Successfully Speaking

 
 "Achieve Excellence in Communication"
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Lynda Katz Wilner, M.S., CCC-SLP is a corporate communication trainer and 
a Speech and Language Pathologist.
She is the founder and director of Successfully Speaking, a woman-owned communication consulting firm, which specializes in professional speaking skills, foreign accent modification, and regional dialect reduction for native and non-native speakers.

Ms. Wilner developed and published Medically Speaking: Accent Modification for the Medical Profession, The Medically Speaking Inventory: Assessment of Accented Speech, and collaborated with Marjorie Feinstein-Whittaker in the development of  RULES, Medically Speaking RULES, Medically Speaking Idioms, RULES BY THE SOUND, and Boston RULES. She trains individuals, groups, and trainers around the United States with her unique programs. 
Questions?

Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about you or your employees. For your convenience, I can meet with you and/or your staff at your workplace. Otherwise, we can arrange a complimentary telephone or web-conferencing meeting.

 

CHRA Spring Conference

I look forward to seeing many of you at the CHRA Spring Conference at the Hunt Valley Marriott on Thursday, April 28th.  Please stop by the Successfully Speaking table to say hello and ask any questions about the communication skills of you, your staff, or your employees. There will be a raffle for a free communication consultation for you or an employee of your company.

SMEI Meeting-Successfully Speaking:

Watch Your V's

I will be the guest speaker at the April 12th meeting of SMEI (Sales Marketing Executives International) at 7:30-9:30 a.m. at PSA Insurance & Financial Services, Hunt Valley MD. click to register
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 April 2011

Hello Colleagues and Friends,

 

It's finally Spring!!  Let's hope the weather becomes warmer so it really does feel like April! 
  
Please let me hear about some of your challenges related to communication and I will feature them in an upcoming newsletter.
  
Here is a common situation that HR Professionals may experience: 
Communication Breakdowns
 

People often ask how they should handle communication breakdowns with employees or colleagues. An example of such breakdown might be when you are speaking with an employee or a colleague and you are not  able to understand what he/she is saying. Or, maybe a supervisor comes to you with concerns that a particular employee is not understood in meetings, with co-workers, or when dealing with the customers, patients, or clients.

What should you do when a co-worker is not understood?

  • Be patient
  • Watch your own non-verbal language; be sure that your facial expressions or body language do not make you appear impatient or frustrated
  • Let the person know you are truly interested in what he/she is saying
  • Maintain eye contact with the individual  
  • Ask him/her to state what you don't understand another way 
  • Ask him/her to write down what they are trying to communicate or to spell out the difficult word 
  • Rephrase what you think you heard and request confirmation; "If I understood you correctly, you said _________. Is that correct?"

What if people do not understand you? Here are some tips for repairing your own communication breakdown:

  • Remain calm
  • Speak slowly
  • Maintain good eye contact
  • Give the listener permission to ask for repetitions; e.g., "I know sometimes I am difficult to understand. Please ask me to repeat if you do not understand what I said."
  • Use gestures or visual cues (pictures, graphs, PowerPoint slides)
  • Spell out difficult words
  • Rephrase what you say
  • Emphasize the important word(s)
  • Observe listeners' nonverbal communication (puzzled look, absence of acknowledgment) and respond accordingly
  • Confirm their understanding ("Did you understand that?")
Free 30 Minute Webinar - May 11th at 12:30
Communication Skills Training for Your Employees

 

client JB

  • What is Communication Skills Training?
  • How does this fit with Title VII - The Civil Rights Act?
  • What is addressed in training?
  • What formats are available?
  • What are the outcomes of training? 

  WHEN: Wednesday, May 11th, 12:30-1:00
Our Vision

Successfully Speaking enables individuals from diverse backgrounds to achieve excellence in communication and maximize their professional success.

 

Warm regards, 

 

Lynda
Lynda Katz Wilner, M.S.
Successfully Speaking
Telephone/Fax: 410.356.5666