Many people who struggle with getting respect to feel like they have no voice and nobody listens to them.
Are people ignoring you, interrupting you, or talking over you?
Are people not paying attention when you speak?
Are your opinions overlooked or your feelings brushed aside?
Making yourself heard will help you develop more of a presence. That presence will earn you respect from the people close to you, both family, friends, and work
1. Use people’s name when you’re talking to them.
2. Avoid overly complex language so that you are easily understood. (People will resent you if they can’t understand the words you use.)
3. Talk about things that interest the other person. (A common mistake is to only talk about your own interests.)
4. Ask more questions about the other person – this will keep their focus on you.
5. Use hand gestures to make your message stronger and more clear.
6. Keep more eye contact (make sure you give everyone in the group about equal eye contact to keep everyone’s interest.)
7. Exercise your voice and articulation to get a strong voice that everyone hears. (Read more here about vocal projection.)
8. Minimize complaining and negativity (make people feel good listening to you.)
9. Avoid bragging. (People will see through it and think less of you for it.)
10. Use effect pauses. (Silence has a big impact on speech. Read more about it here.)
11. Vary your tempo and tone when speaking. This makes you more interesting to listen to. (Practice at home by recording yourself speaking.)
12. Ask people for feedback about how you can improve your speech.
If you can practice all 12 steps and put them to practice, soon you will be speaking to a large audience and they will listen and applaud you
