Book Review IT’S THE WAY YOU SAY IT

Contributed by- TM Manish Khanolkar

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. -Nelson Mandela

Our lifestyle and living requirements have changed. We are almost in different times. Gone are the days when language was just primary tool of conveying the idea, now it is more in terms of leaving an impactful idea. Effectiveness in communication is not the idea but the necessity of being on higher end of this competitive edge. Language be it sounds or gestures, in the primary stage, it served the purpose of self-sufficiency. As long as man could convey the mind, the thoughts, the functional purpose was solved. Nobody spoke of impact; there were no public speaking and leadership contests or training institutes. Why this refinement of language, the study of language as an art, as a skill under the gamut of Public speaking or soft Skills. Change from functional use of language to the refined study and even more a witty, humorous, motivational, purposeful language can move the audience, convince them, persuade them. It is now developed as a sharper, diplomatic and market oriented tool.

There are hidden and multidimensional layers of language and communication. Sometimes it is as simple as looking into the eye of a friend and holding hands and saying it in softer words “Don’t worry; main hoon na” or sometimes it is about creating a memorization PPT presentation or sometimes is may be just giving meaningful silence in between two words or leaving a pun in between, there is so much of creativity, so much of fun, so much of wit and so much of thoughtfulness. The more we delve into the study of it, the more you find the treasure. If one were to study it carefully, the change is in diction, use, phrases, idioms, special uses in the language brought in by varies faculties of studies like law, medicine, finance, computer and technology, all has laid its impact on language. Read the following sentences with the words in inverted comas carefully.

The “fall” in the “market” has “laid off” many employees.

Your “system” will go “corrupt”, if we “download” too many “files” as the “storage” is less and “roaming” charges apply.

Would you not agree that the words in italics are no more the same as it used to be in the primary stage of communication? It has been redefined with the finance and technological advancement.

We often overlook this growth and redefining process of language. Language is like a phoenix. It dies in some form and takes the birth again in the usages, experiences and requirements of life. The common thread is the need.

Birthday’s

Akash Gupta –06 th January

Anup Kaushal –19 th January

February:

Rashmi (Spouse of Manoj Jain): 26 th February

Sandhya (Spouse of Prasun Kundu): 24 th Feb February

Alok Sahoo –08 th March

Biswajit Adhikari –09 th March

Minakshi (Spouse of Alok Sahoo): 28 th March

Anniversaries

Sambit Panda –06 th February

Alok Sahoo –07 th February

Prasun Kundu 23 rd February

Beautiful rays of the dawn

Fall on my windows

They fill up my life

Like a thousand rainbows

The dance of the sunlight

The bloom of the flowers

The fluttering of the butterflies

Give a meaning to my life.

Contributed by TM Shruti

Sooner or later, people who win are the ones who think they can….

We associate to the bare necessity of “medium to convey the message” in language. This is where the problem starts. We are no more troglodytes and no more in the primitive stage where language with its simplicity was only to “convey” the idea, now we are in a world where we need to be more precise in “ communicating’ the idea.

Whether we like it or loath it, one truth of life is irreversible. We live in a word of cut throat competition, we need to code and decode the intentions, furnish it with facts and figures, embellish it in appropriate words and that should serve the purpose, fit into the time, fit into the occasion, be lucid and precise enough to catch attention and mindful and watchful enough to succinctly project the idea to make a way into the thought process of the other person’s mind a leave an impact. It has to be convincing, persuading and selling the point to push the business. Practice is needed all the more when it is to be done across not one or two but multiple people. Learning is a cognitive process. We need to rehearse, speak, and understand what happens at the level of mind when speaking is under the process of being rated by the listeners. The level of anxiety plays havoc in the mind or the speaker. This perhaps, paved the way for those who initiated the process of defining the experience of “public speaking” and “leadership communication”.

In Toastmasters Club, we gather together to discover the fine tools, we hone our skills, we listen, we clap, we pat, we analyze, we evaluate, we time our speeches, count the areas where things could have been done better, and check where we could have utilized our time even more efficiently. There is nothing right or wrong, only the shades of little imperfections leading to more and more ideas towards excellence. We grow, we learn, we encourage each other. It is a meeting point we nurture our minds, thoughts, skills and feel more empowered. Power of thought, power to speak it right, at the right time, in the right way and do it so skillfully that it lures the attention of the listener, is the ultimate aim and leaving them to hear you wanting to listen to you more is a skill we hone with practice.

In the corner of my mind as these rambling thoughts take a refuge in silence, I go with a firm belief that language in today’s world is a life line. It is something, we need to develop with more experimentations, permutations and combinations, experiences and realizations and most importantly about weaving those words together, to make it a memorable experience for even after man is gone, the words remain in the memories forever.

Book Review

IT’S THE WAY YOU SAY IT By Carol A. Fleming

“No other skills will position you ahead of your competition as much as good speaking and presentation skills.”

Introduction: Speak Your Mind Effectively! The best, most direct way to convey our intelligence, expertise, professionalism, and personality to other people is through talking to them. But most people have no idea what they sound like. And even if they do, they don’t think they can change it. It’s the Way You Say It is a thorough, nuts-and-bolts guide to becoming aware and taking control of how we communicate with others. Dr. Carol Fleming provides detailed advice and scores of exercises for understanding how others hear us, Dealing with specific speech problems, Varying our vocal patterns to make our speech more dynamic, Using grammar and vocabulary to increase our clarity and impact, Reinforcing our message with nonverbal cues, Conquering stage fright.

As we communicate with people, they come to know us both as an individual and as a professional. The only way that people can sense our intelligence and professionalism is through the effectiveness of our communication: what they hear we say, the attitude that they perceive, and the very sound of our voice. Professional communication is important to people in every line of work. While our expertise and skills are, of course, essential, it is our personal verbal communication that transmits our expertise and confidence to other people. While many books out there on communication will tell us what to say, few address how to say it, and even fewer will help us learn how to work specifically with our speech and our voice.

CHAPTER 1 -Assessing Your Voice: If we ask people how they want their speech and voice to be described, they will probably say articulate, resonant, and knowledgeable, clear, persuasive, and confident. These are the characteristics of speakers we admire, and we want to be in that club because we know how very much it matters. The author says one of his clients once said, “Every time you open your mouth, you put your business in the street” (i.e., you put your reputation on the line). Author says it’s a hidden secret: People are not good judges of their own speaking characteristics. They may be aware that there’s something about the way they talk that is a problem for them and they make guesses about the specifics.

CHAPTER 2 - Resolving Specific Problems: Focusing attention on specific issues works! A vague wish about a generalized outcome doesn’t. In this section, author will give us steps to resolve specific problems. Select one communication goal that one is most motivated to achieve. If there are more than one, we can always go back after we’ve made reasonable progress on our first goal. Consider the feedback we’ve received from others. How does it match up with our own listening? Many people are quick to defend themselves against critical description by attacking the source. “Oh, he just says I’m too loud because he really doesn’t want me in the office anyway!” Often people discredit some excellent feedback this way. On the other hand, now that we’ve heard a recording of our own voice, some of our biggest problems may seem clear to us. It is not unusual to have a listener in our office who is flabbergasted by his or her own recorded speech. “Good heavens! I can’t even understand me! That’s what they’ve been trying to tell me!” I’ve heard this many times.

People easily make the leap from the sound of our voice to the nature of our personality. If we sound a certain way, we are a certain way. For example, “He always sounds so friendly.” Have you noticed how good we usually are in making these judgments? Have we ever wondered how this happens?

A good speaking voice offers variation in the stream of sound. This is the feature that communicates our personality. These variations reinforce meaning and increase the intelligibility of our speech. The amount of change we produce in our speaking appears to reflect the extent of our emotional involvement. The sound of our voice carries our attitudes about what we’re saying and about the persons to whom we are speaking.

CHAPTER 4 - Becoming Well-Spoken:

Being well-spoken sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? It puts us in a certain class of people who appear to be polished and verbally competent, fluent, gracious, and proper. We all want to be well-spoken, because we know that (1) we judge people by the way they speak, and (2) we want to make a good impression. To be well-spoken is to be articulate, fluent, and courteous.

Articulate means speaking in a way that is well-formed, clear, and sounds like we mean what we say. It also implies an extensive vocabulary that’s appropriate to the situation. The words people use carry information about their intelligence, socioeconomic background, and educational level. The specificity of our vocabulary reveals the distinctions our mind is capable of making. This is why a vocabulary test is a part of almost every intelligence test and why we care about it so much. Fluent means having words come to us easily and flow effortlessly. There are few extraneous words, sounds, or comments (e.g. ahhh, okay, ya know) that get in the way of straightforward communication. We sense that thought has preceded speaking. Sentences are also well-shaped to easily convey meaning and a consideration of the person being spoken to and a respect for the time of all concerned.

CHAPTER 5 - Unifying Your Verbal and Nonverbal Messages:

“I told you I love you,” he says, his face buried in the newspaper and his voice absolutely flat. This is what is known as a mixed message, and we don’t know what to believe. We probably want to believe the words—the content of the message—but somehow it is just not ringing true.

People read each other in rather complex ways, and we use more than just words to figure out meaning. As it happens, what somebody says—the actual words—carries only a small component of the emotional information, while tone of voice accounts for much more of the impact. But the nonverbal parts, the physical part of facial expression and body language, are registered even more powerfully and can take command of the message. This is how we work our way through sarcasm, noting the difference between tone of voice and the words. And if we’re still not sure, we look at the speaker for more information.

CHAPTER 6 - Let’s Talk Business:

Dealing with the public on behalf of a business requires us to conduct our self in a way that reflects our personal identification with our occupation. We need to understand what being professional means and how we can communicate it. The three aspects of work behavior that will be considered important to our professionalism are our expertise, our attitudes and standards, and our communication skills. Performance reviews always consider communication skills.

Expertise-This word describes what you know or do that has (monetary) value to others. When you “know your stuff,” what is the stuff you know? Your stuff may be old or cutting-edge. It may be traditional and well-understood (dentist), or technical (computer architect), or vague (administrative assistant).