Let’s go through the fundamentals of communication that help you to communicate more effectively.
Implied from the name itself, active listening indicates listening attentively and actively. For active listening, the listener has to fully emphasise, understand and revert to what is being told rather than passive hearing. Active listening is a vital business communication skill that focuses on responding to alertness. Those organisations that practice good business communication should ensure their employees actively listen to their instructions.
If the speaker discerns that the listener does not pay attention, then the speaker might consider the talk boring and meaningless.
Some of the indications of active listening:
Eye contact
Smile
Posture
Remembering
Positive language is the practice of using phrases and words to communicate a positive tone to your customers, employees, and other individuals. The use of positive language helps build rapport with others. It hugely influences the effectiveness of communication between different levels in the organisation. Consider the following examples, and look for the difference that positive language makes:
Positive language lets somebody know things you can do. It is specifically useful if you want to say no or convey bad news to somebody.
Incorporating the following tips in your speech and writing will help you practice positive language:
Highlight the benefits of the act
Express a willingness to help
Show a service-oriented attitude
Highlight what you (or your organisation) can do
Avoid using statements that make people adopt a defensive attitude
Explain the reason when saying no
Example:
Case 1: “I’m unable to process your request, Mr. John. You didn’t give me enough information.”
Case 2: “Mr. John, I’d be more than happy to process your request. All I will need is a few more pieces of information from you.”
Case 1 shows negative behaviour toward the person, but Case 2 uses positive language and politely requests to get more information.
The clarity in communication suggests that the receiver's emotional, intellectual, and perception levels are taken care of. It focuses on expressing a thought rather than impressing the receiver. It eliminates options and lines up with values and objectives. Specifically, in marketing communication, clarity is crucial to developing effective brand strategies and influential messages.
The fundamentals of interpersonal communication are incomplete with questioning. It helps to acquire more information. When engaged in a conversation, people ask and are asked questions.
Assertive people leverage conversation by asking questions to acquire the information they need. If they don’t ask questions, the concept will stay unclear, there will be misunderstandings, and the conversation will not be effective. Consequently, it can lead to reduced productivity of the organisation.
Commonly, questions are used to clarify what the speaker said. Especially when conversing with a group, questioning can encourage in-depth discussion of a topic and can engage all members to participate in the discussion. Moreover, asking questions encourage people to think about something more intensely and gather the required information.
If you want to understand the fundamentals of communication thoroughly, you should keep in mind the following aspects:
The fundamentals of communication notes that one should make eye contact to communicate confidently. Generally, active listeners try to encourage the speaker by maintaining proper eye contact. Maintaining eye contact with a smile is a non-verbal sign to boost the speaker's confidence. If the speaker speaks confidently, the listeners will easily understand the concept, and hence, the communication will be effective.
Active listening is the process through which an individual acquires information from others or groups. It highlights paying attention to the conversation, taking the time to understand what is being said, and not interrupting.
If you want to listen actively, you must redirect your focus from your thoughts to the requirements of your interviewer or prospective employer. Listening actively is one of the effective business communication techniques that can help decrease your nervousness in a group discussion, an interview, and teamwork.
Active listening techniques are:
Building trust and creating rapport
Outlining the concern
Paraphrasing to depict understanding
Using nonverbal cues like eye contact, nodding, and leaning forward to show understanding
Using brief verbal assertions like “I know,” “I see,” “I understand,” “Sure,” or “Thank you”
Asking open-ended questions
One of the important fundamentals of interpersonal communication is learning when to speak and remain quiet. With continuous interruptions, effective communication is impossible. Interrupting somebody means we aren’t listening to them, thus making communication ineffective.
Some people are habituated to expressing their opinions and thoughts before others appropriately express theirs. This practice will lead to a situation where the speaker cannot properly convey the important points. So, the listener(s) will not get valuable information.
Whenever you pause a conversation, you will draw everybody’s attention to you. Hence, ensuring that your reason for interrupting is valid and that you are about to convey something important and relevant to the topic is vital.
To ensure flawless communication in business management, you should focus on keeping your mouth shut andpractise not interrupting.
Being defensive can impede your performance in the workplace or even at home. Usually, it indicates innate self-esteem issues that must be resolved.So, one of the important fundamentals of effective workplace communication is avoiding defensiveness. Usually, people will avoid confrontations with those who become defensive. The reason is they don’t want to get involved in an argument.
Here are tips to avoid defensiveness:
Confess that you are a defensive communicator and determined to work on it.
Take time to listen to others. Doing this might all you to acknowledge that what they are speaking doesn’t deserve a defensive attitude or excuses.
Wisely choose your words because you tend to respond with a defensive statement.
Plan your response to control the communication
Discuss with a counsellor or participate in activities that will help you develop your self-esteem. Usually, people with high self-esteem can accept criticism and work on their mistakes.
The fundamentals of communication cover the basic components of communication and focus on improvement. If you aim to improve business communication skills, then consider the below points:
Without honesty in your relationships, flawless communication is impossible. Follow the below ways to encourage honesty:
Resolve frustration:
When working together, the hearts of some employees may be filled with grudges. The unresolved frustration leads to more conflicts in the future. Make sure you forget about how someone made you feel because co-workers must respect one another and practice honesty.
Consider the opinions for change:
If your employee recommends that there is a scope of growth in the company, accept their opinion and work on bringing positive change. Remember that honesty is a two-way path and hence communication. So, you must demonstrate your values of integrity.
Communicate both the positive and the negative:
The fundamentals of effective communication in the workplace weigh both positive and negative aspects equally. In a workplace, things can go both right and wrong. Therefore, it is essential to both appreciate and criticise when these situations occur between the employees and the leadership. The negatives should be worked upon, whereas the positives should be celebrated. These practices guarantee effective business communication in the workplace and help the company grow.
Hearing can be accidental, involuntary, and effortless. On the other hand, listening is focused and purposeful. It, therefore, needs effort and motivation.
Make sure to list down the salient points in communication. It is the most effective approach to guarantee that there will be no miscommunication. Active listening involves engaging with what people speak by giving positive replies and also asking follow-up questions to indicate that you are attentive.
Listening to others with an open-minded builds deep trust, extends your perspective, strengthens your patience, and helps identify and solve issues.
Firstly, you need to accept that you are not perfect. Although you will make mistakes, it is crucial to learn from them.
If your co-worker criticised you for a mistake, don’t take it personally. Simply remind yourself that it doesn’t mean they dislike you, but it means there is a need for improvement. Your co-worker is just attempting to ensure that you do the best possible work.
To avoid criticism, it is recommended to double-check your work carefully. Once you’ve finished, go through everything before submitting it to your supervisor. This will avoid silly mistakes and ascertain that your boss will not have to bother you for minor issues.
If you are feeling defensive or angry, repeat this question in your mind - ‘What can I learn?’ After repeating it, start agreeing with the criticism. You will become open to learning when you agree with one portion of the criticism. No need to agree with everything; agreeing with only one tiny aspect of the criticism will gradually help you learn from your mistakes. Consequently, you will strengthen the atmosphere of teamwork.
Don’t let criticism bring down your motivation. It might be that the co-worker has issues at home and is simply venting their anger at you. So, don’t take it personally but try to learn from criticism.
Personality development and communication skills are vital to consider if you aspire to become a good communicator. For that, you need to begin communicating well.
Try to speak in the correct tone because most miscommunication occurs because either of the involved parties was not speaking in the correct tone. You can assist managers and employees to improve business communication skills by making them understand their barriers and how they significantly impede communication.
Avoid fidgeting or distracting movements, maintain good posture, show positive gestures, bear a helping attitude in the team, etc., to help improve your communication skills.
Reacting instantly after listening will not work. You need time to process the information, decide if it’s a valid criticism, and devise a solution to the problem. Effective listeners let others know they have been heard and motivate them to share their thoughts without hesitation.
When practising listening skills, you can show the person speaking that you are listening via non-verbal cues. Examples of such cues are nodding your head, maintaining eye contact, smiling, and agreeing by saying ‘Yes’. Occasional phrases and words like ‘yes’, ‘very good’, or ‘indeed’ will show that you are attentive in the conversation. Another best way to practice listening skills is to ask relevant questions that help you collect more useful information.
Getting rid of negative habits in your communication is not simple. It demands practice. You must be aware of how you are saying and what you are saying. If you are habituated to using some negative statements while at home or other places, try to come out of that habit. This is because you would unknowingly practice those negative statements in the workplace. Also, praising the co-workers when they do something well is recommended instead of insulting them or putting them down when they make mistakes.
Based on the source, the skills may differ. However, most sources highlight soft skills essential to consider as fundamentals of communication skills. Let’s get familiar with the topmost five communication skills:
The fundamentals of effective communication are incomplete without active listening. The use of non-verbal cues plays a prominent role in active listening skills. These cues suggest that you are attentively listening to the speaker. This skill implies thoroughly listening to the speaker and waiting for the turn to speak. It focuses on not interrupting when the speaker is speaking. Moreover, active listening skills mean that one must meticulously listen and understand what is being delivered. Developing an open mind while listening avoids interruption or getting trapped in opposing opinions.
Politely speaking after organising your thoughts is what verbal communication skills are all about. To enhance your verbal skills, it is a good practice to think before you speak. You need to understand the ideas and opinions shared by others carefully. Subsequently, you can share your opinions and ideas positively.
Concise and clear language is one of the key facets of verbal communication skills. Your ideas and thoughts may get obscured in a long, verbose prologue. Confidently speaking in a varied tone is equally important to engage your audience.
Non-verbal communication holds great significance when it comes to personality development and communication skills. The reason is non-verbal communication primarily focuses on behaviour, way of expression, body language, etc. Body language is a method of non-verbal communication used as a form of expressing, signalling, and conveying information to others.
The behaviour, facial expression, and body language tell a lot about how you feel. Nodding your head, putting on a smile, sitting in a straight posture, avoiding distracting movements, maintaining eye contact, maintaining space and distance, movement of arms and legs, etc., denote non-verbal communication. Practising these habits will strengthen your fundamentals of interpersonal communication.
Communication binds people together, but emotional intelligence can be envisaged as the Gorilla Glue that ascertains that the seal doesn’t break. Emotional intelligence (EI) restricts the frequency of conflict and offended feelings. Your emotions can be out of control while you are in communication, which will leave a negative impression on the minds of involved people. Controlling your emotions is the key to strengthening your emotional intelligence. When your emotions are out of order with how you wish to communicate, pause to relax and resume.
Disagreements and conflicts and disagreements are bound to arise when people interact. Finding a solution to the dispute is recommended while not getting into emotions. Developing empathy for the involved people and controlling your emotions will help improve your emotional intelligence.
Without building relationships, the communication process may feel boring and a burden. Building relationships with the parties commonly involved in communication is vital so that everyone can communicate without hesitation. Building a relationship is a process of constantly communicating, creating rapport, and solving disagreements.
The process of building relationships ultimately comes down to creating trust with others. Expressing thoughts and opinions open-heartedly and honestly will gradually build trust.
One of the most common types of communication, verbal communication, uses language to transfer information via sign language or by speaking. Frequently, it is used during phone calls and video conferences, meetings, presentations, and one-on-one conversations.
Verbal communication is one of the most important fundamentals of communication because, without it, people can’t work effectively.
Here are several tips to enhance your verbal communication skills:
Practice active listening
Use a powerful, confident speaking voice.
Avoid filler words like “yeah”, “like,” “um,” and “so” to put away distraction.
Non-Verbal communication highlights using facial expression, body language, and gestures to transfer information to others. This form of communication is beneficial when you try to understand the thoughts and opinions of others. It can be both intentional and unintentional. For example, you may smile unintentionally when you hear an enjoyable or pleasing idea.
Body language that expresses hunched shoulders or crossed arms indicates that the person is feeling angry, nervous, or anxious. On the other hand, body language that expresses both feet on the floor and arms on the table or by their side indicates that the person is feeling positive and interested in the communication.
These are a few tips to enhance your non-verbal communication skills:
Developing self-awareness about how your emotions impact your body can help you master your external presentation.
Use body language together with verbal communication
Practice nonverbal communications you find effective
Written communication involves writing, typing, or printing symbols such as numbers and letters to convey the information. You can use written communication when you want to have a record of the information for reference. The mediums used are letters, blogs, books, pamphlets, memos, and more. In the workplace, chats and emails are common forms of written communication.
Here are some tips to enhance your written communication skills:
Written communications must be simple, clear, and concise.
Don’t rely on tone because it can be interpreted differently.
Follow up with verbal communications where you can add more character.
Review your written communications to spot mistakes and discover opportunities to convey something different.
Save the writing you like (received emails, pamphlets, memos, etc.) to improve over time.
Visual communication involves the use of photographs, drawings, sketches, art, graphs, and charts to convey information. Commonly, visuals are used as an aid during presentations to offer valuable context along with verbal and/or written communication. Since people have unique learning styles, visual communication may be more beneficial for some people to consume information and ideas.
These are a few tips to enhance your visual communication skills:
Ask for feedback from others before including visuals. It makes sure concepts will not appear confusing or muddled.
Include visuals that are easily understood by your target audience. Explain the unfamiliar or complex concepts demonstrated in your visuals.
The fundamentals of communication not just highlight the learning of basics of communication but also improve it. Here are the 4 effective ways to enhance your communication skills.
Studies show that only 7% of communication is the actual words spoken, 38% is the tone of voice, and 55% is body language. You must meticulously focus on improving non-verbal communication if you aim to be an effective communicator. Try maintaining eye contact while speaking with others and avoiding sitting with your arms crossed/slouched/fidgeted. Put a gentle smile while expressing your opinions and accept criticism confidently.
When you master all such tips for non-verbal communication, your conversation will be more pleasant for both parties. Also, these tips will gradually improve your personality development and communication skills, making you feel more positive about life.
One of the outstanding ways to improve your effective business communication skills is to watch how you communicate. For that, record yourself when talking. For example, you can record your presentation or company meetings. This way is important to consider the fundamentals of effective communication because it helps you assess your communication skills without depending on anyone else’s reviews.
When you listen and watch yourself communicating, you can easily determine the areas where your communication skills excel and the areas where you are lacking.
Expert communicators always listen first and then speak. Talking randomly and never listening properly will not help.
One of the best ways to facilitate open communication among your employee is to be an active listener. When your employees discern that you are attentively listening to them, they will not hesitate to approach you again when they want to discuss an issue. Nowadays, business communication training for employees imparts active listening skills. It trains employees first to listen and thoroughly understand speakers' opinions and then speak.
An effective and pleasant way to enhance your communication skills and your employees is to participate in group communication activities. It helps you practically implement your communication skills and learn simultaneously. Contributing to group communication activities helps you become a better communicator and helps you and your team work more efficiently together.
A cliché is a phrase or word that has lost its influence because of overuse. Clichés are meaningless phrases that you may come across frequently. For example, “the fact of the matter” and “clear as a bell”. These phrases bore readers and can suggest a dearth of originality. Therefore, it is recommended to avoid clichés while writing. You can avoid them either by striking them completely or modifying your ideas to make them more original. It is highly recommended to avoid clichés in business writing; else, it will bore your readers.
Ways to eliminate clichés from your writing:
Read the content of great writers that helps you identify how they wrote without clichés. You can underline sentences/ sections that feel fresh and engaging.
Pay attention to clichés present in other people’s writing that helps you know how to avoid them in your writing. Usually, clichés appear in fast writing generated quickly for digital consumption.
Write your first draft and re-read it. Usually, clichés appear when you instantly write down the things that pop up in your mind. Let your ideas flow while writing and later work on to eliminate those clichés.
Don’t steal or borrow others’ tales and then revamp them with some of your ideas to make them look original.
When you identify a cliché in your writing, slow down to narrate what is happening in explicit detail.
Use original words to describe a transition of ideas rather than meaningless phrases.
You can learn the fundamentals of communication courses offline and online at your convenience. The following section highlights the benefits of the online Fundamentals of Communication Course compared to the offline course:
Cost-effective:
You need to learn and practise a lot when it comes to communication skills. Choosing an online fundamental of communication course proves to be cost-effective because it saves you time and effort. You need not travel to distant locations, another city, or another country to learn the course. When pursuing an online communicationcourse, you simply need to sign up for software to launch video conference sessions. Some advanced tools are also available to conduct an online conference for free.
More focused learning:
In offline fundamentals of communication skills, there may be interruptions or distractions. For example, the discussion can go off-topic, and there may be a waste of time. On the other hand, the online fundamentals of communication course focus on the efficient utilisation of time to make sure all students thoroughly learn different aspects of communication.
The instructors in online classes can more effectively impart verbal, non-verbal, and all other aspects of communication through live sessions. Also, they conduct doubt-solving sessions for assessing and solving the students’ confusion.
Live monitoring and improvement:
The online fundamentals of communication courses conduct group video calls and other sessions. They help all students to monitor the performance of other students as well. This way, they can learn where they lack and how to improve their communication skills. Also, these online courses foster good communication in business by teaching all the innovative tactics that help improve formal communication.
Ease of access:
Unlike offline courses, the sessions of online fundamentals of communication theory courses can be easily revisited. So, whenever students find it confusing or difficult to understand any concept, they can access the particular session anytime.
Overview of Communication
Communication models
Types of communication
Developing verbal and non-verbal communication skills
Organisation communication – Internal & External
Identifying critical communications failures
Understanding communication failure prevention
Learning communication barriers and ways to eliminate them
Methods to improve communication skills
Understanding communication failures influence business performance
Communication in human relationships
Listening techniques and critical evaluation
Speech organisation and outlining
Audience analysis
Language and framing
Group presentations
Creating awareness of the moral aspect of public speaking
When it comes to communication, many employers demand skills like business communication, writing and editing, business etiquette, email etiquette, leadership, teamwork, relationship management, negotiation, content marketing, business plan formulation, etc. Fundamentals of communication skills courses impart all these skills and many more. Therefore, the demand for these courses is high in India when it comes to employment.
Dealing thoughtfully with communicating within the systems instead of criticising them generates interest.
The 2018 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) survey of 201 employers shows that the skills and knowledge imparted in Communication courses are vital to be hired, irrespective of one’s major.
Employers first look for good communication skills in their employees and then look for specialisation skills. In addition to being able to write and read effectively, the ability to effectively communicate orally with others is what employers are looking for when hiring. Also, they prioritise effective business communication skills to ensure flawless communication between all levels in the organisation. Therefore, the demand for the Fundamentals of Communication courses is accelerating in India.
Communication is one of the key predictors of upward mobility in an organisation. It implies that people with decent communication skills have more chances to get promoted, they're more likely to get increments, and they're more likely to obtain the desired job positions.
People who completed this course do not just have strong fundamentals of effective communication, but they are also more effective at persuading others. Moreover, they are more effective at seeking support from others and gathering information from others. All these are important skills in today’s business environment. This is another reason behind the rising demand for these courses.
Fundamentals of Communication Courses are easily available in various forms that allow students to choose based on convenience and flexibility. These multiple options further accelerate the demand for these courses. They are:
i. Diploma & PG Diploma courses
ii. UG courses
iii. PG courses
iv. Doctorate courses
i. Diploma & PG Diploma courses:
Diploma in Business Journalism and Corporate Communication
Diploma in Office Management and Business Communication
International Diploma in Communication,
Post Diploma in Business Journalism and Corporate Communication
Postgraduate Diploma in Corporate Communication
Postgraduate Diploma in Management (Communication)
Post Graduate Diploma in Corporate Communication and Event Management
ii. UG courses:
BBA in Communication Management (Advertising and Branding)
B.Com (English and Business communication)
BBC
B.Voc (BPO)
iii. PG courses:
MBA (Communication Management)
MBA (Design and communication management)
M.Sc (Extension Education and Communication)
iv. Doctorate courses:
Ph.D. in Extension and Communication management
Ph.D. in Public Relations Specialists
Ph.D. in Human Relations Manager
1000+
Top Companies
50%
Average Salary Hike
Top 1%
Global Universities
Analyse the environment, conduct user research across online and offline retail shoppers, suggest features of improvement for a seamless experience and metrics to measure your success for a niche e-commerce apparel brand.
Establish the target market for hourly booking of hotels, user needs, growth opportunities, and build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and identify relevant success metrics.
Analyse and improve the transnational funnel of the online ticketing platform.
Help increase the number of recharges for Freecharge by improving the growth hack funnel. Propose retention, referral and revenue growth hacking strategies to achieve business goals.
Conduct an analysis of key competitors of a healthcare product
Create a business plan for cab-sharing app’s expansion to the Indian market and represent it using the Business Model Canvas
Design and sketch a wireframe for a hypothetical health-based app that tracks and monitors health and fitness
Create a product backlog and figure out epics and user stories for a feature for an OTT platform
Prioritise tasks and feature updates for a cab-sharing app’s operations
The admissions in Diploma and PG Diploma business communication courses are based on the merit list. The recognised institute or university releases the merit list after all applicants have filled out their applications. If you aim to pursue an undergraduate diploma course, then a class 12 score is required. A graduation score is required if you aim to pursue a PG diploma course.
The ultimate aim of the communication process is to have prevalence between the communicator and receiver of the message. With the communication, both the communicator and receiver enter into a mental agreement. So, the process aims to have a seamless exchange of information so that all the involved parties can perform effectively. The process of business communication aims to have formal communication processes between all the levels in the organisation.
One of the biggest challenges to good communication is that some people think communication is ‘what you say’, whereas some people consider it as ‘how you say it’. People focus excessively on being heard rather than listening to others. Using the wrong channel to send a message is also a challenge. Another significant challenge is not re-evaluating whether effective communication is taking place or not and not ascertaining whether the people understood the message or not.
Teenagers can significantly benefit from communication courses, irrespective of their future career or academic interest. This is because, at this tender age, they learn the fundamentals of communication required in whichever career paths they choose. From an early age, they will learn how to convey a message, understand, listen, behave, and so on. So, it is recommended that teenagers can join a suitable communication course as per their flexibility.
For business organisation and communication, knowing the meaning of formal and informal communication is important. Formal communication works through official channels that are designed in the organisation chart. It can be defined into vertical and horizontal subtypes. On the other hand, informal communication is faster and freely flows in the organisation. It discusses a varied range of topics.
Various types of formal communication networks include a single chain network, a wheel network, a circle network, a free flow network, and an inverted V network. A single chain network is present between a superior and subordinate. In a wheel network, all subordinates working under one superior communicate through them only as they work as a wheel hub. In a circle network, everyone can communicate with the other two beside him. No restriction in communication is applied in a free flow network. In an inverted V network, a subordinate can communicate to their superior as well as higher authority subordinates.
Firstly, you need to ascertain that the ideas are explained before communicating them to the subordinates. Managers must adapt their communication as per their subordinates' understanding level and education. Obtaining advice before communicating will help elucidate the ideas and thus makes the communication clearer. It is also recommended to be aware of the messages' content, tone, and language. Furthermore, ensure the communication attains proper feedback, which also helps it solve communication issues in the future.
The feedback is used to make recipients aware of their behaviour. Based on the feedback, they can determine whether to continue working with that behaviour or to modify it. Communicating with the influence of somebody’s behaviour and assuming that the individuals know the intent of your speech will not help. Instead, begin communicating by narrating the happenings using behavioural language and then recognise the influence of the behaviour.
Firstly, don’t assume that your interpretations are their objectives, and try not to use attributions. If you find certain words or lines spoken by an individual, paraphrase them. If it appears relevant, you can add on a response or an advisory question. For instance, saying, "I got your viewpoint on this topic, but mine is different; I visualise the situation this way.” It provides the other person with an opportunity to explain your understanding of their position and to listen to your view.
Here are some quick tips for effective communication. (i) Listen attentively and patiently. (ii) Thoroughly understand the point. (iii) Know your audience (iv) Minimise the potential of miscommunication (v) Positively accept the feedback (vi) Select the proper medium of communication (vii) Keep your tone in mind (viii) While communicating, be confident, clear, and concise. (ix) Be aware of possible misunderstandings and misinterpretations. (x) Use suitable gestures, tone, and body language during non-verbal communication.
To establish effective communication, you must stay focused and prevent distractions. It is recommended to avoid inconsistent body language. Usually, non-verbal communication must highlight what is being said instead of contradicting it. Suppose you say one thing, but your body language conveys something else; your listener may feel that you are unreliable. To prevent misunderstandings and conflict, you can try to calm down before continuing the conversation quickly.
If you disagree with what’s being said, you can use negative body language to deny the other individual’s message. You can cross your arms, tap your feet, or avoid eye contact. Always agreeing with the speaker can be disadvantageous because the speaker’s viewpoint may not always be right. Using negative body language is beneficial for communicating effectively in places where verbal communication faces obstructions.
Focusing on what the speaker is speaking about is one of the best tips for becoming an engaged listener. You can attentively listen if you continuously check your phone or think about something else. Avoiding interrupting or redirecting the conversation to your concerns is another great tip to becoming an engaged listener. You can gently smile at the speaker, nod occasionally, and make sure your posture is inviting.
One of the best ways to enhance your non-verbal communication is to be conscious of individual differences. People from different cultures and countries use different non-verbal communication gestures. Hence, it is essential to consider culture, age, gender, religion, and emotional state when decoding the body language signals. Make sure you don’t read excessively into a single nonverbal cue. You must consider all the nonverbal signals you perceive, from the tone of voice to eye contact. Also, you need to adjust your nonverbal signals according to the listener's age. For example, the tone of your voice should be different when addressing a child.
Yes, you can communicate effectively by staying calm under mental pressure. You can use stalling strategies to take time to think. Before you respond, you can ask for a question to be iterated or for an explanation of a statement. You can pause to gather your thoughts. Pausing can make you appear more controllable than giving an immediate response.
Analyse the physical and mental states when you are stressed. Certain signs like stomach or muscle ache, shallow breathing, hands clenched, etc., indicate that you are under stress. So, you can take a moment to calm down before continuing a conversation, or you can postpone it. The superb way to effectively and quickly relieve stress is using the senses –sound, taste, touch, sight, smell, or movement. For instance, you can squeeze a stress ball in your pocket, pop a peppermint in your mouth, clench and relax your muscles, take a few deep breaths, or remember a soothing image.
Yes, assertiveness is directly related to effectiveness in communication. You need to value your options. Properly know your wants and needs. Learn how to express them without intruding on the rights of others. Try to express negative thoughts positively and respectfully. Receiving feedback positively, accepting compliments cordially, asking for help when needed, and learning from your mistakes –all help you become assertive. Know your limits and learn to say ‘no’. Search for alternatives so that everybody feels convenient about the outcome.