Is "talking corporate" required to succeed in corporate america?

[huitrecouture]

Kind of.

Higher up it's called "she's been to charm school".

But you can work on the very same skills applying them to your personal life which help your professional life.

You don't have to be necessarily "fast"... like me talking from Philly....but if you're a slower talker you have to compensate by being more concise and effective meaning do NOT use a bunch of extra words and draw your statements OUT. Say what you really want to drive home.

Now if you mean FAST meaning you need time to collect your thoughts and say them, that's something else and you can work on that too or you may just need more experience or practice.

There are some basics.

Try to develop habits like NOT depending on the obvious filler words: "UM, I mean, like, nervous giggle.."

STOP yourself from certain hedge words and phrases: "Maybe this is irrelevant", "I may be way off base" here". Tell yourself you're making yourself look weak and undermining your whole idea.

If it's a QUESTION just ask the question OR a more experience speaker would say something more confident like "Longshot" instead of "I may be off base".

Like you see on Law and Order or Chicago PD when they're brainstorming LOL.

THIS ONE IS EXTREMELY ANNOYING GIVEN THE CURRENT RIDICULOUS PHRASES THE INTERNET AND CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE SO DEPENDENT ON :

"IS IT JUST ME OR....". OMG STOP!!! LOL


This takes practice.

Don't be afraid to be embarrassed and not speak because of it.

If you have a nice supervisor ask for opportunities and feedback starting with a group you're comfortable with.

To become good at something you have to work at something.

OH and once going into a meeting my manager told me to play along she was going to blame me for stuff and trap an underperforming oppositional director into agreeing with her then fire him.

So she goes "I'm not sure Huite has a handle on what the customer wants what do you think?"

I go "I thought I did" sheepishly (I'm usually very confident)

The oppositional Director goes "Right, the customers really don't care if they don't get a bill for a year they take the float on us".

Which was the most ridiculous thing he could have said since they were all complaining about late billing and in what UNIVERSE does a large corporation Fortune 500 WANT their bookeeping all screwed up.

He was fired in THREE DAYS.

All because I went along with the corporate trap and used WEAK WORDS "I thought I did". HAHAHA

That manager who "trained me" with that trick is now a very famous person you might see on TV but I can't say.

She's on the order of say, Carly Fiorina who is an EXCELLENT example of the effective charm school speaker.

Obama's another example but the "hip" version. He knows EXACTLY what he's going to say in advance and with what words but through decades of practice can pull it off sounding very off the cuff and friendly. That's why they call him a gifted speaker. He also often uses downplaying words for concepts that are huge but the low key words don't scare people. So people are like "Oh okay, sure".

If he says "Um" you better believe it's intentional to draw extra attention to his next statment.

Other politicians say things twice. BAD idea but it's a bad habit.

[lair8]

Originally Posted by Durpie22

Everyone I've met who is successful in climbing the corporate ladder has that super professional way of speaking. So talking confidently, concisely, clearly, articulately, fast, etc. Is being able to communicate and speak like this pretty much required? And how long does it take people to learn to speak this way if so?

I'd say helps but it's not the only factor. It's also their mindset and work ethic. Knowing when to sociable and friendly, but also knowing when to be serious and assertive.

I wouldn't say the professional speaking in itself cause these other factors, but rather it's a byproduct. People who have a competitive mindset and want to excel will try to get an advantage in every little way possible.

So, it's not just the little niceties in and of themselves, but the fact that the person cares enough about the job to refine themselves in every aspect.