Communication is the base to exchange our thought with each other. We understand other people’s thoughts just because of communication. Therefore, all of us must build communication skills. We have often seen many people hesitate to talk with other people. This happens because they have a lack of communication skills.
No one can master communication skills. It may take a lifetime to build our communication skills. All we can do is improve our communication skills by learning and practising. Building communication skills makes us impressively communicate our thoughts.
WHAT’S IN IT
Introduction
When we talk about communication skills, the first and primary question arises: What is communication? Simply, communication is the act through which we transfer or exchange our thoughts and information with one another. In communication, two or more persons participate in communicating with each other.
Now, we know about communication, but here’s another question, What do we mean by communication skills? Communication skills are the skills and abilities that we all use while communicating with people. Communication skills allow us to represent our emotions, thoughts and information impressively.
Types of communication
We all use different types of communications for communicating with others. Such kinds of communications provide us with a different medium through which we interact with people. There are three major types of communications that we all use for communicating. They are:
- Verbal communication
- Non-verbal communication
- Visual communication
Verbal communication
Verbal communication is the communication in which we communicate with other people by speaking. This type of communication is also called ‘oral communication’ where we transmit orally with another person. We use such communication during calls, presentations, face-to-face conversations, meetings, etc.
Non-verbal communication
Basically, in non-verbal communication, we use non-verbal mediums to communicate. In such communication, we exchange our thoughts by writing, body language, sign, gestures and facial expressions. It is useful for expressing our emotions and feelings. We use open body and close body language to express our thoughts.
Visual communication
In visual communication, we use sketches, drawings, charts, graphs, photographs to communicate our thoughts and information. We use visual communications for supporting our verbal and non-verbal communications. This visual feel helpful for creatively expressing our thoughts and information.
Elements to focus on communication skills
Communication skills let us communicate in a better way. In our life and even in business, we need to focus on the main elements of communication skills. These elements will help us in improving our communication skills.
They are:
- Speaking
- Listening
- Writing
- Reading
Speaking
Focusing on our speaking will improve our verbal communication. All we need to do is just practice and practice. We can improve our speaking skills only when we speak. Try to talk with people. We can also improve our speaking skills by speaking in interviews, presentations, conversation with other people, calls, video conferencing, etc. This will automatically improve our speaking skills. So, try to speak frequently.
Listening
Another active element of communication skills is listening. Have you ever seen a child, how do they learn their communication skills? Just by listening to their parents. We can’t improve our communication skills without listening skills.
All we need to do is just listen to Some motivational speakers, successful people. And try to understand how they communicate with the audience. This will eventually improve our communication skills.
Writing
It is another powerful element of communication skills. Writing helps us to improve the writing skills that we all use to communicate with others through writing. We can improve our skills by writing every day. We can write letters to our friends either in paper or messages, writing a routine diary, posters, emails, etc.
Reading
Reading is another best element of communication skills. It is challenging to master this technique because nowadays, people spend less time reading. Therefore, for building these skills, all we need to do is read. Read a daily newspaper, book, novel, magazines, etc. The more time we’ll spend reading, the more our skill will improve.
Six ways to build communication skills
We all want to build communication skills. Many people try several techniques to develop communication skills, but nothing happens. We have seen many people start building communication skills, but they quit in between. They do so just because of a lack of determination.
Therefore, to build communication skills, we all need to be determined to learn communication skills. We can’t build communication skills in a day. We need to work continuously work on it without quitting.
Here are some effective six ways to build communication skills.
- Spend alone time for thinking
- Read quality books and articles
- Write before you say
- Practice saying more in fewer words.
- Try to do public speaking and also ask feedback.
- Active listening
Spend alone time for thinking
For building excellent communication skills first, you have to stop talking and need to spend some alone time for thinking. You have to do your inspection. Just think about yourself and what you want to do. And try to communicate all those things in your mind itself.
After a busy day, spend some time and think about what all you did the whole day and what all conversations you had with people. This will help you to remind and focus on your critical areas of communications.
Read quality books and articles
We have discussed old reading before also. Reading is key to building excellent communication skills. It will give you new ideas, and it will also increase your knowledge. Always read high-quality books, articles, blogs, etc.
This will give you ideas and will build your communication skills. You will learn how you can write in an impressive way of communicating and will also improve your pronunciation and verbal communication.
Write before you say
Before communicating with people, you can write and read what you want to say. Many times it happens when we try to communicate we forget what we want to say and also we don’t get words which we need for communicating. Therefore, for building communication, first, write all the points that you want to say and then read it twice or thrice.
Through this technique, you will not face such problems and can communicate easily with others. After a period automatically, your communication skills will build up, and you will no longer need this technique for communicating.
Practice saying more in fewer words
For building effective communication and for being an effective communicator, you need to say more in fewer words. You have to describe all the things clearly and concisely. So practice daily and try to say more in fewer words. You can exercise this technique by writing emails, memos, letters, messages. You can also write a routine diary as well.
This technique will help you in building your communication skills, and you can communicate in a better way than before.
Try to do public speaking and also ask feedback
It is also one of the most effective ways of building communication skills. Try to do public speaking. Whenever you get a chance, don’t miss it, use it to develop your communication skills. Whether it’s a class presentation, marriage or birthday, whatever, try to speak in public.
And afterwards, ask four friends for your feedback. And next time try again and improve the points which you lacked in previous ones. This will not only build your communication skills but also increase your confidence.
Active listening
We have discussed these earlier also. For becoming an excellent communicator, you have first to need to become a good listener. You have to become an active listener. You need to listen to what other people are saying to you. Just listen to them carefully and respond to them based on what they have said.
This technique will help you to converse in a better way. Through these people will engage with you and they will also cooperate with you for making conversation.
Conclusion
Communication is necessary for communicating with other people. We can’t understand other people’s minds and thoughts without communication. And for communication, we all need excellent communication skills for expressing our feelings and for sharing our information with other people. Therefore, for persuasively expressing ourselves, we all need to build our communion skills.
Building communication skills is not much difficult. All we have to do is practice daily. We should never quit building and improving communication skills. We can never master communication. So, we should keep practising and learning without stopping.
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