Did you ever observe in your life that the way you receive information depends on who is speaking it and how it is expressed? A great leader could inspire you with his words, and when the same words are spoken by someone else, it does not create the same meaningful impact as created by this leader. Why does this happen? Is there more to communication than mere words? Yes. There are many factors that go into making communication effective.
Before we look at the tips for making our communication effective, let us understand why effective communication is important in life. Below are the benefits of effective communication.
7 benefits of effective communication:
1. It makes life easy. Many problems in life are created due to communication gaps, and these can be avoided with effective communication.
2. It saves time. A lot of time in life is spent on undoing and handling the consequences of ineffective communication.
3. It improves relationships. Effective communication is one of the important factors that shape the quality of relationships in life.
4. It makes parenting easier. One of the common problems faced by both parents and children is communication.
5. It improves the success rate in life. The current world is the age of communication, and talent alone is not enough to bring success. Effective communication is very much needed to get that dream job or climb the ladder of success.
6. Effective communication is one of the tools to create a positive impact in the world. Many great initiatives in the world are outcomes of powerful speeches delivered by strong people. Words have the power to transform lives.
7. It can lower the pain and sorrow in life. When we communicate with kindness, it becomes a healing for the other person.
These are some benefits of effective communication. It’s a must if we want to succeed in life and be happy. Effective communication is the secret of many giants of various fields. So, what makes an effective communication? Here are 12 tips for effective communication.
12 tips for effective communication:
1. Body language – Our body language speaks more than our words. It reflects the amount of respect we carry for others and our confidence levels. So, maintaining proper body language during our conversations is important.
2. Eye contact – Maintaining eye contact during conversations builds the trust and engages the other person. It makes the other person feel valued and respected. It also shows the confidence of the speaker.
3. Usage of right words – Our choice of words is important. The same message can be communicated through a variety of words, and the words we choose reflect our personality. Choose words carefully. Words have the power to heal or hurt.
4. Clarity in thoughts – Communication is nothing but an expression of our thoughts. If our thoughts are unclear and hazy, our communication too tends to become unclear. So build clarity in thinking. Be clear about what you want to communicate and then communicate. Clarity in thoughts makes communication effective and powerful. Such kind of communication creates a great impact.
5. Control over emotions – When we are too excited or frightened or angry or sad, we cannot be effective in communication. We tend to be overwhelmed and carried away by our emotions. When we are overpowered by our emotions, we end up speaking something we don’t want to speak, or we stay silent when we actually want to speak. So, gaining control over emotions is important for effective communication. When our emotions are under our control, we gain the strength to choose the right words and clarity of thinking.
6. Patient listening – Communication is not just about speaking. Listening, too, plays an important role in effective communication. When we listen to the other person patiently, we give them the space, time, and freedom to express themselves. The other person feels respected and valued, and their better side comes out.
7. Open mind – We should keep our mind open to the endless possibilities of life and not carry biases or prejudices towards anyone. When we carry preconceived notions about someone, we just hear them but don’t actually listen to them. Their words don’t carry meaning to us.
8. Make it engaging – As a speaker or presenter, we should make our communication engaging for the audience. It should not become a one-sided communication. Such kind of communication bores the other person. There should be some kind of engagement from the side of the listener to make the communication effective. We can add questions, stories, and bring in the fun element and engagement.
9. Usage of visuals – Images speak more than words. It is said a picture is worth a thousand words. It is also found that the human brain can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words. So, using the right kind of images improves the effectiveness of communication.
10. Use positive emotions –When our communication carries positive emotions like empathy, love, respect, understanding, passion, enthusiasm, it becomes supercharged, lively, interesting, and becomes many times powerful. Such kind of communication becomes inspiring and transformational.
11. Add value – Make it a point to add value to the person through your communication. Do your words make the other person feel better or give some knowledge and information or entertain or make them laugh? Before communicating, take a moment to pause how your communication is going to add value to the other person.
12. Show interest – Genuinely care about the listener and show interest in the other person. After all, the other person is as human as you and deserves interest and care. Your genuine interest makes the other person receptive to what you are speaking.
These are the 12 tips to make communication effective.
Effective communication is a skill, and it takes time to build it. Our conscious practice and efforts make it faster to build this skill. It’s worth to build this skill in life because of the numerous benefits we receive out of it. Make your communication effective and spread the wings of your thoughts into the world.
“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy
