Effective communication is a skill that most people do not have. Effective communication plays an important role in your everyday life activities. Whether you are at work, at home, or just among other people. V. Kotelnikov, the author of “ Effective Communication, The Art, Science, and Practice “ says there are four main goals to effective communication; to inform, to request, to persuade, and to build relationships. To inform, you must be able to give information without receiving anything back.
To request, you must be able to ask questions expecting feedback. To persuade, you must be able to convince them why they should believe you. To build relationships, you must be able to build good will with whom you are communicating with. You should always want people to feel good about holding a conversation with you. Effective communication has many important factors. I believe that one of the most important factors in effective communication are being a good listener. If you are not listening to what a person is saying, how can you effectively communicate? The person will think you are ignoring them.
Another important factor of effective communication is self-confidence. If you show confidence in whom you are and what you are discussing, people will want to listen and carry a conversation with you. Another important factor is eye contact. When communicating with someone, always use eye contact. When people lack self-confidence, they avoid eye contact. Therefore, sometimes not taken seriously; or worse, you are thought of to be dishonest. Another important factor is to show interest in someone else other than yourself. When engaged in a conversation, it should not always be about you.
A conversation is between two or more people, not one. You should ask open-ended questions versus yes or no questions. For example, instead of saying do you like this dress? You should say what do you think about this dress? The second question sparks an effective communication for a conversation. To avoid silence awkwardness, try not to use open- ended questions. When asking questions in a conversation, try not to ask to many. You are holding a conversation, not an interrogation. When trying to effectively communicate, you should get right to the point. If you have something to say, say it.
Do not waste the . other person’s time. My last important factor of effective communication is knowledge. Knowledge is power. The more you know, the more effectively you can communicate to others. Without effective communication, you may not be able to apply for a job, advance in your career, or build lasting relationships. For example, try asking a question about how to fill out a job application. If your question was not asked with proper effective communication, you might appear to be incapable of filling out the application. Try going in for an interview for a job.
Effective communication is a very important skill to have when communicating with the interviewer. Without effective communication, how will you know if you answered the questions properly. Did you listen? Did you show confidence? Did you use eye contact? Did you show interest in what the interviewer was saying? Did you use knowledge? These were important factors described earlier in effective communication. Another scenario: Let us say you were up for a promotion, but to receive it you had to present a final presentation. You approached your boss and asked for some time off to prepare.
You took more time off than your boss thought you needed. Therefore, you lost the promotion. You did not effectively communicate to your boss how much time you needed off. Effective communication in relationships is very important. Whether it is between family members, husband and wife, or boyfriend and, girlfriend.
These are people you share your intimate feelings with. Without effective communication, you could lose important people in our lives because we did not know how to communicate. When you are trying to build a relationship or keep a relationship going, you must know how to ommunicate with the person effectively. Not doing so can result in someone’s feelings being hurt. Sometimes there is a house of silence because somebody did not communicate properly.
Most of the time someone is left either upset or angry. Good effective communication is essential in the world today. When you learn how to effectively communicate it can solve misunderstandings. “ The problem with communication… is the illusion that it has been accomplished” (Shaw,nd) (John Powell, 2008) says, “ communication works for those who work at it. ” So start small, learning to communicate takes time. So be patient. “ To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others”. (Robbins, 2008)
References
- Dorchak D, (2007) 7 Keys to Effective Communication, How to Communicate With People, retrieved from http://www. LifeScript. com
- Kotelnikov V, (2004) Effective Communication, The Art, Science, and Practice, retrieved from http://www. 1000ventures. com/business
- Shaw B, (nd) The Importance of Effective Communication, Retrieved from http://www. effective-communicating. com
