What are the Important Skills for Effective Communication?

Author: Sarah Francoise

Be an attentive listener: Listening is one of the important elements of effective communication. People who are active listeners understand things in more detail. It means that active listeners understand what the other person is trying to say. Sometimes people, mainly in the workplace, do not listen to what other people say. They do not listen with full attention. All this reasons valuable information to be misplaced and decreases the essence that need for effective communication. Also, being an active listener also helps to identify the current mood of a person, and the intentions behind it.

Be concrete and clear: Another skill that learn to be an effective communicator is to be specific and unambiguous with message. If a person that tells the whole background story that is fake and without any proof to explain things, then you are not an effective communicator. However, if specific with message, audience can comprehend better. Being concrete with message also means delivering clear details about the information you are delivering, with facts and figures.

Also, message should be well-defined and clear so others can understand better in a short time. The clearness in a message is vital as it confirms that every member of the work team can understand without any inconvenience. To be clear in speech, use simple vocabulary, use active voice, and be clear about purposes.

Non-verbal communication: Body language plays a significant role for you to be an effective communicator. Words are important but what is more significant is your tone, eye contact, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Hand gestures while communicating signify that confident and courageous. Hence, it permits the person you are speaking with to pay attention to you and really listen to what you are saying.

Using non-verbal communication while speaking helps build a stronger relationship with others, and deliver message more conveniently and efficiently.

Be calm: Stress and anxiety can ruin communication and discourage you. Both these things can reason to be an unsuccessful communicator. To communicate efficiently, should be relax. Stress is a reason to choose the wrong sets of words. It makes tougher for others to understand. Also, remaining calm during a conversation helps to understand the nature of the conversation in a healthier way.

Inform: To be an effective communicator, inform audience about what your conversation would be about. It would help audience to have an overall idea about the conversation. Also, it would also allow them to grip the knowledge easily. Inform audience about the key features that they should listen to and keep in mind during the conversation.

Informing others about what the conversation is about makes audience, and helps them take the essential action needed to understand. Also explain points in detail to audience, as not all audience might have the same informative background. Explaining ideas and thoughts in detail helps many groups in the audience, which allows to be an effective communicator.

Be visual: Representing the information that want to display in front of audience in a visual form helps them to remember it for a long time. It is embedded in human psychology, that we process information a lot faster than is expressed in the form of pictures. According to a study, humans have an improved ability to understand and remember pictures for a long period.

It was determined that we do not remember words for a longer time as compared to pictures. Hence, to be an effective communicator, must be able to make points understood to audience, and to do this, it is guided to choose the right info delivering strategies like visual communication.

Show empathy: There are times when opinions contradict other members. But in a situation like this, you should not be angry or frustrated. Instead, respect their opinion and admire their courage.

Completeness: Completeness means completing sentences while communicating. Sometimes notice that people start a sentence, but after a short, while they get so confused, they start explanation other points leaving the first one. Hence, all this creates utmost confusion and does not help with effective communication.

To communicate efficiently, must completely explain the first point in detail, then move to the next one. Also, make sure that move in a sequence while explaining points, and there must be a connection and logical assumption within the sentences.

Give and Receive Feedback: Giving and receiving feedback is important and one of the main skills for effective communication. Giving feedbacks inspires a person, and also receiving a couple helps to view and improve weak points. Might not get all the feedback stating how good of a person you are. Sometimes they may be tough to read, but must act positively on them to be an improved communicator. Try to understand the problems that are causing people to give the feedback they are giving. Also ask the senders about what it means if cannot understand the feedback well.

Utilize time insensible manner: To efficiently communicate in a workplace, must know team members. So, do not waste the valuable time that you get during coffee or lunch break in just sitting alone and eating. Assure to utilize that time to know more about colleagues to have a well understanding of them.

Effective communication can reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings and misinterpretations and assist prevent them. Understanding gaps can lead to frustrations and rifts in professional relationships, which can negatively affect work life. Effective communication skills training improves interpersonal and professional communication skills. It can help anyone who wishes to improve their communication skills and become more productive. This training will teach them how to improve their communication skills.