When we talk about communication, what do we really mean?
Communication in broad meaning is the process of interacting and exchanging our messages via verbal speech or other communication methods, but if we narrow it down, it has a lot more to it.
In this article, I have talked about what I think effective communication is and what skills do we really need to communicate effectively.
What is effective communication for me?
- Knowledge: The most important element which acts as the base of effective communication is knowledge. You need plenty of it to be able to talk and convey your message in such a way that on one hand you convince the audience and on the other hand you prevent the arising of conflictions – that may create issues for you in the future.
- Understand the Audience: To study the audience and estimate their ability to understand you in a way you want them to. In other words, you determine what vocabulary, language, and tone to use so that they listen to you and understand you instead of taking an opposition against you. For the same purpose, you again need to learn about the basics of human behavior and psychology which is knowledge. The spot-on analysis of people’s reactions, i.e body language, to what you are saying is very important and reading their facial expressions is equally important.
- Behavior: Your behavior itself is communicating about you out there. The way you treat people conveys a message about your personality and your likes and dislikes. It’s not only about communicating, but also about your lifestyle. Our morning routine, our sleep schedule, our eating habits I can say everything we do, and everything we say is communication.
- Values: Your values – either positive or negative is another mean of communication. It’s communicating indirectly but can have a direct effect on those who are somehow in a relationship with you and can affect the individual as well. Our values are what define us.
How to communicate effectively?
Now that you have read a different definition of communication, I would like to talk about how I communicate considering the 4 points.
And how does reading and understanding the facial impressions of the other person help me communicate better?
Behavior and the Ability to Understand my Audience
To have a greater impact on the people around you, you need to take care of your behavior. The way you treat others is the most important aspect of your behavior as it’s directly visible to others, you can’t hide or fake it, even fake behavior has its consequences on how do you portray yourself to society.
Treat people in such a way that will have an everlasting effect on them, which will eventually result in staying in their memories as an influential personality.
Your Values are Means of Communication
Your values and habits are the indirect portrayals of your personality. My values mostly turn around honesty, loyalty, respecting others’ opinions, and respecting them as human beings, not judging and many more good values, which helps the people around me to be comfortable. This comfort of the audience gives me a hand over others.
Habits Plays a Huge Role in Communication
Developing good habits helps you become a better person overall. Good habits crave for betterment in the individual. For example; being on time for your job or a meeting and being consistent impresses the individuals you interact with on the daily basis.
During my studies at Stratford University, I would attend my classes on time and prepare the assignments and presentations neatly. This would help me be known to most of the faculty and students.
Change your "Sorry" to "Thank you"
To have a positive and greater impact on your audience; that be your co-workers, teammates, colleagues, try not to say sorry. Instead, say thank you. To better understand this I will use some examples. Suppose you are late for a meeting. Instead of saying sorry for being late try to say thank you for your patience, or if you couldn’t contribute much to a group project, instead of saying sorry say thank you for the hand at my bad time.
This approach will positively impact your mentality and will improve your image among the audience.
Stop Complaining
We’ve all done it, complaining about work, the weather, the traffic. We think that complaining is just a way to blow off some steam but in reality, it’s not. Complaining has many detrimental effects on our lives and it can activate stress hormones in our body and cause an increase in fatigue levels.
People complain because they want to feel entitled, they want to feel as though their problems are bigger than others, or they want people to help them.
Instead of complaining, we should do more about what’s bothering us. For example, if someone has hurt our feelings or done something that bothers us, rather than complaining about it, we should talk to them about it until they understand what hurts us and how they can avoid doing it in the future.
Define Success for Yourself
Success could be different for everyone. It could be anything, achieving a goal, getting accepted to a job, receiving approval to a scholarship and the degree of your dreams, and etcetera.
For me, success is the feeling of accomplishment in what I do. It is feeling fulfilled and happy with what I have achieved in life. For some people, success is about approval from others or making more money.
Defining or measuring success gives you a different perspective on your daily life activities, relationships, love, and personal happiness. It defines and shapes your values. Our values are defining us and our personalities, therefore defining success results in becoming better and happy human beings.
Resources
What communication skills do you need?
To better bring all that I said before to action, we would still need these skills.
Be a Better Listener
You need to be a better listener than a speaker in the first place. This will allow you to better read and understand the audience before you bring to the table what you have in your pocket.
Talk Less
Don’t talk too much. You may want to be heard but to be heard you need to listen first and do not interrupt others while they talk. The words coming out of your mouth have value. Think of it as the law of demand and supply in business. If the supply, goes up the demand and price come down, and if the supply comes down the demand and price go up. In our case, if we talk more, the eagerness of the audience to listen to what we are saying comes down thus the value of our speech is equal to nothing.
Talking more also results in saying useless things which directly affect your worth as an individual and your personality. For example, your friends are gathering to meet an important person. They won’t count on you while preparing a list of visitors, because they know you as a person whose presence won’t have value and will probably ruin the meeting. After all, you talk too much, and you say useless things. This is the worse you can expect. So, to conclude this, I would say talk less and say good things.
Watch Your Body Language
Going back to point number 2 of the previous topic, I would emphasize learning about how human beings react to certain things. Body language, unconscious of the person, sometimes conveys messages that the person may not want you to know. Paying close attention to their bodies will help you observe and understand their upcoming move.
Develop Some Storytelling Skills
As Suzzane Franchetti writes on her blog;
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Good job brother, wishing you more success.
Thank you brother, thanks for visiting the website.
Such an amazing article, keep the good work up.
Thank you for your time and visit.