Effective communication is an essential art in all areas of professional and personal life. Whether it's for clear presentations, complex negotiations or simply conveying an idea effectively, training is crucial. Here are five practical tips with key techniques for gaining assertiveness and delivering convincing messages.

1. Specify its purpose

Before you even begin crafting your message, it's crucial to clearly define your objective. Ask yourself: what do you want to achieve with this communication? Whether it's to persuade, inform, educate or inspire, having a clear goal will help you structure your message in such a way as to achieve your objective. Imagine you're preparing a presentation to persuade your colleagues to adopt a new way of working. Your objective could be to persuade the team of the benefits of this method for improving efficiency and job satisfaction.

NUMA's tip: to clearly define your objective, complete the sentence "My communication will be successful if"...

• "I generate 10 appointment requests after my conference".
• "Following the presentation of the company's mission... each person in the scope understands the link between the company's mission and their own activity."
  

2. Connecting the grid

Once your objective is clear, build your communication around a solid framework. Determine the key points you need to address to support your main message. Organize them logically and coherently so that your audience can easily follow your reasoning and absorb the information you're communicating.

NUMA's tip: avoid bullet points, but project yourself into the real world right away and imagine yourself presenting to your audience. This is the best way to articulate your speech in a linear fashion. 

3. Separate messages

Avoid overloading your audience with too much information at once. Separate your distinct messages and give each one its due attention. This not only clarifies your ideas, but also makes it easier for your audience to understand and retain the information.

Example: if you're chairing a meeting, deal with each agenda item separately. For example, discuss last quarter's sales before moving on to projections for the following quarter.

NUMA's tip: separate what will go on the slides and what you'll say orally.
‍

4. Start at the end

An often overlooked but powerful technique is to begin your communication with the conclusion or main message you wish to convey. By clearly stating your conclusion at the outset, you guide your audience through your speech, providing a clear framework and direction.

Example: At a strategy meeting, start by stating the key results you want to achieve by the end of the session, e.g. approval of a budget or commitment to launch a new project.

NUMA's tip: avoid long demonstrations or suspenseful "we'll see later, ..." effects. "give me one more moment, ...". "we'll get to that, ..." which don't hold anyone in suspense.
‍

5. Reinforce messages

To make your communication more memorable and persuasive, reinforce your main messages with concrete examples, relevant anecdotes or evidence. Use visual aids if necessary to visually support your key points and capture your audience's attention. These will help you to : 

• Clarity and comprehension: By using concrete examples, anecdotes or evidence, you help your audience to better understand your ideas. These elements make your message more tangible and concrete, making it easier to understand and retain.
• Persuasion: Concrete examples and evidence reinforce the credibility of your arguments. By illustrating your points with tangible facts, you increase the likelihood that your audience will accept and adopt your ideas or recommendations.
• Engagement: Visuals and stories capture your audience's attention. They make your communication more lively and interesting, keeping your audience engaged and interested throughout your presentation or speech.

Example: During a presentation on the impact of climate change, show graphs illustrating temperature trends to reinforce your arguments on the urgency of taking action.

NUMA's tip: when preparing your presentations, follow the equation: 1 slide = 1 message = 1 title.

By following these five tips, you'll be able to create communications that captivate, persuade and inspire your audience, whether in simple everyday situations or the more complex contexts of your professional life. Well thought-out and structured communication is the key to effectively conveying your ideas and achieving your objectives.

Want to go further and equip your teams with the right tools and methods to develop their impactful communication? Discover the NUMA workshop on this topic in our training catalog.