However, with the advent and rise of social media, the value of solid communication is getting lost somewhere, causing a roadblock to build your essential leadership skill or grabbing a job. For this reason, students probably don’t value the importance of referencing documents with proper referencing style, like Rate my paper and submitting the assignment without referencing the paper.
If you are interested in brushing up on your professional and personal communication abilities, this blog is for you. I have highlighted 6 tips to strengthen your skills.
However, before I share the tips, let me discuss what it means to have meaningful communication.
What Is Reasonable Communication?
Communication is not exclusive to the expression of thoughts to those around you; it also involves listening carefully as well. However, you don’t have a single approach to communicating meaningfully; there is a range of verbal and written provisions, which involves listening carefully.
Effective communication involves:
1. The Capability To Listen Carefully
Think effective communication as an integral calculator. How could you expect to get the desired result if you don’t input the details properly? Thus effective communication starts with listening.
When you say your words, you don’t listen to what is said, which creates a barrier to communication. Acknowledge what the other person or persons feel and take their words into account to encourage your listening capabilities.
2. Focus On The Gestures
Often understanding the non-verbal cues saves you from miscommunication. While talking to someone, pay attention to their body language – the way they move their hands and their expressions on their face. It can be the first sign of how the person you are conversating with gets influenced by your words or feels about you.
A pro tip: make an eye contact with someone you meet for the first time, reduce your hand movements and sit decently; it will go a long way.
Taking seven turns to get to the point often moves you astray from the main point. Doing this loses others’ interest in talking to you, and you may suffer in interviews with this attitude.
In contrast, successful communication has a lot of advantages. It helps you extend your network. Clear and short communication without ambiguity ensures that your listener gets every word utter. Jargons and slang often become roadblocks while communicating with unfamiliar individuals.
A single sentence with a different pitch and tone changes its entire meaning and has an entirely distinct impact on the listener, more so on the first meeting when the listener does not know you. That is the power of tone and pitch of writing.
A pitch can make any word sound harsh, caustic or nice. Therefore, while speaking in a meeting, take care of your tone in your writing and module your speech accordingly.
Also, be careful to intonate your speech to indicate excitement, attention, or disinterest. Moreover, sensations like an interruption, worry, and uneasiness to avoid miscommunications. Control your breathing process to project your voice correctly.
Communication aims to share clear ideas in recognisable terms. Confusing words often sends a wrong message to your audience. Clear, accurate and meaningful terms often initiate effective communication.
Words like “Like,” “uh,” "you see," and “so on,” etc., puzzles a listener. They have to stop comprehending the meaning and what you try to say. If you want your words to get straight in the head of your listener, stop uttering terms like "I suppose," "I suppose," and "perhaps." These words do not mean a statement; instead, add a question at the end of the sentence, suggesting your lack of confidence. Therefore, use action verbs instead of adverbs.
Have you ever heard any speech of great men like Steve Jobs or Anthony Williams? Did you find any similarity in their speech? If not, let me remind you – they all empathise.
Being a great communicator is not all about what you have done great or the arrogance with all you say. It is about being sensitive, placing the reader’s emotions, joys, and sorrows before your own. Express your joy if they are happy and concern when they are worried.
It is the primary skill of a great communication. You may need to practise addressing other’s feelings and ideas, but once you get that in your grip, your communication will be more personal than generic.
Introverts are not great communicators. They are great nerds but never good at communicating their points.
Therefore, it helps if you research your speech until you have the subject engraved in your mind, like pictures, arrows, or figures on a slide. Then, when you walk up the stage and begin your speech, you look directly at your audience and not the notes you wish to carry alongside.
It helps to build a rapport with your audience and establish a trust. Persistent eye contact transforms the speaker and listener into dialogue-exchangers. The connection you have with the audience is equally important as the information you convey in your speech.
To Sign Off,
An excellent communication is essential to convey your feelings and opinion. However, unaware of how to communicate accurately, interactions often lead to miscommunications and impact the exchange of thoughts. Discussed are the 6 tips to improve your communication skill. Implement them and see how it affects your personal, social, academic or professional life.
