Communication plays a significant role in expressing one’s opinion and thoughts. The person who communicates well is the person who avails more opportunities, ultimately leading to success.
With social media platforms picking up the pace, a lot of individuals are losing their touch with effective means of communication, resulting in becoming bad listeners and speakers. As a remedy to that, here are some essential ways in which one can improve their communicative skills:
#1. Keep All Distractions At Bay
Using a smartphone while conversing with an individual, playing on your tablets and fidgeting with your smart watch are some examples of distractions that hinder the person from engaging in effective communication. Since the mind is distracted, it does not register the entire conversation, resulting in miscommunications.
You must listen to the person talking with full attention to ensure that you register every word spoken by the speaker.
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#2. Look Up To Great Speakers For Inspiration
Sometimes looking up to people who are good at their communication skills, helps a lot. Not because it teaches you the basics of good communication! It serves as an example for others to learn from on how to put good communication skills in force to allow a great conversation to take place.
If you feel Hitler was a good speaker, browse through his speaking skills and note how he used to converse with the public. It will help you in improving your life skill.
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#3. Listening Is Important
There are times when you pretend to listen to the conversation but are not registering anything said by the speaker. Instead of paying attention to what the person is talking about, they rather begin to formulate a proper reply in their head to counter what is being said. That is wrong as listening is important.
By adopting gestures like nodding and asking questions, the speaker is assured that it is being listened to. This makes the conversation more meaningful.
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#4. Body Gestures Matter
Did you know sitting with your arms crossed signifies your disinterest in the conversation? Or for that matter, playing with your fingers while talking reflects your lack of confidence? Thus, one must be careful with their body language as its action speaks louder than words.
To improve the communication skills, one must engage in an eye contact with the person. If you wish to show your confidence while asserting something, adopt a power pose. It will help in directing the message more efficiently.
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#5. Story Telling Can Be Helpful
Given an option, our brain tends to comprehend stories faster than presentation and facts. Hence, story-telling can be a good way to ensure effective communication. It activates our mind and engages it to imagine what is being said. Probably that’s why we remember more stories than data.
If you want to put across your point, first engage the listener in a story mode. Then put your point before them. It will help them retain your point for long.
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#6. Ask Questions and Respond By Repeating Their Line
You would have often noticed that in many interviews, the person asking the question first repeats the last line said by the guest, followed by a query related to the point. This is done to re-emphasize on the issue raised by the speaker and throw more light on the subject.
This art of interruption is rather taken as a compliment. It makes the speaker feel that you were paying attention to what was being spoken about. It further boosts the morale of the speaker and leads to effective communication between the two.
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#7. Record and Practice
Well, practice makes a man perfect. Like a script, that needs to be practiced before its final delivery, and one must record their dummy conversation to analyze the way they are conversing and learn from the shortfalls.
This is an effective way to self-analyze your ways of communication and abandon the wrong habits to improve your communication skill.
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#8. Validate Other’s Feelings And Thoughts
Communication is a two-sided conversation. Thus, one needs to respect each other’s thoughts and feelings while talking to one another. If the person on the side is too tired to talk, one must withdraw from the discussion.
You must practice taking the viewpoint of others. Developing empathy makes you understand the unspoken side of the conversation, leading to greater and more efficient communication.
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#9. Fuse Clarity With Loudness
How many times has it happened with you that you have attended a seminar or you are talking to a person who is not audible? There are times when the speaker is audible but lacks clarity in words, leading to confusion.
As a speaker, one must fuse clarity with loudness in putting across a point to the listener. But ensure, loudness must not be confused with screaming or shouting!
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Are you aware of more ways to improve communication skills? tell us about it. Comment on the box below to share your opinion and thoughts.
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