Effective communication is necessary in our society and it should be innate, but it is not always the case. In reality, when people try to communicate with others, something goes wrong and communication falls by the wayside, something fails and it is not always known what is or what the communication problem is.
Sometimes a person says one thing and the other person hears something totally different, causing misunderstandings, conflicts and communication frustration, how can this be? Poor communication can create conflict in any area of a person's life. There are those who need to learn communication skills to improve that insufficient communication on many occasions.
Maybe you feel that you should improve communication with your partner, with your boss, with your coworkers, with your children ... If so, you need to start improving your communication skills to improve the connections you have with others. This way you will gain greater confidence and respect towards yourself and towards others, and others towards you! You will feel better by having better conflict resolution skills and by improving your social and emotional health. in many aspects.
Effective communication; What is and what is not
What is effective communication
To maintain effective communication, you must know that communication is much more than just exchanging information. It is about understanding the message, yes, but also the emotion and everything that is behind the words. When transmitting a message you also have to listen to the other and give full meaning to the conversation, what is said and what is heard in both directions.
Effective communication combines these four essential factors: good listening, non-verbal communication, stress management and emotions that may arise in the conversation and respect in the conversation towards oneself and towards the other.
Communication will always be much more effective when it is something natural, spontaneous ... Taking into account the four essential factors but without obsessing over it. These skills require time and effort to carry them out and especially to internalize them, but with effort and practice your communication skills will improve considerably.
What is NOT effective communication
Effective communication is NOT a communication that has barriers for communication to flow properly. This can prevent one person from being able to communicate properly with another, and It will be then when problems begin in a conversation between two or more people.
The barriers that prevent effective communication are 4: stress and emotions out of control in the conversation, lack of concentration on what is said or what is heard, maintaining inappropriate body language and / or maintaining negative body language.
Improve your effective communication techniques
Maintain good body language
Maintaining good body language is essential to be able to have good communication. Body language represents about 55% of how other people interpret your emotional state. It is essential to use your body language to communicate your positive, constructive and collaborative purpose to other people. For the most part, no one wants to work or collaborate with negative or critical people. Think of the people you don't like. They are generally unfriendly, critical, aggressive, and insensitive to others. Even if your communicative words are friendly and cordial, your body language still represents more than half of what the other person perceives.
If you want to maintain good body language first make eye contact. Good eye contact means that you look others in the eye when you speak or speak to them. Looking is important, although you are also taking breaks to look away and give the other person a psychological respite.
Emotional expressions should be neutral and positive, showing it with the gestures of your arms, hands and your face. When they talk to you, look at the other person's body language. Try to avoid expressing negative emotions such as shock, panic, or anger. Smile when you express positive or constructive communication. Don't be afraid to use humor and laugh to build rapport with others.
Your body must participate in the conversation. To do this, use gestures to explain things and do not cross your arms. Your body should be parallel to the person you are talking to, and your feet should be pointing directly at them. Maintain an upright and relaxed posture. Respectful and consensual physical contact releases oxytocin, the trusted neurotransmitter.
Ask open questions
This effective communication technique is a must. Open questions are questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no. The reason open-ended questions are important is that people often suppress or filter their true thoughts and opinions.. To develop trust with others, you have to get into their heads and guide them to reveal their true desires and motives. When you ask an open question and assure the other person that you will not judge them, you can get them to be completely honest with you.
Questions like: 'What solution can we find to that problem? Or maybe; 'What exactly do you mean by this?' Are good open-ended questions. When you ask these types of questions, you will be giving others the opportunity to think about what they will say more effectively and you will receive honest information, creating a bond of trust.
Honesty above all
You must be honest, clear, concise, and respectful at all times. This is common sense since honesty is always the best policy for others to trust you. People don't trust people who seem dishonest or inconspicuous. People recognize deception quickly by paying a little attention and we do not like to be deceived.
It is an instinct that from an evolutionary point of view makes sense to survive. In cave epic if you were a trustworthy person, other cave people could kill you from behind to take your resources and survive on their own. Due to this hard ancient history, people have evolved having great capacities to recognize deception or dishonest people. This is crucial today to avoid scams, thieves and in general, to prevent bad people from entering our lives.
Never lie to others or hide information they probably should know, within reason. Trust is extremely important to effective teamwork, and it is difficult to rebuild once it is destroyed. The same will happen in your personal relationships. Keep this in mind if you ever think about lying or deceiving others. People like honest people who give them trust and respect best. There are times when honesty can be offensive, but in this case, you can be honest without offending by choosing your words carefully and lovingly.
Excellent information!