When trying to build relationships with people, how we converse with them gives them an impression on the kind of person we are, or we are meant to be. Having a great conversation with someone can make them build trust in you instantly and at the same time, can make them feel like you’re not good enough for the relationship you are trying to build with them.
This article speaks about how to come across as confident, and how to engage any conversation.
- Listen First Before Speaking
The smartest people in a room are the people who are calm enough to listen to what the conversation is about, and father insights in their minds before jumping to add their opinion, it makes you sound smart, appear smart and confident. It gives you time to reflect on the bone of contention before even opening your mouth, and this makes your words meaningful and accepted, because then you actually know what you are saying.
- Keep Your Words Clear and Simple
Instead of trying to sound like a “grammatical genius”, it is well appreciated if you keep your words simple and concise, so that people actually understand what you are saying, and they can relate to it, rather than having to be confused about what you meant when you say certain things.
- Speak With Confidence
When holding a conversation with people, how confident you look or sound, determines their impression of you, always try to avoid stammering or shuddering, even when you’re making a mistake, always state your points with confidence, that way, they have the impression that you actually know what you are saying. Do not try to be perfect, try to be confident.
- Make Your Points Relatable
When you are giving a speech or having a conversation, always try to relate with the listener, and put yourself in their shoes. They have a sense of relatability when listening to you, and this makes them enjoy listening to you so much, just because they can relate with what you are saying. Also, give great and relatable examples too, just to make the listeners comprehend better.
- Stay Curious
The key to a great speech or conversation is the knowledge of the speaker, and to gain more knowledge, you have to be vast in so many topics and areas. Training the mind to be curious will open it to learn more, gain more knowledge, by reading books, learning historical facts and basically know a little bit about everything. This makes you sound experienced and confident when holding a conversation
- Admit What You Don’t Know
The process of trying to act like an “all-knower” precedes failing to hold a good conversation, because in that moment, the listeners call your bluff, and that automatically makes you, the speaker, sound like an ignorant person not taking into consideration, any other meaningful point you have made in the past.
- Be Emotionally Intelligent
Understand your listener’s perspective, learn to “read the room” and talk accordingly to that. Avoid any condescending remarks, and even if the listeners were ignorant, they will be willing to learn more from you.
- Learn From Your Listeners
Instead of making the whole conversation feel like a lecture, you can make it lively, and allow listeners air their own opinion too, make it an actual conversation, by allowing people throw in a few words, either to back up your own points, or to air their own opinions.
Sounding smart in a conversation is all about being confident, clear, curious, and considerate. Listen well, train your mind to be curious, ask questions, share insights with confidence, and know when to step back. When people feel heard and respected when they talk to you, they will see you as a smart person and would definitely want to learn from you and have conversations with you.
