Communication is a fundamental part of our social and professional life. All of us communicate everyday in one form or another. However, what we neglect is, the proper and good way of communication. When in a formal communication, one must know how to communicate in a professional way and should avoid like talking in a grapevine. Therefore, it is very important to polish our communication skills in order to become an epitome in whatever we communicate. The communication skills have a significant effect on our work. That is why it is important to hone effective communication skills.
Tips to Improve your Communication Skills
To improve communication skills we must follow certain criterion that includes:
Show Regards
Respect or appreciation is what anyone would be happy to receive. When you are about to start a communication, one must give a vote of thanks to each and every person who is included in the conversation. As in today’s hectic scenario, time is the most valuable thing or the most precious thing one can give to other. Therefore, the counterparts who are available at time of communication must be appreciated for the time they took out for the communication. This would serve as a good gesture and further help in effective communication, by improving your communication skills.
Connect
Being in constant touch with someone ensures that both sides have good communication. To have good communication skills, one must know the nature of the other person to whom you are conversing. This facilitates the conversation in such a way that a person himself develops better communication skills.
Be Positive
To develop productive communication skills, it is vital to have a positive attitude. For this, person needs to keep away all the negative thoughts and think positively, which will give an impression to the other person that the person he is talking to is positive and energetic. This will help in communicating well and improve the communication skills to a great extent.
Think
Always spare time for thinking. Just rushing to speak will not land you anywhere but just in jeopardy. One must think beforehand that he is going to converse with the user. This will let you speak only the desired content and communicate in an effective manner.
Research
Always make a research on what is needed to be done. You must be familiar with whatever you are going to communicate with others. This will help in a way that even if you do not have better communication skills but your concept is clear, then you will be able to communicate it to the other person more efficiently. In addition, they will get you corrected where you are wrong.
Construct a Rapport
Before starting any conversation, it is very important that we get along well with the people we are talking to. This is required because until and unless one is not comfortable in the environment of communication, it will remain ineffective. Thus, be open to your views and establish a good communication network.
Take A Look At Your Tone
The tone you use while talking gets the notice of other person. However, in a cooperative environment, it is very important that you sound precise and perfect. However, sometimes it happens that people become frustrated when they work under pressure and it affects their tone of speech. However, this gives a gesture that the person does not communicate in a healthy manner. Therefore, to make your communication skills efficient, one must watch their respective tone and speak softly and specifically.
Focus on the Outcome
The objective you need to accomplish must be clear before starting a conversation. That would not let you lingering between the words you want to say. You will be more efficient in saying and conveying your thought, which definitely will help you improve your communication skills at a pace.
Listen
In every communication, listening is the most important concern. Until and unless you do not listen to what the other one is trying to say, the conversation will not be complete. Have patience, listen peacefully to what the speaker is saying and do not interrupt in between. This will let you hone better communication skills as you would become familiar with the way the speaker is conversing.
Admire Non Verbal Cues
The non-verbal area includes the body language that we exhibit while the communication process. Eye contact is significant in having good communication. Making eye contact lets the speaker know that you understand what he exactly wants to say. However, fidgeting, lack of eye contact etc can completely hamper the whole conversation process. Therefore, to make better communication skills one must possess good non-verbal cues also.
Feedback
Giving response in a communication is very important. When the conversation ends, the listener must convey to the speaker what he have understood and what not. This will help in creating good communication between the two and develop much better communication skills. It also ensures the speaker that he was heard effectively. Further, it will help him to guide the other person in improving his skills of conversing.
Responsible Schedule
A responsible or punctual schedule must be made. This will help in time management and let the person to plan the communication process. Planning always gives better results. This helps in meeting the other persons requirements and enhances the communication process thereby improving your communication skills.
Reading
Reading is very important in order to improve your communication skills. This can be said as the more you will read, the more you will get to know about the different communicating styles and even you can identify the mistakes and rectify them. This will ensure complete and structured communication in an efficient manner.
Writing
The more you write, more you will learn. Just mugging up the thoughts in your mind is not enough. Once you write, you start to learn more and identify your mistakes. When it is known where you are wrong, you can rectify your mistakes and improve for the better.
Speaking
Speaking is a necessary tool in the whole communication process. This is because more one speaks, more will he be able to interact with large number of people and develop further communication skills. Speaking always gives an idea to other person how much capable the person is and they can help him in conversing well by correcting his mistakes.
Be Brief Yet Specific
The content that is delivered during communication must be kept simple but still specific. Unnecessary add-ons are not needed because while communicating what is important is what exactly you want the person to know. This will make sure that you have diversified knowledge of subject and let you communicate in more proficient manner.
Get Rid Of Unnecessary Conversation Fillers
Conversation fillers are like the umh’s and ah’s. We must avoid such fillers when communicating with a person. These fillers give an idea to the other person that you are not well experienced with what you want to deliver and have ineffective communication skills. So in order to improve your communication skills it is better to avoid such fillers.
BE Open and Honest
A conservative person can never talk that effectively until and unless he opens up to the person he is conversing with. This is because when you will communicate in an open environment, it will help both the people to come up with new ideas and communicate better. Second, always be honest, this will ensure the other person that you have a good personality and are keen to learn more. Thus, more you will converse; better will be the communication skills.
Be Authentic
Most of us generally try to copy others while learning to communicate well. However, being original is very important. The biggies or celebrities, when you see them, you will notice they all are authentic in their tone. Thus, authentication makes the person unique in his style. Thus, to grow up with better communication skills it is suggested to be genuine in the way you communicate.
Do Not Overthink Your Communication Skills
In the process of improvisation of our communication skills, we often start thinking too much about how do we need to improve, what do we need to do and when. All these may land us into state of confusion and instead of learning better skills; we will just be more muddled. So, just think as much needed at the given point of time.
Be More Approachable
The more a person is approachable, more will he interact with others and develop good skills. As a person who is conserved and does not interact with people, then they will also reach less to that person and on the contrary a person who more often interacts with others will be more approachable and thereby learn better communication skills than the one who is less interactive.
Use Right Words
The usage of right words is very essential. Whatever knowledge a person has, it is important to use the right language only. Because using inappropriate words shows the other person that you do not have good skills and hence will hamper the communication. Make use of right words and always ask for help if you do not know the right ones, this will help the person to learn better communication skills.
Avoid Distractions
It is human nature that our mind wanders here and there, but while we are communicating, we must completely concentrate on what the communication is all about. Distractions like noise and others must be avoided so that they do not act as obstructions in the way of communication. In addition, to learn more efficiently it is important to be more attentive and not distracted.
Avoid Criticism
When communicating or listening to someone, it is needed to be patient and understand what others are trying to say. Being impatient and trying to make a cut on the point of view on another person will never allow one to learn effectively. It is vital that you do not criticize other people and learn better.
Do Not Be Overconfident
Overconfidence is always a sign of failure. To inculcate better communication skills, confidence is needed but not overconfidence. A person can never learn if he is of the perception that he knows everything. To be a better communicator, one must be ready to learn and not be overconfident.
Share Your Knowledge
Knowledge increases as much as you share. The more knowledge a person shares more he gets to interact with other people also. This becomes an advantage as when you have flaws somewhere and the other person is perfect in that area, then he can help you out and this will bring better results. In turn, communication skills will become more proficient.
Dress To Impress
Communication is not just oral. The way you present yourself in front of others is also very essential. Dressing in sluggish informal attire at a workplace will give an unhealthy impression to others. Thereby communication will be affected. Likewise, in a house party, if someone comes in a formal attire of-course it will sound foolish. Thus, dressing according to the need of occasion is very necessary so that healthy communication occurs.
Give Yourself Time And Identify Your Mistakes
Communication is important and once you have learnt how to communicate in a better way, take some time out for yourself. Start identifying your mistakes yourself. This will let you have more knowledge and learn better in the future by increasing your communication skills.
Practice Makes One Perfect
According to the saying, “Practice makes a man perfect”, the more you practice more will you learn and be perfect in that particular area. Concerning communication skills also, as much as we practice, even better will be the way we communicate. Henceforth, even failure occurs at first, one must not stop practicing, as it will surely give success at the end.
Thus, whether it is social, personal or professional environment, communication is the potent ingredient in all environments. Communicating efficiently will ensure better results. In addition, by improving communication skills, one can surely reach heights.