Matt Abrahams

And the reality is, I don't know about you, but a lot of native speakers of English

They don't speak English so well either themselves.

So I think it's all about getting your point across and using repetition and other tools to help.

First, set expectations up front.

Setting boundaries can be helpful.

So if I'm going into a situation, I might say, I want to spend the first five minutes laying the foundation to what I'm going to say.

And then I'd love to take your questions.

So if the person does interrupt, they're violating an expectation that was set.

And that puts you in a better position to maybe shut it down.

You can say, thank you.

I hear you're really anxious.

I really want to get through this material.

So setting boundaries can help.

I believe one of the most useful communication tools is paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is where you take what somebody has said, you synthesize it, and you distill it down to something important.

If somebody interrupts you, you can take the floor back by paraphrasing what they've said and moving back on.

So if I'm talking about the financial implications of something and you come in and give me your opinion and you interrupt me, I can say, cost is really important.

And in fact, I just took it back from you.

If you are somebody who wants to just share your overwhelming knowledge and you're one of those people who bloviates,

I can stop that by interrupting with a paraphrase.