Effective Communication

Do you ever struggle to get your message across? Do you get frustrated because you know you are making a sensible point but you just can’t seem to drive it home?

 

If that is the case, you could probably benefit from using metaphors or analogies more often. Everybody uses these from time to time because they are part of everyday language. Baseball is a great example of this with any number of expressions being regularly transferred into the business environment to explain a given situation. Most people would understand what I meant if I used the expressions ‘Stepping up to the plate” “Hitting one out of the park” or the “Bases were loaded”. In fact they have almost become clichéd they are used that often.

 

Metaphors and analogies don’t need to end at the ones that are in regular use. That would be like saying we don’t need to develop any new medicines because they are already lots out there. There you have a metaphor that explains what I mean in different terms. It wasn’t particularly clever and took me about 5 seconds to think of but it makes the point. Imagine how much more effective it would have been if (and I am presuming you aren’t) you were in the medical profession?

 

It is quite easy to make up metaphors that fit the situation that you are in. I had somebody phone me up recently that was looking for a life coach. We had a general chat and it was apparent that he was an avid motor sport fan after he chatted about the highly successful British racer, Lewis Hamilton. I was trying to explain that I use an holistic approach to life coaching that involves looking at all aspects of the person and he really didn’t get why that was necessary. I then said “It’s like balancing a racing car, you may have the best engine in the world but if the brakes are no good it wont win. Or if you have the best car and the worst driver you wont win. Or the best car, best driver and a terrible pit crew you wont win. Everything needs to be in balance not just one or two things. He got what I meant then.

 

If you want to be understood better and be a more effective all round communicator I would encourage you to use metaphors more frequently. They aren’t difficult to use and you will be amazed at the results. If you’d like to know more there is a brilliant download called Metaphorically Speaking by Jamie Smart a trainer in the UK. (Click on store and then on the link under best sellers) It’s well worth the money and I guarantee it will have you thinking out of the box ;-)

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