Effective Communicationm

When I think of the person I know with the greatest communication skills, especially professionally, I often defer to one of my clients.  She works for a large company and is responsible to introducing new products and training new employees.  Socially, she is also an excellent communicator.  Her body language reflects confidence but she remains receptive.  She always stops to ponder a question or alternative viewpoint before responding and makes eye contact regularly.  

I have a terrible habit of interrupting others when they are speaking, especially when I become passionate about the subject matter.  While I tend to do this primarily in social contexts, I often find myself losing my train of though or becoming deficient in making points professionally as I try to monitor my own behavior simultaneously with attentive listening.  Also, because I am generally shy in nature, I  have trouble maintaining eye contact and exhibiting confident body language.  These are things that I have been working on for the last several years, but I often envy people for whom this seems to come naturally.

The saving grace in this situation is that I have come to also know this woman as a friend.  In doing so, I have learned that her abilities do not come naturally at all.  She has simply had the opportunity to practice regularly and admits also feeling incredibly nervous at times; however, she has developed coping strategies that allow her to perform seamlessly in the workplace.  It is my hope that the more opportunities I have to develop my skills, the more easily they will come.  I look forward to learning how to best make changes to my effectiveness as a communicator as I move toward being a more active and advocating member of the field.