The conversation is a necessary skill for almost everything you do in your life. Having a successful conversation, therefore, becomes an important part of whether it is to network with people, introduce you to different people. Without conversing it becomes hard to create your social circle.
While some people find it difficult to maintain the momentum of the ongoing conversation others find it difficult starting it. So here, we present you with a list of 10 tips to have a successful conversation and master the art of conversation.
This guide will help you become a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
1. Start with a Compliment
Compliments are the best way to start the conversation, it psychologically makes the other person listen to you and talk to you, as it makes the other person feel good about themselves.
Just be sure to compliment them and not flatter them the difference between the two is simple one is sincere other is insincere, one comes from the heart out others come from teeth out.
For example: When commenting someone that they are well dressed is nowhere to tell them that their bow tie is cute. It is sincere and from heart hence, opening the door for the conversation.
2. Be a Good Listener
If you are busy planning on what to say next and don’t follow up on what the other person is saying you are surely going to lose some good talking points right in front of you. You may find a few points of similarity between you and the person you have recently met.
3. Ask Questions
Asking questions is a really good way to turn small talk into a meaningful conversation. You should be scouting the entire conversation for “tell me more opportunities”. Keep important questions in the mind to get a chance to know more about the other person and get insights on the topic.
4. Stay up-to-date with the news and store some of it away
You probably don’t want to get into a heated argument on politics with someone you have recently meant, but some of the latest news can be interesting to discuss on.
5. Keep topics ready
Always have topics set in your head, for example, if some business person has visited you then you can discuss their industry, companies, job opportunities, relevant information on that particular topic so you already have a topic to talk about. This will surely help you to keep the conversation
alive.
6. Let the other person do the Talking
This is another topic that sets the other person’s mood off when at the start of the conversation you start dominating the conversations with your views, explanations, anecdotes, comments. This may result in another person becoming disinterested in talking. Instead, let the other person talk ask questions so the person gets a feeling that you are interested in the topic.
7. Don’t be scared by Silence
At times silence can be haunting but only when you are alone and it’s night but here it silence may make the person uncomfortable or make the situation awkward so refocus on the topics and the conversations you had and start again with some of the new topics that you both may have similarities between each other.
8. Be careful about the jokes that maybe perceived insensitive
Be careful about the jokes the other person may perceive to be insensitive, it is always said that sense of humor is a must characteristic of a person, but sometimes it is not right to joke on some topics with a person you have just met or hardly know. It’s much harder to back off from an offensive joke with a person you have recently met.
9. Converse with new people as a practice to improve the skill
As it is always said that ‘practice makes a man perfect’ and we won’t be denying that fact either so we will advise you to converse with as many new people you can as it will increase the horizon of your knowledge on different topics as well as it will help you master the art of conversation. It will also hone your confidence skills to carry out future conversations with unknown people.
10. Note when the person might like to break off from the conversation
Be sure to know and understand when the person might like to break off from the conversation because to be a better converser you should know when to start or close a conversation. If people know that you don’t know when to start or close the conversation they may stay aside from conversing with you.
Submitted By: Arunaksh Chaudhary | Gitesh Jain
(PGDM Batch 2019-21)
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