Archive for communication skills training
Communication Skills Training: The Five Basic Pointers
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communication skills are an essential tool for us to interact with our social environment. Refining them would give us a serious advantage, from influencing others to our train of thought to imparting information in a quick and efficient manner. These skills, however, are not influenced by our words alone. At least five basic components define a person’s ability to communicate effectively.
As such, communication skills training focuses on these five basic components:
Content of message
This is perhaps the most obvious component of communication, since words and symbols generally have explicit meanings attached to them. The bulk of training then focuses on mastering the content of the message in order to both send and receive messages in an appropriate manner. It must be realized, however, that the content of the message is not the only factor that defines a person’s communication skills.
Method of delivery
The manner in which a message is delivered also augments the message that it contains. Spoken words have a very different impact when you compare them to written words. The various media of communication, from face-to-face communications to telephone conversations to online seminars, all present a message quite clearly, but the effects vary along with the way these messages are presented.
Context of situation
A message, no what it is or how it is delivered, will have a very different effect with the passage of time and space. A person has to take into consideration the environment when the message is delivered, as this environment may either improve the reaction to the message or twist it into some misunderstanding that will be very hard to clear up.
Nonverbal gestures
The mouth and the pen are not the only aspects considered in communication skills training. The movement of the body, from fumbling and fussing to minute muscle spasms and twitches, serves as an indicator of a person’s true intent. Few people are consciously aware of their nonverbal gestures, but these gestures will definitely be noticed and interpreted by the recipients.
Status of participants
Respect for participants in communications skills training, or any other training for that matter, is essential.Trainees may not be able to understand what is being said, as they are not yet aware of the content of the training. This may cause an inexperienced trainer to think that they are not interested in the information being passed to them. The trainer must adjust his or her approach when dealing with a diverse range of people.
It is worth noting that these five basic components of effective communication skills are not so easily mastered. It takes a great degree of training and experience to be able to fully comprehend these five components, and the only way to truly hone one’s mastery of them all is to either communicate extensively using trial and error or acquire the services of a professional trainer. The latter is a much more time and cost effective method of mastering these five components, and doing so will allow you to learn the ropes in a much more comprehensive and structured manner.
Some communication skills trainings are more effective than others and here’s why. You may be looking for training to improve areas of your life as diverse as in your family, with your partner or children.Maybe with parents as well.
It could be that you want better relationships in business. With your teams or empoyees, with clients and partners. It may be that you are involved in a therapeutic field such as counselling or therapy.Or perhaps it is with coaching clients, whether in sports or business or in fact any other area.
Though there are more than the five major points I will list below for you, these are, in my experience, the most important.
Know what you want first…
The first of these is that You must know what results or outcomes you want to have from improved communication skills. It’s a bit like going into a travel agent and saying i want to go on holiday…They will need to know your destination before you book your ticket or there is a good chance you may be less than happy with where you end up.
Different ways that You learn…
Another thing that good communication skills trainings will do is they will teach you in the way that you find it easiest to learn. There are four main learning styles and also combinations of them. They are Why, What How and What if. This system was devised by Bernice MacCarty and is known as the fourmat system of learning. It is the way that your trainer will structure the course so that everyone gets their needs met and so that you actually do learn how to communicate better.
Different ways that You experience the world
The third thing your teacher will do is to teach to your primary sensory system. You may be a visual learner and learn most easily by seeing course notes or presentations. You may be auditory which means that when you hear what is said you can learn this easily. Perhaps you are the type of person that learns best by doing stuff. Roles plays and other physical activities.
I’m sure that you can now see how important this is and you may hear yourself saying to your self Wow this is important and that may also give you a feeling for what is your beat way to learn.
So you have learned that teaching to the right sense is important and setting your goals is a good thing to do and it’s good to know that, as it allows you to learn this next bit more easily.
Having Rapport
You now know that all of the above is what works for a good training and I’m sure you can now imagine how much closer you will feel to your trainer. This is because you will feel like they understand you and as a result you will be able to build trust with them.
You will have created rapport with your teacher which will in turn allow you to learn more easily. You will get the results that you really want.
You have probably noticed that there’s a system in here
Repetition works…
Great trainers will always teach you the same thing in different ways, multiple times. First they will tell you what they’re going to teach you. Next you will be taught what it is you want to be bnetter at and then finally ( surprise surprise… ) You will be told what you have learned.
In NLP we teach our trainees the same thing not just three times but often more than a dozen in just such a way that they really get it. This is done using lots of other things that the sensory systems…
While I haven’t told you everything about what goes into a great communication skills training you have learned enough to know what to look for and you’re probably getting a feel for the type of trainer that you should choose. I would reccommend that you use somebody that has formal traing and that is a professional.
Next time you hear somebody talking about communication skills training remember what you have read here, now.
Michael Noone is a communication skills training expert and an NLP trainer. ( NLP is the study of what works )