Like all skills, communication is a skill that can be honed with practice.
You’ve probably read magazines on how to communicate with your partner or heard self-help business geniuses discuss how crucial communication skills are at work.
Communication is a topic we hear about all the time. To have a seamless and joyful personal and professional life is a big concern and for a good reason. It also improves personality development.
However, you will need more than simply learning about it to help you retain it all and use it to your advantage in your particular circumstance. This is particularly valid for people who might have difficulty communicating effectively.
You’re in the perfect place if you want to know what everyone is talking about or how to get better at communicating with others. You can successfully apply these strategies at work, enhancing collaboration and problem-solving skills and eventually resulting in improved business outcomes.
In this article, we’ll examine the three primary categories of communication skills, along with some examples and a tonne of practical advice you can use immediately.
This article is structured around a quick course in communication skills. We’ll cover the following:
- The three primary categories of communication abilities, namely, written, nonverbal, and verbal. A section specifically devoted to each of the three categories.
- General pointers for enhancing all sorts of communication
Let’s get started.
Three Kinds of Communication Techniques.
Communication is one of the most crucial interpersonal abilities when it comes to how we relate to and interact with other people. The three main categories of communication abilities are written, nonverbal, and verbal.
Verbal: When you speak to someone verbally, whether face-to-face, via a video chat, or on the phone, you communicate verbally. Smaller elements like the tone of your voice and the timing of your remarks also count a lot, in addition to your word choice.
Non-verbal: When people are looking at you during a conversation, whether it be in person or on camera, they are picking up on non-verbal communication, commonly known as body language. Your body language, eye contact, and facial emotions play a part. Even though it’s an essential conversation, you might need to be made aware that your body language conveys the message that you don’t want to be talking to them.
Written: These days, textual communication primarily manifests in chat chats and emails, such as emails to your partner or customer service at work. This may also apply to conversations over services like Facebook Messenger or Slack. Your written communication abilities must be strong when leading a remote team.
Tips for Developing Communication Skills
How you approach your encounters is the key to effective interpersonal and professional communication. It might even qualify as a plan.
Here are some clever suggestions to improve communication skills.
- Exercise active listening
Even if you’re an excellent listener, there’s always room for improvement. Looking at the active listening approach is a terrific technique to identify your areas for improvement.
When you listen actively instead of passively and bypass the conversation, you are involved and engaged in what the other person is saying.
There is no one model, but the concepts you find in your investigation will be the same, including:
- Pay attention to what other people have to say.
- To obtain a sense of what people desire, ask open-ended questions.
- If there are any particular subjects you’d like to learn more about, pose challenging questions.
- Any questions you have can be answered by requesting clarification.
- To ensure you understand them accurately, rephrase their words and ask them.
- To ensure that everyone’s needs are addressed, be sensitive to their feelings and your own.
- To ensure everyone has the same takeaways and next steps after your interaction, summarize.
- Speak up and share your opinions.
Make sure you’re communicating your wants, just as it’s critical to comprehend what others are looking for. No one will ever find out if you don’t tell them, right?
This communication skill is crucial if you’re a leader because what you say will determine how your team will behave. You’re setting an example for others to follow by being an open and honest communicator.
They will be more inclined to cooperate with others, make concessions when called for and approach challenging circumstances with an optimistic outlook on how things will turn out.
- Don’t assume anything.
It’s simple to think that you are aware of another person’s desires. But this is a significant contributor to misconceptions, which is why miscommunications can turn into conflicts.
The active listening paradigm can come to the rescue in this situation. Empathy, or attempting to comprehend what the other person is thinking, is a necessary component of having excellent communication skills.
This is significant since what we say often must accurately reflect what we want. We frequently attempt to cover up or hide our true wants, especially when things are tough, or it’s simple to become overwhelmed or humiliated.
You may significantly reduce misconceptions and the likelihood of confrontation by asking questions, paying close attention to the responses, and repeating what you believe they want.
- Develop your self-awareness, especially when having difficult interactions
Advanced communicators have a strong understanding of their own emotions. They know how to manage them when they become agitated or overly eager and prevent them from dominating the conversation or creating an unnecessary commotion.
When responding to something you don’t like, maintaining composure is critical. Stop if your face is flushed or your heart starts to race. Attempt to locate some quiet time where you may relax.
Another essential component of self-awareness is knowing when to accept that you are mistaken. Although it could feel like a major blow to your ego, I promise you’ll find that by owning up to your mistakes and doing your best to avoid repeating them in the future, you’ll gain the respect and integrity of your family, friends, and coworkers.
- Never accuse somebody when bringing up a problem.
A difficult circumstance will inevitably arise. Maintain your composure while you have the conversation, even if you believe the other person did something improperly.
If you start the conversation by blaming them for something, it’s an invitation for a quarrel. When we are accused, our natural response is to get defensive, and that conversation seldom ends well.
When something has only happened a few times, for instance, refrain from stating they “always” or “never” do it. Instead, please stick to the facts, show empathy, and shift the conversation to how to remedy it.
This allows you to determine what might be wrong and how you can ensure it doesn’t persist.
Tips for Developing Verbal Communication Skills.
- Be succinct and explicit.
Have you ever had a lot of work to accomplish while listening to a coworker’s drawn-out story? It’s hard. To avoid becoming that person, try to get to the essential points quickly.
- Don’t be afraid of occasional silence.
Although silence sometimes seems intolerable, it isn’t always a terrible thing. Don’t start talking solely to break the awkward quiet. It’s difficult but try to resist the desire. When you understand it’s okay to be silent, your partner and coworkers will appreciate it.
- Eliminate the “umms” and “uhs.”
Although it seems obvious, the ordinary individual utilizes fillers much more frequently than they realize. Consider recording yourself giving a presentation to hear how often you use them. Then, as you continue, be aware of the fillers and speak more slowly, so you have time to plan.
- Make a plan and practice your speech
Of course, there are many impromptu interactions in which you need help to prepare and practice. But when you can, spend even 30 seconds reviewing your main points. Your communication abilities may improve dramatically as a result.
How to Become More Skillful in Nonverbal Communication
- Maintain eye contact when listening to someone.
The best advice for demonstrating that you are listening to someone is to do this. Maintain constant eye contact without becoming weird. This is a delicate balance.
- Avoid twitching or other distracting behaviors.
Avoid seven readjustments in your chair. Avoid repeatedly clicking your pen open and shut. Avoid flipping through your papers or opening new tabs on your computer while the board is in a Zoom call.
- Maintain an upright posture
One more of those advice pieces appears basic yet is shockingly simple to ignore. You slouch most of the time without even realizing it.
- Avoid crossing your arms.
Some consider this to be a “power stance.” In some circumstances, this may be the case, but in others, it may give the impression that you are far from the other person. It could come across as impatient to go, which isn’t conducive to fruitful conversation.
- Recognize the same cues others are giving you.
Although nonverbal cues are frequently deliberate, they can also be unintended. Ask yourself if your coworker’s lack of eye contact or persistent fidgeting could be a response to you telling a long narrative or bothering them during a hectic period.
How to Develop Your Written Communication Skills
- Never reply to texts when feeling angry.
Have you ever been angry when you sent an email, then afterward thought, why did you send that? Having been there, Take a five to ten-minute timeout after receiving an upsetting message to collect yourself before responding. Your relationships can benefit greatly from this.
- Create email subject lines and titles that are descriptive.
How irritating is it to receive an email with no subject? Use as few words and as much specificity as you can in your email titles. Inform them of its precise contents. Try using a subject line like Request to postpone our Meeting to another time or date in place of Meeting.
- Use Active voice.
You may recall hearing this advice frequently in school. This helps to clear up any ambiguity regarding how things are accomplished. Active voice is not only more clear, but it also keeps your message receivers’ attention longer.
- Keep your sentences and words simple.
As a general guideline, your sentences should be at most two lines long. Please take advantage of any chance to halve or shorten them. Additionally, you should use only some of the terms that some readers can find confusing in your writing.
- Make it brief and elegant.
A long, winding email isn’t as delightful as telling a long, winding narrative face to face, just like neither situation is ideal. It increases the likelihood that people will skim over or outright ignore key details, which makes them feel like you’re wasting their time, and also increases the likelihood that they will overlook them.
Now, you are all set!
Just as your interpersonal and professional relationships develop over time, so do strong communication abilities.
Start with being mindful of your communication style and how it fits your communication objectives. Once you are aware of others, check to see whether you are communicating effectively and picking up on the proper cues.
Also, remember that there is no shame in asking for assistance from a mentor, coach, or class, and take communication skills training if this seems like a daunting task.