What is small-talk?
Day by day, I am witnessing the importance of conversation skills. Good conversation skills reduce anxiety in social situations, enhance your leadership skills, improve your quality of life, boost confidence, create pathways and channels for new opportunities, bring new people and dimensions to your life, and bring joy to social events.
First of all, you should appreciate Small-Talk:
- Ice-breaker that clears the way and gets you for more intimate and real conversation
- Lay foundations for a stronger relationship
- A big deal, because it is integral to establish rapport
- Essential to creating and enriching business relationships
- A valuable personal and professional thread that connects people
- Humane – Try to always begin and end your conversations with small talk
- Useful: By effective managers at the front-end of a meeting to set-tone for discussion and create a bridge for more meaningful or difficult dialogue
- Create cohesive teams
- Small talk is the verbal equivalent of that first domino – starts a reaction with all kinds of implications for your life.
Your two primary objectives are:
- Take the “risk”: Of starting conversations with strangers – (Fear of rejection)
- Strangers:
- bring new dimensions
- Potential to become good friends, long-term clients, valued associations
- Bridges to new experiences and other people
- Strangers:
- Assume the burden:
- Take the responsibility to come up with topics to discuss
- Remember people’s names and introduce them to others
- Worth the effort: Shows interest, make them feel special
- Giving your name is as important
- Other’s Comfort
- Relieve awkward moments – fill the pause.
Think and act as a host, who is expected to know and use names and responsible for introductions. Acting as a host put everyone at ease, and creates an atmosphere of warmth and appreciation. Encourage conversations and position yourself as a leader in the group.
Accompany statements with questions – Keep the ball rolling.
From The Fine Art of Small Talk