Effective Communication Skills

Effective communication skills are fundamental to success in many aspects of our life. It’s a two-way process which involves both sending and receiving messages between two or more individuals. In real life, we often face different opinions, misunderstandings, arguments, conflicts and many difficult situations which needs effective communication skills to avoid or resolve that situation.

To improve the receiving part of effective communication, we always can be an active listener while asking questions for further clarifications or reflecting to confirm any statement. We also can try to understand the non-verbal communications of the other person such as body language, voice, tone, eye contact, etc. Understanding the emotional state of the message sending person and self-awareness & managing of our own emotional state will also help to receive a message in a better way.

The other half of effective communication is to transmit our own message to others in a clear, concise, compelling and compassionate way. We can’t expect the other person will understand and get everything that is in our mind automatically (which most often we do in personal life!). Try to be as clear as possible, relate things with examples, logic and rational rather than being emotional. You can ask questions to make sure the other person understand your message clearly in a gentle way.

A big mistake we often do in life is to shut ourselves off from conversation after having a conflict or misunderstanding. Staying away from or being emotional does not solve any problems, in fact, some cases it creates more distance, tension, stress and anxiety to us or to the other person. If you are upset about something, take a couple of hours to 1-2 days to cool yourself down and have a discussion with effective communication skills. Explain your feelings, opinion with rational and try to understand the other person perspective. Be willing to compromise for resolving the situation and take/adapt/adjust the best solutions/key steps that will come from the discussion.

Personally, I’m still learning to be an effective communicator and trying to update myself each day. I feel like it’s an ongoing process and most of us have room for improvement. Please feel free to share your opinions, experiences, and suggestions regarding effective communication. Thank you!