How To Improve Your Conversation Skills

Conversation skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Some people, including myself, find conversations hard work at times and don’t always know what to say to people. I would class myself as an introvert, and I also experience social anxiety to some degree in many of my social interactions, which doesn’t help! However, I believe that conversation skills can improve with practice, and they are worth working on because conversations can be really rewarding and enjoyable when they go well and flow naturally.

Over the years, I have built up a few skills that have helped me to become better at conversations, even when I am feeling anxious. The tips I will share in this blog post will apply to anyone who wants to improve their conversation skills, but they will be especially relevant to people with social anxiety and anyone else who finds conversations particularly difficult.

I will mostly refer to casual conversations where you are talking to a friend. But most of the points in this post will apply to more formal conversations too, as well as group conversations with multiple friends, family members or colleagues.

These tips apply to video calls as well as in-person conversations. For more specific tips for coping with video calls,

Top Tips for Improving Your Conversation Skills

Make a list of conversation topics in advance

Before meeting with or video calling a friend, I recommend writing down a list of conversation topics in advance. These can include things you have done recently to tell your friend about, as well as questions to ask your friend. You can do this in a note on your phone, or on a piece of paper. If your friend goes to the loo or goes to get a drink, you can subtly check your list and refresh your mind with topics to talk about. On a video call, you can stick your list to the wall in front of you so you can check it during the call.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t get through all the conversation topics that you wrote down. It’s just there in case the conversation runs dry and you need a prompt.

Don’t be afraid of starting ‘random’ topics

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