We all know the importance of communication in our life. Communication is the only means through which we can convey our feelings to the other person. Although it seems quite simple, it is not. You might have seen job requirements in the newspaper or internet where it would be written "Good Communication Skills Required" because the owner knows that the person will have to deal with clients for which he will require high level of communication skills .
A person who has lesser knowledge but good communication skills will invariably make more progress in life than the person who has got greater knowledge but poor communication skills . The reason being that with good communication skills you get more information, you can interact better with concerned people and will also develop better convincing power. There is lot of information available these days in the world and if you are positive person willing to communicate you can get access to that.
The purpose of this article is to give you basic understanding about how you can improve your communication skills which will help you in all the activities you perform.
1) Never shy to communicate. Many people have inferiority complex. They get a feeling that they cannot present facts properly or they will not be able to convince the other person properly. No matter how better the other person speaks or communicates, never feel shy and stop speaking. Always try to participate in the conversation and gradually you will develop greater confidence.
2) Do not fall in the trap, "I am a good listener" We definitely need to listen to the other person and get the information but that does not mean that we have to only listen. When the proper time comes we have to speak and other has to listen. Everybody has the right to speak and everybody has to listen. Only people who are not confident to communicate would claim to be good listeners.
3) Do not get intimidated by people who try to dominate. There will always be people who will try to dominate in the conversation and make an effort to make you feel inferior or try to not allow you to speak. But always make inroads and speak and also find moments where you can dominate such people. Dominate at the right time and again become humble later in the conversation and gradually the dominating person will realize that you are a humble and a respectful person and then he will give you more space to talk.
4) Do not try to win conversation. Conversation is about discussion. It is not about defeating each other and making the other person feel inferior. Be open-minded and try to discuss things and give equal opportunity to others' to speak.
5) Tell the other person about things which you will not like to discuss. If somebody speaks something which is not friendly to you or offends you, do not feel inferior and stop communicating with him or keep on listening to the same thing again and again. Rather say, "I would appreciate if you do not speak about such things with me. It is very upsetting to me" More often than not he will not speak such things again but if he does, you can speak things which he does not like. But keep proper boundaries.
6) Do proper homework.
There will always be certain pattern of discussions which will happen in different groups. If you go to a sports
club where soccer players are playing, generally they will discuss about great soccer players. In the office most of the people in the lunch will discuss about the best restaurants. Always try to collect some information beforehand and you will develop better impression.
7) Respect the other person and be humble. Always try to respect the other person and be humble. Do not try to make other person feel inferior by making direct comments on him or making fun of him in front of everybody. Everybody including you would love to get respect and love from all the people.
8) Identify moments when you need to be silent. If you feel that the particular conversation is going off the track or there are too many people saying too many things and having digs at each other including you, it is fine to be silent during that conversation. Identify your moments later on.
9) Socialize more. The more people you meet, the more friends you have, the more you will talk with them and the better will your communication skills be. Keep an easy going and a friendly nature and feel free to make more friends and discuss as much as possible.
10) Describe. Instead of just informing the other person like, "I brought apples from the market at Rs 10/kg" Rather try to explain the other person things in proper detail and describe the scenario properly and check if you are able to make the other person imagine what you are speaking.
11) Develop a vocabulary. Read newspapers, listen attentively to the characters in the movie and try to develop good vocabulary. If you have good vocabulary you can present things in a proper manner and give the other person accurate information.
12) Be cheerful Whenever you communicate, make sure you do not sport an expressionless and a dull face. Be positive and try to communicate and try to mix your facts with proper jokes and try to make conversations more interesting.
13) Support your information with examples. If you are giving any information to the other person, do not just give the detail, try to associate some story or example to support it. Do not just say, "Restaurant X is very good". Rather say, "I went to the restaurant on this Sunday and it had a very good menu consisting of salads and desserts and the support staff was wonderful"
14) Try to attach some value to your conversation. Do not just have funny or casual conversation. When required give some information or detail which will be helpful to the other person and if gets good guidance, he will always love to talk to you.
15) Be careful We all have freedom of expression but make sure we do not get too excited or angry and speak things which will lead us into trouble. Words are like arrows and once they are shot they will never come back.
These small tips if applied regularly will definitely enhance your communication skills. You will not develop great communication skills overtime but gradually as you communicate more and apply few of these bits of details to your daily life, it will surely help you in achieving your goal.
One final advise from me is, TALK, TALK , TALK
Tarun Nanwani lives in the city of Baroda, India. He has done his Masters' in Computer Engineering. He works as asoftware engineer. He is passionate about reading books, listening to music, travelling, spending time with children. He enjoys doing meditation, yogasana and pranayama. He has also successfully completed two levels of Reiki.
He has created his blogging site, http://www.sweetnectar.in which has helped thousands of people in the world because of the inspirational and spiritual messages provided in it. The success of this blog motivated him to write a book and the purpose of it was to add some value to the life of people who are occupied by stress and depression. After doing analysis of the modern world and the challenges which people are facing these days, he became motivated to write the classical work, The Perfect Sadhu . The details about the book and the author can be found at the following link,
http://sweetnectar.in/tarunnanwani