Satveer Bhantoo
Communication Skills
Having good communication skills is crucial in our daily life. They are required for various tasks such as speaking with other people, getting a job, having a good career among many more!
One of the forms of communication involves oral communication. It's basically communicating with others using one's voice (talking). In the workplace, for example, we communicate a lot with other individuals by talking!
Speaking comes in use greatly presentations. Along with visual aids and other props, talking to others can be more effective than writing (of course depending on the situation). Hence having good presentation skills is considered to be very important at the workplace.
The other half of oral communication involves listening. Having good listening skill is as important as having a good talking skill. It is one which needs to be practiced. The whole process can be divided in 6 steps.
1. Receiving: Here the one listening listens and receives the information being transmit using his ears (physical hearing).
2. Interpreting: In a way, it is the decryption of information that has been heard in the first step.
3. Remembering: Basically retaining what has been said and interpreted.
4. Evaluating: This involves to getting a conclusion of what has been said.
5. Responding: Reacting to what has been understood. This can be physical response like nodding or smiling.
6. Acting: The ultimate step which involves taking action on what has been listened and understood. For example writing a report on, write an article and so on.
To listen effectively, the listener must avoid being pre-judgemental; for instance based on the speakers physical appearance. He should also not interfere the conversation and try to be the enter of attention while the speaker is conveying the message. He should also have his full attention towards the listener and listen to everything being said rather than listening to what he wants.
There are various techniques that can improve your way of listening. Along with what has been said above, a good listener should also give feedback to improve the speaker and also concentrate on the content rather on how the content is being delivered!
Along with oral communication, there is also the written one. The main purpose of writing is to inquire, inform, instruct or influence from. In the business world, there are 2 main ways of written communication: letters and memo. The latter is usually used within the company itself, while letters are more likely to be used both inside and outside the organisation. The format and content of them are different.
There are also use of reports. Those are generally to present information in a well structured and organised format. It is a mean of communication from low level to the higher levels within the company. Reports are generated in fixed time intervals and usually for part of the routine to keep information on track and can be used for investigation purposes!
Staying in the business field, verbal communication, again, is crucial. These can include telephone conversations, speeches and presentation. All of them are used in an attempt to share information effectively. With the use of presentation, one can also use graphical aids to support an argument and be more convincing!
Another communication trend nowadays is Email. It has gained a high level of popularity in the past years with advent of this technology. However those using Email for communication should pay much attention on the level of formality of the mails, as it has been proven that Email users tend to not respect the structures of a formal mean of communication when making use of this technology!
Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication is basically the use of body languages to help with transmitting information. Usually this is done instinctively, but one can also train on this aspect to give a better emphasis on the message. These include the posture, facial expression, gestures, eye-contact and occasionally touching.
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