Communication skills
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The document explores the concept of communication, elaborating on its definition, importance, and essential skills required for effective exchange of information. It emphasizes that successful communication hinges on clarity, brevity, and relevance while detailing steps for acquiring these skills, such as understanding the audience and practicing active listening. Furthermore, it highlights the role of communication skills in personal and professional settings, noting that they are critical for career advancement and building strong relationships.
Communication skills
- 1. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 1 Date: 04-04-2014 Submitted By: Ghulam Mehdi CMS ID# 23101 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Communications: The word “communication” is derived from the Latin word “communes” which means “commonness” or “sharing”. Thus it means a firm feeling of commonness or sharing between the sender and receiver. We define communication in many ways. i.e. “It is the exchange and imparting of information to gain understanding and promote action”. Or “It is commonly defined as, the impacting or interchanges of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing or signs.” Or “It is a systematic process, in which people interact to share ideas, information or thought, through words or symbols, to create and interpret meaning”. Communication is successfully only when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information. In all modes of communication, the three golden rules of communication are: -To be clear. -To be brief. -To be relevant. Communication skills: “The communication skills are the ability to convey information to another person effectively and efficiently. Business managers with good verbal, non-verbal and written communication skills help facilitate the sharing of information between people within a company for its commercial benefit.” A communication skill is the ability to use language (receptive) and express (expressive) information. Effective communication skills are a critical element in your career and personal lives. Good communication skills are keys to success in life, work and relationships. Without effective communication, a message can turn into error, misunderstanding, frustration, or even disaster by being misinterpreted or poorly delivered. Acquiring Good communication skills: Following are the steps of acquiring good communication skills. 1-Know what you want to say and why. Understand clearly the purpose and intent of your message. Know to whom you are communicating and why. Consider any barriers you may encounter such as cultural differences or situational circumstances (gender, age or economic bases).Ask yourself what outcome you want to achieve and the impression you want to leave. 2-How will you say it? We’re all aware by now, that it’s not always what you say, but how you say it that counts. Being by making eye contact, you inspire trust and confidence when you look a person in the eyes when you speak. Second, be aware of your body language since it can say as much, or more, than your words. By standing with arms easily at your side you tell others that you are approachable and open to hearing what they have to say. If instead, your arms are crossed and shoulders hunched, it suggests disinterest or unwillingness to communicate. Good posture and an approachable stance help make even difficult communication flow more smoothly. Make sure you speak in a cooperative, non-adversarial tone. Be nonjudgmental.
- 2. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 2 3- Listen. Communication is a two way street. After you've said what you have to say, stop, listen, and look for feedback and clues of comprehension. While the person is responding avoid any impulses to cut them off or listen only for the end of the sentence so that you can blurt out more ideas or thoughts that come to your mind. Respectfully give them your full attention. When they are finished, to ensure that your message has been clearly and correctly understood, ask open questions and encourage discussion. Fine-tune your message if necessary. 4- Reach understanding, agreement or consensus. Once you have had to opportunity to discuss your message and the feedback to it, re-visit the purpose of the interchange. Have you reached common ground, solved a problem, or clarified your position? If the purpose was to teach or instruct, have you accomplished your goal? To communicate well is to understand and be understood. Make sure that your message has been received as intended and that any questions or concerns have been alleviated. You can even agree to disagree. There are no guarantees that your communication efforts will be meet with total compliance and agreement. As long as you understand each other, are cordial and respectful, you can still have a successful exchange. 5-To obtain a better command of the English language (or any other language), expand your vocabulary by reading and writing more. Look up words you're not familiar with. The better you are able to express yourself, the better your ability to communicate. 4-Practice your listening skills. Be considerate of other speakers by waiting until they are done before stating your views. Process what has being said before responding. 6-Learn to understand and appreciate opposing points of view by being open-minded and making an effort to see things from another's perspective. It will in turn, gain you more cooperation and understanding. 7-Avoid trying to communicate when in an emotional state. You lose objectivity and may say something inappropriate or regrettable. Take time to think your position through before speaking. Communication Skills Play an Important Role in Career Building: Communication skills are essential for Job placement, Job performance, Career advancement, Success in the new world of work. Communication skills are among the intangible skill sets most valued by employers. The ability to communicate effectively, especially during oral presentations, can boost your marketability and viability for work in a variety of careers. To develop strong presentation skills, you need to consider both the verbal and nonverbal factors involved in delivering your message. Look at any job posting and excellent communication skills are likely to be among the qualifications that employers seem to value. Even for jobs with limited interaction with the public, employees need communication skills to build collaborative relationships with their coworkers and bridge the gap between their positions and positions that their supervisors and managers hold. However, even though excellent written communications skills are frequently required, there's no real definition of what employers really want. Some important communication skills/features in career building are given below: Written:
- 3. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 3 When employers specify that excellent written communication skills are an essential qualification, they are looking for candidates who can demonstrate their ability to write clearly, succinctly and in a manner that appeals to a wide audience. Written communication could apply to writing for the Web, composing interoffice memos and correspondence or legal briefs, constructing employee handbooks or technical manuals or drafting performance appraisals. Any supervisory and management job requires excellent communication skills, if only because it's a requirement that they have to write clearly for his employees to understand job directives and instructions. Excellent written communication skills also mean the employee's writing is free from errors and that it conveys messages that can't be misinterpreted. Listening: Listening is about 40 percent of overall communication. Employers know that the best communicators won't have excellent communication skills if they can't listen. The ability to listen -- and, carefully listen -- is the corner stone of communication. When employers require excellent communication skills, they expect that the employee is well-rounded and is, therefore, capable of communicating in a fluid, back-and-forth manner engages other employees, managers, supervisors and executives alike. Verbal: Excellent verbal communication skills also are important for employees who interact with the public, employees who routinely work cross-functionally with colleagues and employees responsible for delivering training sessions, conducting focus groups and presenting information about the organization to employee groups. Verbal communication skills are more than just platform skills -- another term for public speaking abilities. Excellent verbal communication skills means that you can develop a rapport with your audience, whether they're rank-and-file employees, executives in the board room, irate customers or customers who are so satisfied they want to express their appreciation. Audience: The best communicators are capable of adjusting their communication style to suit the audience. For example, engineers who are considered excellent communicators can explain a complex process to their colleagues and peers just as easily as they can to a lay audience where the members know nothing about engineering concepts or principles. An important part of communicating is discerning the members of the audience, detecting what their needs are and how best to deliver a message to them. When an employer asks for excellent communication skills, they expect candidates to be able to tailor their communications to their reading or listening audience. The Message: The ability to present an effective message with useful content is obviously important to a good oral communication. This requires planning for your communication, and doing research to make sure your message is well-constructed. You want to deliver a message that considers your audience and the goals of your communication. An oral communication without good substance will accomplish very little. Body Language: A major component of the message your audience perceives is based on your body language. Your posture, facial expressions and gestures affect the way your message is received. Consistent eye contact with members of your audience; a calm, confident posture; and relaxed arms and hands held near your side are among body language techniques that deliver positive vibes. Folding your arms, avoiding eye contact, frowning, and nervous movements can signal nervousness, indifference or worse. Vocal Tone:
- 4. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 4 How you say something carries a lot of weight. Speaking in a clear, confident and assertive tone helps project your message and keep your audience engaged. Emphasizing specific points and varying your rate of delivery brings out key points in your communication and attracts your audience's attention. Avoid speaking in a low voice or a monotonous tone. Awareness: Your communication skills can also help you understand how well your message is hitting home. By observing the body language and feedback of audience members, you can adjust your approach. If audience members are sitting back in their chairs, not paying attention or distracted by other things, your message probably is not getting through. Consider projecting yourself more and finding ways to better engage the audience. It helps to ask audience members questions and keep them involved. If your communication is lengthy, you might need to take a break. Communication Skills Play a Vital Role in a Humans Daily Life: A communication skill is an art. It solves sensitive problems, communication skills drives a person to his success. Communication skills are quite essential for a modern man to prove himself in this competitive world or modern world. Certain skills always results in mutual understanding and it erases misunderstanding, quarrels etc. It's not only useful in our daily life but also useful in your work, especially for people who works in call center communication skills are more important than your degree. Because in call center you have to communicate with the customers to sell the product or to solve out his query so I believe communication skills are more important in our daily life. A person with good communication skills can survive anywhere. Now a day call center's looking out for people who have good communication skills. Communication skills come under even face to face communication as well. Effective communication is possible only when it is face to face, problems which cannot be solved otherwise can be solved with face to face communication. If you have a problems in the work place or between colleagues or management can solved out, sometimes voice modulations alone cannot convey the message properly even facial expressions are necessary. One of the most powerful communication skills is Mirroring, also called Reflective Listening. As a mirror reflects back one image, the receiver verbally reflects back to the sender words that let the sender know for sure that the message sent was the message received. Mirroring is difficult to learn but well worth the time and effort. It pays off big time in developing solid connections between partners. For that matter, it works with people in general. Reflecting Listening is not repeating the message word for word. That is called parroting. Parroting is useful at times, such as making an appointment. Mirroring is not repeating or even remembering all the details of what was said. People think that just because they can repeat back everything that was said means they were listening. Hearing the words is not enough. Hearing the message the words are conveying, and saying that message back to the sender, is mirroring. The After the Fact communication skill is a very useful skill that facilitates connection between partners. It is not always possible to think of what to say or do in the moment. Sometimes people are distracted with something or someone else. When people are anxious they often cannot think,
- 5. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 5 so they say or do nothing. Or, they may blurt out something they don’t mean or something that is not even relevant. Sometimes people laugh in situations like this and the laughter is misunderstood. In ongoing relationships it is always possible to bring up an issue later. Later can be minutes, hours, days or even years. This keeps the lines of communication open and strengthens the connection between couples. When people use the After the Fact communication skill frequently, the time between the incident and the delayed communication tends to shorten. Gradually, the time becomes so short that partners are better able to think of what they want to say or do what they want to do in the moment. It’s not essential to occur in the moment, After the Fact is just fine. The After the Fact skill is extremely helpful to keep a couple emotionally connected with positive feedback and behaviors. While the After the Fact communication skill is really helpful for couples, it is also helpful in many other situations as well – parenting, work, and social interactions. Too often in conversations and interactions people assume they know what the other person is talking about or doing. Without checking out their assumptions they act as if what they assume is true or fact. Sometimes their assumptions are indeed true and communication is clear. However, when their assumptions are incorrect communication tends to go sideways. In relationships we know our partners well. Usually we know what they think, feel, value, expect, get upset and excited about. Sometimes though, knowing each other too well creates blind spots. Clarifying can help navigate the blind spots. Pronouns often make communication fuzzy: I, mine, he, she, his, hers, they, them, you, yours, we, us, one, it, this, that, these, those, other(s), etc. Words that qualify can have different meaning for different people. Sometimes, early/late, in a little while, high/low, hard/soft, big/small, strong/weak, fast/slow, positive/negative, mostly/slightly, more/less, helpful/not helpful, harmful, safe/dangerous etc. When people communicate they often have different ideas in mind. It is often helpful to inquire more about what someone is thinking or intending before you respond. What is difficult for one person may seem easy to another. What is slightly stressful for one person may be really stressful for another. People often use the same words or expressions but have different meanings for them. Often the meanings are only slightly different but sometimes they are vastly different. A mixed message is a message that can be taken different ways. Mixed messages cause lots of communication problems in intimate relationships and in relationships in general. First of all, you need to know when you’re getting a double or mixed message. The way you know is by your feelings (confused) and your thoughts (puzzled). These feelings and thoughts are your cues to guide what you say and do in response. Give both messages back as feedback to the sender. Report what was said, what was observed and describe behaviors. When you communicate in this way, the sender is more likely to respond in a positive reasonable way. If you respond in an attacking, blaming, contemptuous or sarcastic manner then the sender is mostly likely to be hurt, angry and defensive. You cannot control how the sender receives your feedback; you can only control how you deliver it. You cannot stop or prevent your partner from sending you mixed messages. What you can do is change how you respond to them. By telling the other about your confusion you are letting them know the impact of their behavior on you. This has the potential to improve communication. When the other knows they are sending mixed messages, they can clarify. It could be that they are not really conflicted and don't realize they are sounding or acting like they are.
- 6. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 6 If the sender is truly conflicted, however, your feedback brings their incongruence to their attention. It's like holding a mirror up to them so that they can more clearly see themselves. Now, if they want, they can address it. This too, has the potential to improve communication. Put the Inside Outside is another communication skill that when people talk to each other they often think thoughts or have feelings that they do not reveal to others. Most of the time, this is perfectly Ok. It certainly would not be appropriate to say everything one is thinking or feeling. Yet often, when more information is given there are fewer misunderstandings and a greater connection. People often ask questions when they are really making statements. Sometimes this is intentional but mostly people don't even realize they are communicating in this way. “Do you want to see a movie tonight?” may actually be “I want to see a movie tonight and I want you to come with me. “Did you take out the garbage?” may actually be “If you have not taken out the garbage I’m going to be mad at you because I have to do the bulk of the household chores. The least you can do is taken out the garbage.” Usually the person being asked this kind of question takes it at face value, as a request for information, and answers accordingly. This may develop into an argument that neither want to have on a topic that is not the real issue. Some important Issues discuss being here: Express your Views: It’s needed to express our views and to exercise our rights. Without the ability, to communicate and to do so well, we have poor relationships with ourselves, with others and with our world. Think Better: Good communication helps you to think better. In order to communicate effectively, you have to think ahead and organize your thoughts. This helps you learn how to organize and how to plan ahead. Convince Others: Effective communication also helps you to convince to others to agree with you in persuasive setting. Understand Others: Communication is a two way street. Good listening skills are part of good communication; you need to understand what the other person is saying to you as well as to say what you want. Decision making: Decision making is another area which can benefit from good communication skills as it often requires communicating complex information so that the most appropriate can be made. The Communication Process Cycle:
- 7. Ghulam Mehdi CMSID@23101 7 ………………………………………..The End………………………………………….