How to speak well and confidently

Are you very shy when it comes to new surroundings, such as starting a new class or moving to a new area? Sometimes, it is necessary to overcome your shyness and speak confidently. By doing this, it can help you not only to share your ideas properly to others, but also to learn communicating with others. Here are a few steps to consider when speaking with confidence.

Steps

1. Learn how to have conversations with people. Your ideas or opinions may not always be accepted by others, but this is nothing unusual. Open your mouth, express your beliefs! This will improve your courage.
2. Don’t be afraid and speak loudly. If you speak in a low voice, not only will others not be able to hear what you say, but you will also portray a submissive demeanor, which suggests the opposite of a confident one.
3. Make eye contact when you speak. For one thing, it is polite for others. Also, eye contact will help others to listen to your thinking carefully.
4. Praise yourself everyday! This will promote your own confidence, which is important when you speak. With more confidence, people will take your thinking more seriously.

Tips

• Don’t be nervous when you make mistakes. Human error is far from being a new concept — nobody is perfect! It is normal for everyone to make mistakes. Just calm down and keep speaking bravely.
• Try and try again! This may be difficult for a shy person at first, but you need to force yourself to speak, and not seclude your thoughts. If you have some ideas, then try to speak out! Don’t just keep them in your head.
• If you have self confidence issues, try to think that you are the only one who has sound knowledge about the topic. Then go ahead and impart your knowledge to the audience in an effective way.
• Remember that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Don’t portray an exaggerated amount of confidence, or you will come off as arrogant, believing that your ideas are better than the ideas of everyone else.

How to Convince People Effectively

The ability make others believe what you believe is important for success in many fields. There is often a fine line between convincing somebody your views are valid and annoying them. In this article we'll look at some of the techniques you can use if you want to convince another individual to believe what you believe.

Steps

* Do the homework. Make sure you understand your own viewpoint. If you are going to try to convince somebody that the Eiffel Tower is taller than the Statue of Liberty, find out the facts first, don't make assumptions.

* Learn the field. For certain areas you will need to know more than just the facts, as some subjects are subjective. For example, if you wanted to convince somebody that the Statue of Liberty was prettier than the Eiffel Tower you will need to know enough about architecture and aesthetics to argue about that subject, as well as the facts, like how tall they are. If you are selling something, like a car, you will need to know all there is to know about the car you are selling. Likewise, you will need to know all about the other cars that are in competition with your vehicle.

* Engage the person politely. Maintain eye contact where possible, but don't be annoying about it.

* Establish mutual respect. You will never convince anybody of anything if they believe you do not respect them, so show the person you respect them and be good enough to gain their respect.

* Gain trust. To convince people of most things you will need their trust. They don't have to trust you as a person, but they do need to trust that what you are saying makes sense, that you know your "stuff". The best way to do this is to do your homework and fieldwork, that way you know a lot about the subject.

* Listen carefully to what your debate partner has to say. Respond thoughtfully to their point of view.

* When you can, back up what you say with real facts. Lying will only convince somebody until they find out about the lie, then you will never be able to convince them of anything again.

* Be willing to be convinced. Sometimes accepting one point from the other person and showing that you can change your mind when you are wrong will help them to be the same, and change their mind about the subject you care about.

* Practice active listening. Active listening helps you control a conversation and keeps it on track. Active listening techniques include:

· Non-verbal feedback. Nodding your head as the other talks etc.

Paraphrase what the other person has said to make sure you understand it.

* Make sure you understand the other person's objections and respond to them in an intelligent manner.

* Keep vigilant about your belief, but always respectful of the beliefs of others. Explain why your belief is important to you.

* Understand the other person's motivations. If you know what another person wants, you are more likely to be able to give it to them.

* Rephrase your beliefs in a way that the other person is better able to understand.

* Follow up. Ask questions to make sure the other person understands their new views completely.

Tips

· To hold the eye of a crowd select individuals in the crowd and hold their eyes on-and-off through your presentation.

· Never lose your cool. Nothing lacks conviction more than a raving idiot.

· Always be friendly and respectful even if the other person does not change their mind.

· Beliefs fade. You may think you have changed somebodies mind but find that in a day or two, perhaps a week, they are right back to where they were before.

· Buy and read some books on sales techniques.

The Qualities of Skillful Leadership by Jim Rohn

If you want to be a leader who attracts

quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself.

Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills,

and opportunities you offer as an owner, as

a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the

great challenge of life.

What’s important in leadership is refining

your skills. All great leaders keep working

on themselves until they become effective.

Here are some specifics:

1. Learn to be strong but not rude. It is an

extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of

reach. Some people mistake rudeness for

strength. It’s not even a good substitute.

2. Learn to be kind but not weak. We must

not mistake kindness for weakness.

Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain

type of strength. We must be kind enough

to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind

enough and considerate enough to lay it on

the line. We must be kind enough to tell it

like it is and not deal in delusion.

3. Learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes

boldness to win the day. To build your influence,

you’ve got to walk in front of your group.

You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle

the first problem, and discover the first sign of trouble.

4. You’ve got to learn to be humble but not

timid. You can’t get to the high life by being

timid. Some people mistake timidity for

humility. Humility is almost a God-like word

A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An

awareness of the human soul and spirit. An

understanding that there is something

unique about the human drama versus the

rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having

the feeling that we’re part of the stars.

Humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease.

Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but

it is a problem.

5. Be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride

to win the day. It takes pride to build your

ambition. It takes pride in community. It

takes pride in cause, in accomplishment.

But the key to becoming a good leader is

being proud without being arrogant. In fact,

I believe the worst kind of arrogance is

arrogance from ignorance. It’s when you

don’t know that you don’t know. Now that

kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone

is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that.

But if someone is ignorant and arrogant,

that’s just too much to take.

6. Develop humor without folly. That’s

important for a leader. In leadership, we

learn that it’s okay to be witty but not silly.

It’s okay to be fun but not foolish.

Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save

yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is.

Life is unique. Some people call it tragic,

but I’d like to think it’s unique. The whole

drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating. And

I’ve found that the skills that work well for

one leader may not work at all for another.

But the fundamental skills of leadership can

be adapted to work well for just about

everyone: at work, in the community, and

at home.

(Source: Jim Rohn, motivational speaker,

author, philosopher, and entrepreneur.

http://www.jimrohn.com)