Hi @cloudcore and everyone, 

Definitely pausing before speaking has been helpful because it allows me to gather my thoughts. I'm also pretty good at eye contact and non-verbal communication. I think sometimes my tone can be loud and sometimes I can speak using big words rather than simple language. This is something I definitely need to work on. 

Some other skills I can think of that I know and use are active listening, smiling, using humour, facial expressions and hand gestures.