How many of us have ever wanted to become the most valuable person in our profession and/or professional position?

As I continue to improve and become a more efficient leader within the automotive industry and sales profession; as a whole, I’ve been fortunate to learn from the best in the business.  This concept of being the most valuable person is centered around becoming a master communicator, one that I train on with my professional and personal mentor, Andy Elliott, who coaches me to this very day.

I utilize these five things every day in my professional roles in automotive sales with our customers, staff, and community members as well as being diligent to apply them in my personal life with family, friends, and anyone I say hello to.  I believe that if you take these five things serious; and want to become masterful at communicating, you can become the most valuable person to anyone and everyone that you come into contact with.  

1. Master Public Speaking

This is an area that everyone should want to master and it will create an immediate impact.  Think about it.  Every verbal interaction with another individual is  part of the definition of public speaking, or the “act of speaking face to face to a live audience.” Have you ever said, “Let me rephrase that”, or “Does that make sense”?  

When we say either one of those statements, I believe,  it’s because there is a lack of confidence that what we are saying to someone is being understood by the other person/persons.  Do you view yourself as a public speaker?  Do you view what you do as part of a public speaking role?  If you are serious about mastering your communication skills then you have to accept the fact that you are a public speaker first and foremost.  

After accepting this, it’s time to go to work on becoming confident with how you speak.  The more effective you are with how you speak and communicate with others will create so much self-confidence that you start seeking out opportunities to create new conversations and improve on the ones you’re already having. 

2. Master Listening

Communicating is such an important skill that you have to be great at, regardless of your profession.  In order to best serve your customer base, staff, and/or community at large, you have to be great at speaking to them; however, if you aren’t actively listening, you will limit your ability to successfully communicate with others and ultimately will lose credibility as well.  

Asking great questions and then writing down the “hot button” responses from those questions you’ve asked, is crucial to becoming a master at listening.  In my opinion, people believe more of what they see versus what they hear so your actions in the listening process are paramount. Whatever you do, don’t write things down to just write them down.

Write down what is important to those you are speaking to because they will see the benefits from that and feel more confident that you’re someone that is listening to them, not just appeasing or hearing them.

“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” – Tony Robbins

3. Master Your Personality

The way you’re “easy to talk to” or “difficult to approach” is part of the way your personality is engineered.  It’s important to understand your energy level during the communication process because it will create the impression that you’re either going to be someone others want to talk to or someone that they don’t.  

Your personality is a reflection of how you will be to work with and/or communicate with long-term; and, can either be an asset for you or a liability in all of your interactions.  Do you sound confident and excited to others when you are engaging with them?  Are they moving towards you in the communication process or are they retreating from you?  

To best start mastering your own personality, reverse engineer the process by studying and auditing how others communicate with you.  Remember that personality is reflective. So being able to observe how others communicate with you and what their personality is like with you, is a great way to see how they might already perceive you and your personality with them. 

How did they make you feel during the interaction?  Did you feel they were excited to be speaking with you or just going through the motions?  

4. Master Your Tonality

Your ability or inability to inflect during the conversation and the timing of your inflection is exactly how the person on the other end of that conversation is going to react to you so that they match your current level of the communication as well.  

By becoming a master of your tonality, what you are showing is a discipline to controlling your emotions.  What I want you to do right now is think about two conversations that you’ve had where one went well and the second one went bad. 

 I can almost bet that you can identify the exact moment in those conversations where you knew it was moving in the right direction and where it had taken a wrong turn.  One great way to begin mastering your tonality is to record yourself having a phone conversation with a customer, prospect, or family member.  

Now replay that conversation back and write down the areas during the conversation where you hear yourself shift the tone of the conversation as well as the same areas in which the person on the other end of the phone or in-person interaction does the same thing.  This is a great way to start identifying how to master your tonality right away. 

5. Master Your Ability To Transfer Emotion

This is where your current state of mind, mood, and knowledge on the topic being communicated about is shifted by you to the other party you’re communicating with.  When you’re around someone that captivates you, that peaks your interest, and holds your attention, it’s because they’ve created an emotional reaction from you that you want to invest more into. 

 At the same time, if you are around someone that frustrates you or makes you want to cut the interaction off with them, it’s because they’ve created a reaction from you where you feel that they are withdrawing energy from you. 

 Imagine if you were the cause of that happening to someone else? Possessing a grateful mindset and having the best attitude is key to mastering your ability to transfer emotion and is where you need to start right away.  

It’s important now more than ever that our ability to communicate with one another is transparent, in a state of reciprocity, and deposits more first into others than it withdraws.  If you focus on being great at these five things you will become a master communicator and dominate your professional and personal interactions with precise efficiency and effectiveness.