Quote of the Week

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.



Deborah Tannen

How To Build Effective Communication Skills?

It’s generally observed that people, who have good oral and written communication skills, tend to easily tackle challenges that life throws at them. Those people normally tend to do better at work, get early promotions, get along well with others and lead satisfactory lives. Hence it’s imperative to continuously learn and build up your oral and written communication skills. Consider the following five important elements that are necessary to build effective communication skills.
Improve language skills

The more knowledge you have about the language that you use for communication, the better. Improve your vocabulary and practice newly learned words by using them in your daily language. During communication, try to avoid saying long sentences. Try to make your sentences short and to the point. This may be difficult to do initially but with practice you’ll get better.

Listen with concentration

If you are having a conversation with someone, listen to the other person with concentration. This will ensure that you have a good understanding of the other person’s point of view before you speak. Generally, people tend to concentrate more on what they are going to say instead of listening to the other person with full attention. Therefore, both fail to understand each other and the conversation does not go anywhere. Effective listening will allow you to reflect back on what the other person said and your response will be more relevant and to the point. It will also make the other person feel good and s/he will be more responsive to what you say.

Learn to handle objections

Never enforce your point of view on others and never think or assume that whatever you are saying is absolutely right and unobjectionable. Always be mentally ready to face objection on whatever you say and don’t become defensive right off the bat. Open your mind to other possibilities. If an objection is thrown at you, look at it without prejudice and know that you could be wrong and always be willing to accept it.

Learn to control your emotions

You should try to be in control of your emotions when you communicate, especially negative emotions. During a conversation, if something is not said according to your liking or in line with your point of view, don’t get angry. Keep anger at a mile’s length and always keep reminding yourself that you have the right to control your reaction. In case of a conflict, try to reach a compromise by finding a solution that makes both people happy. If you get defensive and angry at any point, it is more than likely that the other person will do the same.

Learn to master your body language

People are more visual and they generally tend to make an opinion about what you say by observing how you say it. During a conversation, your tone, your volume, face expressions, hand gestures and other body movements make the most impact on the other person, even more than your words. So mastering your body language and synchronizing your gestures with your speech will help you achieve your objective to become an effective communicator.

Source: How To Build Effective Communication Skills?

Jokes of the Week

Enjoying Sunday!

Husband to wife: today is Sunday, I have to Enjoy..
Wife: How?
Husband : I have got three movie tickets..
Wife: but we are two, why three tickets??
Husband : One for you, and two tickets for your parents !!!!

The Art of Communicating

There are several basic skills that you need to acquire in order to improve your interpersonal communication skills. Effective communication is an essential part in our everyday lives. In this seminar you will be introduced to the basic interpersonal skills, which in turn will help you achieve more effective personal communication skills. The importance of each skill will be identified through a series of exercises that will be presented.

PROBLEM:
If you don’t present yourself with believability, you cannot achieve interpersonal success. It is an essential element of any presentation.

SOLUTION:
Learn the nine major behavioral skills:

1. eye communication
2. posture, and movement
3. gesture, facial expression
4. dress, appearance
5. 8 ways to transmit your voice
6. language, non-words
7. listener involvement
8. humor
9. learn to use your natural charisma

Continue:The Art of Communicating

Joke of the Week

Flying in the plane

Two hunters got a pilot to fly them into the far north for elk hunting. They were quite successful in their venture and bagged six big bucks. The pilot came back, as arranged, to pick them up. They started loading their gear into the plane, including the six elk. But the pilot objected and he said, "The plane can only take four of your elk; you will have to leave two behind." They argued with him; the year before they had shot six and the pilot had allowed them to put all aboard. The plane was the same model and capacity. Reluctantly, the pilot finally permitted them to put all six aboard. But when the attempted to take off and leave the valley, the little plane could not make it and they crashed into the wilderness.

Climbing out of the wreckage, one hunter said to the other, "Do you know where we are?"

"I think so," replied the other hunter. I think this is about the same place where we landed last year!"

How To Have Confidence In Verbal Communication

Practically everything we do in life involves some form of communication, so it’s important to improve those skills as it can have a very positive impact on your day to day life. Having confidence in verbal communication is particularly important. People make judgements about each other based not only on how we behave but also on what we say. The words we use and how we say them are a vital part of communication skills. If you feel that your vocabulary is lacking, there is no better way to improve that than reading good quality books and publications. Not only will it expand your vocabulary but it will also assist you in expressing ideas and opinions, all of which will increase your verbal confidence.

Confidence in verbal communication involves expressing your thoughts and opinions and knowing you have the right to do so. Again, the needs of others are considered. In this context, assertive communication does not mean using bullying or obnoxious language to insult or belittle other people in order to get them to do what you want. It is only people without any true personal confidence or personal power who use language in this way. Truly confident people use language effectively but with an awareness of how their words can impact on others. Verbal confidence means expressing your needs, feelings and wishes in a non-judgemental and non-threatening way and it also means not de-valuing your words by linking them with hesitancy or contradiction or uncertainty. Confident people always express themselves clearly which is extremely beneficial to others as they give clear and concise information about their needs and wishes. It is often when people are confused or have misunderstood something during a discussion or conversation that frustration and anger comes to the fore. With clear communication, conflicts rarely occur.
So how do you develop confidence in verbal communication?

Continue: Articlebase