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December
13, 2002:
Improving Verbal Communication II
Interview
with Meryl Runion, author of Power
Phrases
Mike
Carruthers:
When we speak, we sometimes inadvertently dilute our own message.
Meryl
Runion:
For example, sometimes people will say, "I just have
one little question." You don't want to ask that! First
of all, "one little question" makes it sound insignificant.
Just go ahead and ask the question.
Meryl Runion,
author of the book Power
Phrases, hates phrases like…
"I'll
try. I'll try to make a change here." Well, there's nothing
decisive about that. People who speak powerfully say "I
will" instead of "I'll try." "It's just
my opinion" rather than "I believe." "I
tend to think" rather than "I think." "You
might want to consider" instead of "I recommend."
When we speak more strongly, people take our recommendations
more seriously.
When you're
talking to people, Meryl says it's important…
…to reframe
things in terms of shared needs or shared interests. For example,
someone from technical support is resisting a request from someone
whose computer isn't working. Instead of going down and saying,
"What is the matter with you? What is your attitude?"
you say, "How can we resolve the tension between us around
getting my computer fixed? What can we do to make this work
for both of us?"
And an important
power phrase to remember when dealing with your boss is…
"This
is what I need in order to be able to do a good job for you."
That's a really strong power phrase to use with an employer.
There's
a link to Meryl's website
on ours, somethingyoushouldknow.net.
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's "Something You Should Know."
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