing it.
Solution? Learn to be direct when you need to be direct. It seems simple, but it is really a common mistake people make that you can easily avoid.
Not listening
Another huge mistake people make is NOT LISTENING. They just want to speak, never listen. When it is their time to listen, they are just thinking about what they will speak next instead of practicing active listening. Or even worse, they are multi-tasking, not paying attention to the other parts, using their phones, etc.
Knowing how to connect with humans is one of the best skills you can have, and knowing how to do active listening is one of the best ways to connect with people. So, if you are trying to communicate, you are trying to connect with people, and if you want people to receive your communication in a good way, the best way is to connect with them before. This is called rapport and knowing how to listen is an easy way to create rapport. Remember: communication is not only giving, it is also learning how to receive.
Again, I highly recommend Toastmasters. It helped me to have much better communication in my life. I hope these 3 advices I brought to you today will change your communication to the next level!
Sponsorship:
This newsletter is sponsored by Playbook DPI - Desenvolvimento Profissional Internacional. The product is in Portuguese, and the price is in R$.
It is a practical guide with everything you need to get a job abroad based on my experience. Also, it includes a goal and habits tracker to help you in 2024.
You can access it right now by clicking here.
Podcast:
The last episode of Tech & Accent Podcast:
EP 03 - The Life of an Engineering Manager in Sweden with Leonardo Menezes
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Here is one thing I've enjoyed in the past few days:
I am writing this from Vancouver, Canada. I am enjoying this city this week during my time off after work hours. They have amazing Asian food! It has better weather compared to Montreal, where I currently live. I was able to walk outside without a jacket all week. We rarely have snow here, but that is not the case for Montreal!
Job to share with you this week:
Senior Backend Engineer - Klue Labs (Where I work).
Requirements:
Expertise in at least one of the general programming languages like Python, Ruby, Go, Rust, Javascript, or similar.
Expertise in relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL
Experience in designing REST APIs
Experience using NoSQL databases such as Elasticsearch or MongoDB is a plus
Experience using Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP is a plus
Bonus if you have Data Engineering interest and experience; ETL Pipelines, Snowplow, Snowflake, Big Query Redshift, Airflow, or equivalent.
Apply here.
Have a great weekend!