As a Project Manager here at Tocci, I am responsible for the overall success of the Brookside Square project in West Concord.

One major key to a successful project is communication. In an effort to improve on this important skill, I am working to communicate more confidently and competently than ever before. I do it through local communication, public speaking, and leadership club.

This club offers a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth. It is an established, proven program with clubs nationally and internationally. A few of us here at Tocci belong to a club in Woburn.

Being able to effectively communicate and speak well in front of a group of people is essential in any profession. Here at Tocci, we perform a lot of presentation work to prospective clients and often times the difference between winning and losing a job is how effectively we are able to convey our plan or service to them. Beyond that, when I conduct a weekly meeting with an Owner, I need to speak professionally and tactfully to help meetings run smoothly. Miscommunication leads to mistakes and lost production.

Here are a few tips to communicate more effectively:

• Do evaluate the results of your past communication tactics. It isn’t always a good habit to “do what you always did before.”
• Do put your own thoughts into your words. It sounds more genuine when you use your own words and your audience tends to pay better attention to you.
• Don’t let your nonverbal signals, such as hand and foot movement, eye-rolling, and posture, override your words. These can have a bigger impact on the conversation than what you have actually said.
• Don’t stop learning.

Someone once told me “it’s always good to end a paper with a quote”. They said, “someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong”. So I picked a guy I thought you’d like, and I think his point can be used universally.