Improve communication skills

WHAT DO YOU MEANT BY COMMUNICATIONS !!

Communication is the act of conveying meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules

IN BUSINESS

Communication is the lifeblood of any organisation. Whether it’s issuing simple instructions at work, sorting out a tricky situation with a subordinate, lifting flagging morale, working out a better way to meet productivity targets, briefing your team on customer feedback after a product launch, or as CEO, getting your employees to buy into your company’s vision – communication is the pivot of any business venture, from start-up to global corporation.

Examples of Communications Skills

Does your typical day look like this?

All these are examples of communication skills.

• You share quality time, chit-chatting with your family before you leave for work;
• you use an app to call a cab as your car is in the garage;
• catch the news on your tablet in the cab while also sneaking a peek at your Facebook timeline;
• then you attend a slew of meetings at the office;
• reply to a flood of emails;
• video-conference with clients on another continent;
• let your smart phone order you lunch;
• spit some unprintable words at the moody coffee-maker in the pantry;
• and finally share some much-needed banter with your colleagues as you car-pool on the way back home.

And, oh, how could we forget? Even though a dinosaur in this digital age, there’s the office grapevine that makes car-pooling that much more fun!

What are we getting at? Well, since the definition of communication is the act of transmitting a message, opinion, information, instructions, feedback or even gossip, we are saying something to someone pretty much every waking moment.

And since most of us spend a large part of each day working, in a work environment, structures or otherwise, business communication forms a large part of what we are saying.

IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS :-

1. Learn the basics of nonverbal communication.

One Study found that nonverbal communication accounted for 55 percent of how an audience perceived a presenter. That means that the majority of what you say is communicated not through words, but through physical cues. 

To communicate clearly and confidently, adopt proper posture. Avoid slouching, folding your arms or making yourself appear smaller than you are. Instead, fill up the space you are given, maintain eye contact and (if appropriate) move around the space.

2. You have to over-communicate just to communicate.

In 1990, a graduate student at Stanford University was able to prove that presenters overestimate how much listeners understand. In a study that become known as “the tappers and the listeners,” one set of participants was asked to tap the melody of 120 famous songs. The other participants were asked to guess what song was being tapped.

Tappers estimated that 50 percent of the songs tapped would be correctly identified. In reality, only 2.5 percent of songs were correctly identified. This study shows that it is important to communicate clearly, and to over-communicate when sharing new ideas. As this study indicates, it is likely that the audience will fail to absorb as much as you expect.

3. Ask for honest feedback.

As with most leadership skills, receiving honest feedback from peers, managers and members of your team is critical to becoming a better communicator. If you regularly solicit feedback, others will help you to discover areas for improvement that you might have otherwise overlooked.

4. Engage the audience in discussion.

Regardless of how compelling the speaker is, all audiences have limited attention spans. To become a more effective communicator, make presentations and discussions interactive.

Ask the audience a question, encourage people to call out their thoughts during a brainstorming session or at the very least ask hypothetical questions to stimulate the audience.