Improving Communication Skills
How to change the feel of the way you communicate
A Change of Attitude
It is quite easy to change the direction of any communication just by changing your attitude. Of course there is not one single right attitude to have, though being direct and clear will help. The point is that any change in your attitude will be experienced by the other person as a change in the feel of the conversation.
Listening and Responding Effectively
We often feel that as the listener we are the passive party in a conversation. Actually you can have a tremendous influence on what is being said by the way you listen to it.
When you are getting little or no response from someone you are talking to, you have nothing on which to base your feeling for how the conversation is going. i.e. "how am I doing here?"
If we have nothing to tell us what the other person is thinking and how they are feeling, we just project our worst assumptions onto them. So if you listen passively people will make up for themselves what you think about what they are saying. And guess what? They never think a passive listener is thinking good thoughts about what they are hearing.
On Being Positive
Always use affirmation and encouragement if you want to get the best out of other people. All this means is that you notice when they do things well (even if it is something they really should be good at anyway). It shows them that you are being attentive. We all respond well when we know that others feel positively about the things we are doing.
Simply put, you can make your workplace can be a much better place if you consistently coat your communication with a good layer of positive feedback.
The Importance of Basic Communication Skills
Don't leave the important business of good communication to chance.
All you need do is raise your awareness a little, develop a few simple communication skills and you will quickly become a role model for effectiveness in communication.
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Read more about communication skills development and coaching tips @ Impact Factory
Find Impact Factorys next available Open Communication Skills Course
For Tailored Communication Skills Training see Communication Skills Training
For One-to-One Communication Skills see Executive Coaching
If you want some in-depth thoughts about Communication, read the Communication Skills articles on our Jolly Good Read page
For an example a recent tailored programme see the Communication Skills Programme we run for Merrill Lynch
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