12 Practice To Improve Your Communication Skills
Rilwan Ajibola
Founder: realone.pro - Advance Learning Platform that offers certification programs.
Learning effective communication skills is a straightforward process that allows you to express yourself and improve both your personal and professional relationships. Knowing how to listen well and communicate clearly will help you express yourself in job interviews, business meetings, and in your personal life as well.
What Is Effective Communication?
Being an effective communicator means being able to both actively listen and clearly express yourself to those around you. Unfortunately, there is no one skill or technique that will make you a better communicator. Effective communication requires a diverse skill-set that covers both verbal and nonverbal communication cues, as well as close listening.
Why Is Effective Communication Important?
Effective communication is vital both in and out of the workplace because it allows you to clearly translate your intentions and feelings into easily understandable messages. Effective communication makes you a more productive worker and cuts down on unintended consequences that arise as a result of miscommunication. Developing an effective communication process helps you understand what others are saying and makes you a better collaborator and team member.
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Why You Need to Develop Strong Communication Skills
In this modern time we live in; we are receiving, sending, and processing a large number of messages every day. But successful communication is far more than sharing information; it is also an understanding of the feelings behind this information.
Successful communication can deepen relations in personal life or professional life. In personal life, they can help us understand better people and situations that happen on a daily basis. Developing communication skills can help us avoid conflicts compromise, and help in better decision making.
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Types Of Communication
You respond to thousands of communication cues every day, from facial expressions to tone of voice to text messages. The five types of communication you might pick up to aid your daily interactions include:
Of course, some communication signals are so subtle you might not always consciously recognize them. These 12 tips can help you learn to communicate more effectively.
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1. Be Your Authentic Self
While you can gain inspiration from other communicators to improve your skills, always bring your honest self to interactions. People feel more drawn to speakers who seem genuine and act transparently. For example, if you do not have the answer to a question, it is okay to admit it. Your colleagues will respect your honesty more than if you pretend to know something and provide a response that ends up inaccurate.
Furthermore, showing your authentic self during a conversation or presentation helps you build relationships because your audience gets to know you as a person. It conveys a sense of comfort and ease that lets them genuinely engage with you.
If they feel like you are faking your personality or putting on a show, it can create distance between you. As a result, it may make it harder to build trust because they cannot tell how real the conversation is.
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2. Consider your audience.
Who are you communicating with? Make sure you are aware of your audience—those you intend to communicate with may differ from those who actually receive your messages. Knowing your audience can be key to delivering the right messages effectively.
Their age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education level, subject knowledge, and professional experience can all impact how they’ll receive your message.
If you’re advertising a fast food restaurant, for example, you might want to deliver your message to an audience that’s likely to be hungry. This could be a billboard on the side of a busy highway that shows a great meal and informs drivers that the closest location is just two miles away.
Or suppose you’re telling your family about your engagement. You might host a gathering after to celebrate, send them photos of the engagement in a group chat, surprise them in conversation over dinner two weeks later, or post on social media. Your chosen form of communication will depend on your family dynamics.
3. Be clear and concise
Communication is primarily about word choice. And when it comes to word choice, less is more.
The key to powerful and persuasive communication—whether written or spoken—is clarity and, when possible, brevity.
Before engaging in any form of communication, define your goals and your audience.
Outlining carefully and explicitly what you want to convey and why will help ensure that you include all necessary information. It will also help you eliminate irrelevant details.
Avoid unnecessary words and overly flowery language, which can distract from your message.
And while repetition may be necessary in some cases, be sure to use it carefully and sparingly. Repeating your message can ensure that your audience receives it, but too much repetition can cause them to tune you out entirely.
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4. Prepare ahead of time
Know what you are going to say and how you are going to say before you begin any type of communication.
However, being prepared means more than just practicing a presentation.
Preparation also involves thinking about the entirety of the communication, from start to finish. Research the information you may need to support your message. Consider how you will respond to questions and criticisms. Try to anticipate the unexpected.
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Before a performance review, for instance, prepare a list of concrete examples of your employee’s behavior to support your evaluation.
Before engaging in a salary or promotion negotiation, know exactly what you want. Be ready to discuss ranges and potential compromises; know what you are willing to accept and what you aren’t. And have on hand specific details to support your case, such as relevant salaries for your position and your location (but be sure that your research is based on publicly available information, not company gossip or anecdotal evidence).
Before entering into any conversation, brainstorm potential questions, requests for additional information or clarification, and disagreements so you are ready to address them calmly and clearly.
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5. 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 an engaged way will often come naturally.
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6. Mange Stress Professionally
In small quantities, stress can be very useful and encouraging for work. However, when the stress becomes constant and completely begins to take effect, it can affect communication, clarity of opinion, and appropriate behavior and action.
When you are under stress you may misunderstand other people, send confusing nonverbal signals, and use funny patterns of behavior. How often did you feel stressed during a discussion with your friends or colleagues and then say or did something you regretted later?
If you improve stress management skills, not only will you avoid these subsequent regrets, but you will also be able to influence the other person you are entering into a conflict.
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7. Pay attention to facial expressions
Whether you're talking with family or meeting a client over Zoom, facial expressions can show emotional states faster than verbal cues. Reading facial expressions could help you better understand a person's true intentions.
For example, your partner might verbally agree that a family vacation sounds fun, but their furrowed brow might suggest otherwise.
Try acknowledging the discrepancy by saying something like: "You agreed a trip to Disneyland could be fun, but you look a little stressed. How are you feeling about it now?"
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8. Be mindful of your tone
Your tone plays a crucial role in verbal communications, and how you use it can affect the way your audience engages with you. Combing a friendly and warm tone with a smile makes a positive impression. Meanwhile, speaking in a flat or monotone manner can make you appear uninterested, which can put off an audience. Also, try to vary your tone and use inflection to emphasize important points. This technique is an easy way to focus the attention of your audience.
You can also use the verbal modeling method, in which you try to copy the tone of another person. For example, during a conversation, speak softly when they speak softly or if they have excited energy, try to match it. People feel drawn to voices that sound like theirs, making this a helpful method of increasing engagement.
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9. Express yourself.
Communication is about expressing yourself. It’s about sharing your thoughts and feelings with others in an honest and open way. As well, you can assert yourself, meaning that you stand up for your beliefs while respecting the opinions of others.
As Jenifer Denver, human resources manager at Writing Service Australia, says: “Being assertive doesn’t mean to be hostile and demanding. It is more about respecting yourself, your needs and values. Knowing how and when to say a firm ‘no,’ knowing how to express something negative in a positive way, and how to receive feedback no matter of its nature.”
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10. Allow others to finish before speaking
Giving other people space to finish what they're saying can help your communication in several ways. First, it lets the other person know you're listening to them and can help them feel appreciated and valued. Second, it can help you to listen and understand them better. Allowing the other person time and space to finish their point may also help you to respond more effectively. A hasty response risks missing the point the other person is making or leaving out critical information that they haven't yet shared.
Talking over people and not letting them finish is an indicator of someone who doesn't listen well and doesn't value the thoughts and opinions of others. By giving the other person time to finish before you speak, you can help to improve your communication and your relationships with others.
11. Leave spaces for the audience to fill
One way to slow yourself down and check in with audiences is to pause after making a point. Not just a second to catch your breath, but an actual space for silence. Both virtual and in-person, it leaves an opening for your listeners to fill, providing you with real-time feedback as to what they need next. How granular do they want you to get? Do they actually have the questions you were going to answer? Or are they taking your ideas in a whole new direction?
We often feel wary about silence, as if it means that something is wrong. But things happen in silence, and you may be surprised what your listeners offer when given the chance to jump in. However they fill the space, you may get valuable hints as to how to sync and proceed. And that is when communication becomes interesting.
12. Use empathy
Empathy is the ability to sense other people's emotions and understand their feelings as if they were your own. Empathy is a crucial tool for good communicators, as it allows you to see things from the other person's perspective. Adopting and practicing empathy isn't always the most comfortable of experiences, but it helps the other person to feel like you understand them. You can elevate your empathic listening skills by asking people how they feel, adopting a caring and considerate approach, asking questions that allow people to express themselves, letting them finish before you speak and mirroring their body language.
Interested in learning more on how to communicate effectively in business, relationship, and marriage. I invite you to join my Effective Communications Online Certification Course where I analyze in details the basic principles that will help you improve your communication skills.