Last month I looked at how to develop your conversational skills by adopting a simple trick for asking open questions (thanks to Chrissy and her guest post for inspiring this mini series). In this post I want to take this topic further and look at what the main areas of conversation actually are.

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I’m proud of this blog. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and working on it nearly every day for over a year now. In some ways you could describe it as a second job. However, I don’t cover the topic of blogging here on Organize IT, so why am I writing about it? Over the last year a number of benefits have come to the surface from working on this blog that I never anticipated when I originally started it. These benefits are so profound in my life that I actually feel everybody should have a blog. Here’s why:

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Last week I published a guest post from Chrissy of Executive Assistant’s Toolbox about the art of conversation. One point that stood out for me was asking “questions about what people think and what they’ve experienced” This is typically achieved with open ended questions, which encourage the person you are talking with to say and reveal more, rather than giving “yes” or “no” answers. Ironically, last week I also had a training session at work that discussed the importance of using such questions. The problem is, in the heat of conversation - especially with a new person or a customer - it’s hardly realistic to stop and pause while you analyze what open question to ask.

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This post was written for Organize IT by Chrissy. You can visit her anytime at The Executive Assistant’s Toolbox where she blogs regularly about professional and personal development. Stop by and check out some of her most popular articles, like Confessions of an Egomaniac and New Productivity Tool: Just DO IT Already!

I’ve noticed recently that a lot people, even those I would consider successful professionals, don’t have very good people skills. This is something I have personally worked on quite a bit in my life. Mostly, I’ve done this because I have a natural tendency to be very introverted. I’ve had to push myself to get out there and socialize. Conversation is a necessary evil when it comes to exchanging ideas in a social setting. And it takes work. I believe it is truly an art. What I’m referring to is different than ‘small talk’. I’m talking about dialogue, a true discussion where ideas are traded; not just the idle chit chat we all use to be polite, or put someone at ease, or fill the silence. Conversation is honest verbal communication and a lot of people are simply awful at it! I wanted to share a few tips I’ve picked up along the way. Hopefully, some of you will find this helpful - or perhaps you can pass it on to someone who needs it.

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I recently wrote another guest post (you can read my first ever guest post over at Executive Assistant’s Toolbox) which was published today over at Life Optimizer. Statistically, most people drop new year’s resolutions by the third week, however this need not be the case. The post covers how to recover your new year’s resolutions and then keep focusing on them over the next twelve month. Be sure to check it out and have a browse through other posts on Life Optimizer, there is some very interesting reading there!