Up, Up, and Away: 7 Oral Communication Tips for First-year Associates

Originally posted on Spoken With Authority

Congratulations on launching your career as an attorney! Here are seven oral communication tips to make sure that you have a smooth take off in your new profession:

1 - Show Up

More and more work events are happening in person. Attend some so your new colleagues can meet you face-to-face. If you are limiting your exposure to big groups, be strategic about attending events that are outdoors or that have attendees you are particularly eager to meet. Don’t hesitate to mask up – you need to do what makes you feel comfortable, and your colleagues will respect your choices.

When you’re going to meetings and events online, turn your camera on whenever possible, especially when you are speaking. It’s a great way to help your colleagues and clients associate your face and name. If you don’t already have a professional headshot, get one and add it to your videoconference platform profiles so it will be displayed during those rare times when you need to turn your camera off (to take an urgent call or attend to a knock at your door).

2 - Speak Up

Hopefully, you are already using a decent wired earbud-microphone combo or headset for videoconference calls. This makes it easy to hear your voice without your having to speak up. When you head back to in-person conversations, meetings, and events, you need to project your voice to compensate for not using a microphone and increased background noise. When you are wearing a mask, it takes several decibels off your volume, so speak even louder.

3 - Perk Up

Being on videoconference calls all day can cause Zoom fatigue. Being in an office and talking all day can zap energy too. Make sure you take breaks from meetings and interactions to recharge. Also, be intentional about dialing up enthusiasm with facial expressions and vocal variety to show that you are eager to be part of your new work environment. Note that you generally feel much more enthusiastic than you come across to others.

4 - Hold Up

Record yourself practicing your personal introduction before meeting new colleagues. Watch the video so you can gauge how energetic you actually come across to others. www.spokenwithauthority.com 202-210-4916 info@spokenwithauthority.com 1. Show Up 2. Speak Up 3. Perk Up When speakers are nervous or excited, they often increase their use of “junk words” – words that litter their communication and make it less polished. These can include “um,” “ah,” “like,” “you know,” “so,” and “sort of.” Be mindful to avoid these junk words when possible, especially at the start of a statement. It is more powerful to say, “Good afternoon. My name is . . . “ than “Um. Errr. Well. Hi, my name is . . .” Again, use recording and review of your personal introduction or a contribution to an upcoming meeting to become more aware of your use of junk words and to help reduce them. Don’t stress about eliminating every single junk word; they are a (small) part of conversational English. The goal is to have short pauses instead of junk words more often than not, and to limit the use of junk words to one or two per minute. Pauses are also a great opportunity to remind eager early career professionals to keep comments brief, stay out of the weeds, and pause to listen to colleagues.

5 - Look Up

Making lasting eye contact is a tried-and-true way to build rapport and to convey confidence. Resist the urge to script out your messages for meetings and read them word for word, which many online presenters think is not noticeable. It is. Instead, jot down a few talking points and say them aloud three times for the three questions you expect to get asked in a meeting. For in-person meetings, hold eye contact for three seconds with various people around the meeting table and make brief glances at notes as you shift from looking at one participant to another. For online meetings, gaze directly into the webcam or computer camera between brief glances at your notes, which you can affix to the edges of your computer monitor with a Post-It Note at eye level to reduce glances down. You don’t need to break eye contact every three seconds during computer-mediated communication because listeners won’t feel stared at as they would if you were face-to-face.

6 - Dress Up

If you fell into some bad habits during online education, like wearing a baseball cap or leisure clothing to class, now is the time to re-evaluate your look. Many offices are embracing business-casual styles, especially for online situations. That still means you should wear a clean and unwrinkled shirt (ideally something with a collar such as a button-down or polo shirt) or a nice sweater. Groom for online events as you would for in-person meetings. This includes styling your hair, shaving facial hair, applying makeup, etc. Always err on the side of being more formal than less formal for online, in-person, and hybrid workplace events. You’ll likely never regret wearing a suit if others aren’t, but you will regret wearing khakis if others are wearing suits.

7 - Level Up

Like clothing and personal care, your background for online conversations, meetings, and events should get an upgrade when you start your professional career. You should not lie on your bed or sit on a couch for online work meetings. Use an office chair at a desk or a dining chair at a table or counter and curate a crisp and uncluttered background. A plain painted wall or kitchen cabinets behind you are great options. You also can utilize the blur feature to reduce background distractions if you can’t curate an uncluttered backdrop in your dwelling. After you improve your background, get your camera to eye level with a stack of books or a computer stand, sit close to the camera so you take up more real estate in the videoconference gallery, use an external microphone such as an inexpensive wired earbud-microphone combo, and consider supplementing with an artificial-lighting ring or cube to brighten your appearance in virtual meetings. Together, these tweaks will bolster your professionalism in computer-mediated workplace communication situations.

As you launch your legal career, pay close attention to your oral communication skills. Remember to show up, speak up, perk up, hold up, look up, dress up, and level up to elevate your professional presence, es