Before learning Communication Skills for success, Communication is speaking or writing by a sender and listening or reading by the receiver. Most communications are oral, with one party speaking and others listening.
Effective communication is about more than just exchanging information. It’s about understanding the emotion and intentions behind the information. As well as being able to clearly convey a message, you need to also listen in a way that gains the full meaning of what’s being said and makes the other person feel heard and understood.
When communicating with others, we often focus on what we should say. However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to convey.
Effective communication sounds like it should be instinctive. But all too often, when we try to communicate with others something goes astray. We say one thing, the other person hears something else, and misunderstandings, frustration, and conflicts ensue. This can cause problems in your home, school, and work relationships.
For many of us, communicating more clearly and effectively requires learning some important skills. Whether you’re trying to improve communication with your spouse, kids, boss, or co-workers, learning these skills can deepen your connections to others, build greater trust and respect, and improve teamwork, problem solving, and your overall social and emotional health
Also Read : How to start a conversation with a stranger
4 Amazing Effective Communication Skills for success
- Become an engaged listener
When communicating with others, we often focus on what we should say. However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to convey.
There’s a big difference between engaged listening and simply hearing. When you really listen—when you’re engaged with what’s being said—you’ll hear the subtle intonations in someone’s voice that tell you how that person is feeling and the emotions they’re trying to communicate. When you’re an engaged listener, not only will you better understand the other person, you’ll also make that person feel heard and understood, which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.
By communicating in this way, you’ll also experience a process that lowers stress and supports physical and emotional well-being. If the person you’re talking to is calm, for example, listening in an engaged way will help to calm you, too. Similarly, if the person is agitated, you can help calm them by listening in an attentive way and making the person feel understood.
If your goal is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening in a hasty manner will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, try the following tips. The more you practice them, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.
- Pay attention to nonverbal signals
The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person tells them more about how you’re feeling than words alone ever can. Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing.
Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work.
You can enhance effective communication by using open body language—arms uncrossed, standing with an open stance or sitting on the edge of your seat, and maintaining eye contact with the person you’re talking to.
You can also use body language to emphasize or enhance your verbal message—patting a friend on the back while complimenting him on his success, for example, or pounding your fists to underline your message.
- Emotional awareness and thinking:
At work it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything should be logical, and that emotions have no place. However, we are human and therefore messy and emotional. None of us can leave our emotions at home—and nor should we try to do so. That is not to say that we should ‘let it all hang out’. However, an awareness of emotions, both positive and negative, can definitely improve communication.
Fundamentally, the principle behind the different skills that improve emotional intelligence is that you have to be aware of and understand your own emotions, and be able to master them, in order to understand and work well with others.
- Questioning skill:
Questioning is a crucial skill to ensure that you have understood someone’s message correctly. It is also a very good way of obtaining more information about a particular topic, or simply starting a conversation and keeping it going. Those with good questioning skills are often also seen as very good listeners, because they tend to spend far more time drawing information out from others than broadcasting their own opinions.
There is even more; but not rocket science
Always aim to communicate on an equal basis and avoid patronising people. Do not talk about others behind their backs and try not to develop favourites, by treating people as your equal and also equal to each other, you will build trust and respect.
It is almost always helpful to resolve problems and conflicts as they arise, rather than letting them fester.
If you smile often and stay cheerful, people are more likely to respond positively to you.
Stress can however be a major barrier to effective communication. All parties should therefore try to remain calm and focused
Let’s conclude, It’s an ongoing process
For most of us, improving our communication skills is an ongoing process. There is unlikely to ever come a point at which any of us could honestly say that we could learn no more about communication: that we were now experts, and never got it wrong.
“Communication is a power those who have mastered its effective use can change their own experience of the world and worlds experience of them.all behavior and feelings find their original roots in some form of communication.”- Tony Robbins
