Effective Communication takes real skill…..
These communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. They are at the heart of interpersonal skills and the greater your awareness of how it all works, the more effective your communication will be.
However, even the best communicators can have their communication skills undermined when they get wrong-footed, face potential humiliation, feel misunderstood or get really surprised by someone else’s behavior.
That’s when it all seems to fall apart and people regress to all kinds of inappropriate and unhelpful behavior.
Being a good communicator is often about feeling confident in those situations where you don’t always feel comfortable, so we make life easier for you by enhancing what’s already there.
In other words, you don’t have to learn a whole bunch of radically new things. Being an effective communicator means that other people take you seriously, listen to what you have to say and engage in dialogue.
How to Develop Good Communication Skills
Here are some guidelines for developing good communication skills that you can practice anywhere and at anytime.
1. Make eye contact. Whether you are speaking or being spoken to, looking into the eyes of the person you are in conversation with can make the experience much more successful. Eye contact conveys interest, and encourages the other person to be interested in you in return. When in front of several people, holding the eyes of different members of your audience can personalize what you are saying and maintain attention.
2. Be aware of what your body is saying. Body language can say so much more than a mouthful of words. An open stance with arms easily to your side tells anyone you are talking to that you are approachable and open to hearing what they have to say. Arms crossed and shoulders hunched, on the other hand, suggest disinterest in conversation or unwillingness to communicate. Often, communication can be stopped before it starts by body language that tells people you do not want to talk. Good posture and an approachable stance can make even difficult conversations flow more smoothly.
3. Have courage to say what you think! Communication skills begin with simple communication. Take time each day to be aware of your opinions and feelings. When you are aware of what you believe on a certain issue, you can better convey those thoughts to others.
Individuals who are hesitant to speak because they do not feel they have worthwhile opinions need not fear: what is important or worthwhile to one person may not be to another and may be more so to someone else. In a world so very big, someone is bound to agree with you, or to open your eyes to an even deeper perspective. The courage to say what you think can afford you the opportunity to learn more than you did before.
4. Speak loudly enough to be heard. When you are saying what you think, have the confidence to say it so as to be heard. An appropriate volume can inform listeners that you mean what you say, you have thought about what you are saying, and what you are saying is worth hearing. An appropriate tone and volume ensure your listeners hear exactly what you are saying, and decreases room for misunderstanding.
5. Practice. Communication skills can be practiced every day in settings that range from the more social to the more formal.
You might find that these simple behavior tips can open up new communication opportunities to you. New skills take time to refine, but each time you use your communication skills you open yourself to new opportunities…..
What is communication?
It is a process that involves exchange of information, thoughts as well as ideas and emotions.
Based on the channels used for communicating, the process of communication can be broadly classified as verbal communication and non verbal communication.
Non verbal communication is the most important method of communication that we have available as human beings. It is estimated that 55% of our communication is based on the non verbal communication methods, and only 38% is attributed to vocal communication, whereas written communication comes third with only 7% of our total.
The process of communication involves a sender that encodes and sends a message, which is then carried via the communication channel to the receiver. He/she decodes the message, processes the information and sends an appropriate reply via the same communication channel. This process is similar whether we are employing verbal or non verbal methods of communication.
Communication includes written and oral communication, whereas the non verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals, such as diagrams or pictures, all of which are used as a means of communication.
Important non verbal methods of communication
There are eight main methods of non verbal communication. Generally we are very familiar with the idea of ‘body language’. But this is a general term which covers different types of non verbal communication such as Gesture, Posture and Eye-Gaze.
1. Eye gaze
Eye contact can indicate interest, attention, and involvement. Gaze includes the actions of looking while talking, maintaining eye contact while listening, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation and blink rate.
2. Facial expression
Universal facial expressions signify anger, fear, sadness, surely and disgust. If you smile, frequently, you’ll be perceived as more likable, friendly, warm and approachable.
3. Posture
Your posture, including the pose, stance and bearing of the way you sit, slouch, stand, lean, bend, hold and move your body in space. It can immediately affect the way people perceive you.
4. Gesture
May be articulated by the movement of hands, arms or body, and also includes the movement of the head, face and eyes such as winking, nodding or rolling one’s eyes.
Speaking without gesture, can be seen as boring, stiff and unanimated.
5. Haptics
The word given to ‘touch’ as it refers to communication, includes handshake, holding hands, kissing, backslapping, high fives, a pat on the shoulder and brushing an arm.
The meaning conveyed from touch is highly dependent upon context, the relationship between communicators, and the manner of touch.
6. Paralanguage
This term refers to the non verbal cues of the voice. Acoustic properties of speech such as tone, pitch and accent can all give off a non verbal cues
7. Proxemics
This refers to the non verbal study of space and distance. The concept of territorial space refers to the area around the person that another person is not allowed to enter without consent. For example, the intimate zone is said to be up to 2 feet around the person and is reserved for close friends and loved ones.
8. Clothing and bodily characteristics
Finally, elements such as physique, height, weight, hair, skin colour, gender, odour and clothing send non verbal messages during interaction. They cannot be ignored.
Business communication is one of the most essential ingredients to succeed and build your business acumen. As the online knowledge dispersion has become a reality of broad day light, things have become more complex. In complexity of the things, one of the most important problems raised is the fact that it has become relatively difficult to establish a proper way to determine which one of the bouquet of business communication courses is the right course for you. Here we will discuss some of the major pillars of a vital business communication course that will have a significant impact on your ability to effectively communicate.
The first of all the business communication skills that has the most significance is the basic presentation skills. All the other skills come after the development of this skill. Usually all the other skills’ development are strongly dependent on the skill of presenting your subject matter effectively. Most of the courses teach about the theoretical aspects of the course. This hasn’t been the much appreciated approach by the experts. Presenting to a larger audience is not in fact of thing to teach but to do. A good communication course will help you with a lots and lots of presentations to the audience. It is very hard to learn presenting without presenting. Therefore look for this key thing in a course that how many sessions or presentations are you going to give. The more they are, the better of you really are.
One of the other very important parts of communication skills building process is public speaking. Public speaking is different from ordinary presentation. In public speaking you are not sure about the size of the audience or the type of audience you are going to face. The difference between simple presentation and public speaking is like presenting something to a typically anticipated type of audience VS to an audience you can’t anticipate about. Public speaking further bolsters your confidence and refines your presentation skills.
Apart from the physical appearance you are also taught the negotiation and persuasion skills. In corporate world, moving isn’t that much easier. You have to go extra stretch to fight for your company’s share of any deal be it the labor unions, suppliers or any other stakeholder. Lastly the written part is also very important. We cannot just focus on things that are oral but we have to formally communicate within and outside an organization. Therefore you have to be taught about writing effective business proposals, reports, and email writing.
Filter out the contents of any communication course to see it has all the basics discussed above to make it really worth of your time and money.