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How do you improve your communication skills?

Answer:

Improve Your Communication Skills


One of the most common causes of work-related conflict is lack of communication between co-workers.
Because good communication skills are essential in just about any workplace, it is important that you master
the basics. Here are some tips on how to improve your communication skills.
1. Listen. Active listening is one of the most important communication skills you can acquire. By listening
intently and not allowing your mind to drift off during meetings and discussions with co-workers, you
can ensure that you are retaining the important information being discussed. Take notes during meetings
and ask pertinent questions about the subject matter--repeating what the speaker has said will also help
to keep the information in your brain.
2. Accept constructive criticism. Taking on a defensive posture is not the way to communicate in the
workplace. If someone offers you some constructive criticism, talk with her on how to improve things.
When critiquing others, do it in a professional way.
3. Be aware of your body language. Your body language communicates for you before you even open
your mouth to speak--in fact, your body language often says more about you than the words that you
say! Avoid crossing your arms, which may indicate boredom, and try to maintain eye contact when
having a business discussion. Yawning, fidgeting and rolling your eyes will not impress your co-
workers--or your boss--either.
4. Answer your phone. Making yourself available is a big part of maintaining effective communication. If
you're at your desk, try to answer your phone. Check your voicemails often and respond in a timely
manner. Remember that others are relying on you in order to get their own jobs done, so responding
quickly to messages is extremely important.
5. Use e-mail correctly. Your e-mail skills can help to make or break your business communications.
Because e-mails can be misconstrued (you can't hear the sender's tone as you can in a conversation), it is
imperative that you word e-mails carefully. Also, check for typos and reread the e-mail to yourself
before you send it. Be careful about whom you copy and blind-copy on e-mails--be sure that you are
sending workplace communications only to the people that need to be included. Also, be careful with
blind copying (bcc) on e-mails--this practice, of copying someone on an e-mail without the knowledge
of others in the e-mail loop, should be reserved for unique situations only.
6. Practice effective writing skills. Your writing skills are one of your most important communication
skills. If you have problems in this area, brush up on your writing skills by taking a business writing or
English class. Always check for typos before sending out any written communication. If it's an important
memo or presentation, have a co-worker read it over for you to make sure your message is clear.
7. Speak with confidence. If you have to give a formal presentation, make sure you are confident and have
a thorough knowledge of the subject matter--any nervousness will show through. Many people have a
fear of speaking in public--if this is a problem for you, consider taking a public speaking class. When
giving presentations, practice beforehand in front of a friend or co-worker. Make sure you are armed
with detailed notes and practice your spiel over and over until you have it memorized. Visual aids, like a
PowerPoint presentation, can also help you to get through a presentation. Allow your audience to ask
you questions at the end to make sure that everyone understands what you have said.
By following these basic guidelines, you should find an improvement in your workplace communication skills,
which in turn will enable you and your co-workers to get your jobs done more efficiently.

How to develop communication skill?

Develop your communication (both speaking and writing) skills with correct spelling, good
pronunciation, clear voice and grammatical accuracy. Command on language / languages
increases quality of communication skills many fold
A good gesture and appropriate body language help developing communication skills.
Many people confuse communication skill with speaking ability. It is not limited to that
only. Communication skills include writing skill, gestures and body language. One has to
learn these to develop communication skills.
Knowledge of using modern communication devices such as phones, mobile phones, computers
and internet is also integral part of communication skills.
NB : Speak more about your counterpart and not about you. Most communications fail because
people are interested in saying "I". When you speak about yourself it is generally boring. When
you speak about others it is gossip. Most intelligent and interesting conversations are when you
speak about your counterpart.
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English communication skill


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Hindrances of developing communication skills

There are physical, mental, social and educational hindrances in communication.


There are deaf and dumb who can not communicate well. This is because of their physical
inabilities. People with problems in their vocal cord can not speak well. Problems in ear trumpet
can affect listening ability. Both deaf and dumb can not communicate well. Hearing -aid or
speech therapy helps them. A blind or myopic person has difficulty in his or her reading process.
This also reduces quality of communication.
Morn, idiot and other mentally retarded persons are also not good communicators. Ego and
uncontrolled emotions also affect communication skills adversely.Biased, arrogant and
argumentative persons are generally a bad communicator.
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Socially deprived or suppressed persons generally lack Communication skills. Their abilities are
suppressed. They develop inferiority complexes among themselves that in turn curbs their
communication skills.
Generally uneducated and illiterate people lack in communication skills. Here education means
the real education and not having a mere degree.

Vote your choice


Who is a better comunicator?

 Good listener

 Good speaker
See results without voting
Modern communication devices: Cellphones, iPhones etc
We are living in the age ofcommunication. Technology has increased ability of communication
many fold. We can speak to our relatives, friends, business partners or whomsoever living in a
distant place. Modern communication devices help us communicating easily with our
counterparts globally.
This has started with postal departments some centuries ago. Telegraph increased
communication strength. However, both these tools helped communication in writing. Radio and
telephone equipped us with communicating vocally. Fax made our office communications easy.
Nowadays, we are habituate of using cellphones, computers and internet. Voice mail, voice chat,
E-mail are blessings of internet. We are now able to put our videos and even ready for
a video chat. 3G and 4G cellphones, iPhones are miracles of modern science and technology.
Europe and America are pioneers in developing and manufacturing modern communication
devices such as computers and mobile phones. However, Japan took the lead several years ago
followed by China in Asia. India is also coming up rapidly in modern communication
technology fields.
Nokia, Motorola, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, You tube have earned billions in
the business of internet and modern devices.

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How to develop communication skills?

One has to remove / eradicate above mentioned hindrances / obstacles to become a good
communicator. A physician or specialist can help patients to improve their hearing, speaking or
viewing faculty. Aspeech therapist can help developing a clear voice. A linguist can help
improving spelling or grammar. Learning two or three languages enhances capacity of
communication.

View: Tri-lingual children

Psychologists can suggest some methods of enhancing communication skills among mentally
disabled persons. The administration can play their role to boost confidence of socially deprived or
suppressed persons.

Illiterate or uneducated persons should have gone through some training processes. It may include
development of linguistic skills, use of communication devices etc.

Appropriate training of good gestures and body languages should also be imparted at all levels.

Please Remember!!

Body language and gestures play a great role in communication, hence, do not ignore these.

Conclusion:

The hub is written to answer a question about how to develop communication skills among shy
persons. The secrets lye in motivation.

Generally shy personalities are either suppressed or having lack of confidence. They need
attention, some extra care and True love!!
The first and foremost task is to make them believe that they can do. One has to develop confidence
among them. It is also true that competence grow confidence. A mentor can make them competent
thus boost their confidence. Motivational or personality development program can work as a booster.

Please feel free to comment and feedback on this hub. Both are the ways to communicate
between you and me, author. It will help me improving my writing. I can communicate better
with you and write better articles useful for you.

Please do not forget to comment and feedback. You can also feel free to bookmark this hub
with any social bookmarking sites.

What Is Formal Communication?


Answer
Formal communication is a kind of verbal presentation or written information that precisely
follows certain rules and is free of any slang language. Formal communication models used in
the workplace include downward communication, where information moves from management
to the lower level employees; upward communication where information moves from employees
to management and horizontal communication where information is shared between colleagues
in the office.

What Is Informal Communication?


Informal communication arises out of all those channels that fall outside the formal channels
and it is also known as grapevine. It is established around the societal affiliation of members of
the organization. Informal communication does not follow authority lines as in the case of
formal communication.

Informal communication takes place due to the individual needs of the members of an
organization and subsists in every organization. Normally, such communication is oral and may
be expressed even by simple glance, sign or silence. Informal communication, is implicit,
spontaneous multidimensional and diverse. It oftenly works in group of people, i.e. when one
person has some information of interest; he passes it on to his informal group and so on.

An organization can make efficient use of informal channels to fortify the formal channels of
communication. It acts as a valuable purpose in expressing certain information that cannot be
channeled via the official channels. It satisfies the people desires to identify what is happening
in the organization and offers an opportunity to express dreads, worries and complaints.
Informal communication also facilitates to ameliorate managerial decisions as more people are
involved in the process of decision-making.

Inspite on many advantages, informal communication has certain disadvantages. Informal


communication contains facts, deceptions, rumors and unclear data. The informal channels of
communication may transmit completely imprecise information that may harm rather than help
an organization. In addition, it is impossible to fix the responsibility for its origin or flow of
information. However, for the efficient working of any organization both formal and informal
communications are required.

or
Informal communication is communication between the members of an organization
and does not follow the rules or guidelines set up by the organization. Informal
communication takes place privately between employees.

What Is Intrapersonal Communication?


Answer
Inatrapersonal communication is the communication within an individual. The communication
occurs within one's mind or when an individual talks to him or herself when nobody is around.
Intrapersonal communication can aid in helping an individual become more social, like a pat on
the back and saying that 'you can do it'.

What Is Interpersonal Communication?


Answer
Interpersonal communication is the process of people exchanging ideas, feelings and thoughts
through verbal and non-verbal massages. It is usually involves face to face interaction, because
both the spoken and body language are used to communicate. Interpersonal communication is
usually a two way process.
Or
Interpersonal communication is exchange of information between two or more people. It is also an area
of study. Related skills are learned and can be improved. During interpersonal communication there
is message sending and message receiving. This can be conducted using both direct and indirect
methods. Successful interpersonal communication is when the message senders and the message
receivers understand the message.

What Is the Meaning of Group Communication?


Answer
Group communication refers to the communication between a group of people and another
group of people or within the group itself. A group is normally considered as a collection of
people that number 3 or more.

Definition of Mass Communication?


Answer
The definition of mass communication is when an individual or company uses television, radio,
or national press to deliver a message to the general public. It is a way to deliver a statement or
message to as many people as possible.

Or
the transmission of messages from a sender to a large amount of people through various types of media, eg:
newspapers, television etc.
the medium has to have the ability to reach a large audience.

What Is Two Way Communication?


Answer
Two - Way Communication is a method of communication occurring between radio stations,
each of which has a transmitter and receiver. The stations can be in any combination of mobile
locations or fixed locations.

What Are Psychological Barriers?


Answer
In psychology, psychological barriers are explained as the more or less insuperable obstacles,
non-social or social, external or internal, which obstruct with achievement of needs and
aspirations. They include inner tension, petulance and perhaps exasperation or anger directed
towards a condition or a person responsible.

1 Additional Answer

Psychological barriers can be described as the cause of distorted communication because of


human psychology problems. Some of the human psychology barriers include absence of mind,
fear and being emotional unstable while communicating. Some of the other communication
barriers are physical barriers and environmental barriers.

What Are Physical Barriers?


Answer
A physical barrier is a factor that limits the migration, interbreeding or free movement of
individuals or animals. For example, a natural feature such as a mountain range that prevents
movement. There are different types of physical barriers.

1 Additional Answer

A physical barrier is a physical problem that impedes one from achieving a set goal. Physical
barriers could be caused due to health problems, communication barriers or other possible
physical blocks. It is however important for one to understand the physical barriers and create
strategies to overcome them.

Physical barriers[edit]
Physical barriers are often due to the nature of the environment. An example of this is the natural barrier
which exists if staff are located in different buildings or on different sites. Likewise, poor or outdated
equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may also cause
problems. Staff shortages are another factor which frequently causes communication difficulties for an
organization. While distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an environment which is too hot or
cold can all affect people's morale and concentration, which in turn interfere with effective communication.

Attitudinal barriers[edit]
Attitudinal barriers come about as a result of problems with staff in an organization. These may be
brought about, for example, by such factors as poor management, lack of consultation with employees,
personality conflicts which can result in people delaying or refusing to communicate, the personal
attitudes of individual employees which may be due to lack of motivation or dissatisfaction at work,
brought about by insufficient training to enable them to carry out particular tasks, or just resistance to
change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas, it may be as a result delay in payment at the end of the
month.

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