Top Communication Skills

Good communication skills are essential for relationships. This applies to every area in your life. Communication in your relationships, at work, at home, with friends, family and colleagues. If you look at situations where it is obvious to you there is conflict, chaos or discord, the root cause is usually poor communication skills.

What are the basic components of good communication skills? Let’s look at them one by one.

1. Be clear on what you want. By this, I mean that you know how you want your life to be or any situation that you’re currently involved in. Lack of focus and clarity is a major cause of frustration and this may be why you feel like your life is going in circles.

2. Speak clearly and with enough volume that others can hear and understand what you say. Another aspect of this is using the type of language that is familiar to the listener. This will help you create rapport with them.

3. The way you present yourself. What I mean by this is being dressed and groomed in a manner that is the same or similar to those you’re speaking to. In the same way that using similar language style as the listener, this will make them feel that you’re the same as them and they are more likely to listen to you and hear you.

4. Good communication skills also include speaking to people about the things that interest them. Like it or not, most people love nothing better than the opportunity to discuss things that are dear to their heart. The favorite topic of conversation is usually… them. It’s ok for them to be like that, and knowing this gives you a powerful advantage over everybody else who just wants to tell their own story.

5. Listen well. How do you listen well? Instead of rehearsing over and again what you’re going to say to the other person the next time they pause for breath, you will do better if you listen to what they are saying and reflect back “keywords” that they use more than once. This will indicate to them that you’re actually interested in what they’re saying and will rapidly make you a person they trust.

6. Choose your audience. Even if you use all of the strategies I’ve outlined above, you may still feel that you’re not heard or understood. This probably has nothing to do with whether or not you’ve got good communication skills. There are some people in the world who are so rapped up in themselves that they do not know how to listen to others, are not interested in listening and probably never will.

If you know someone like this, forward them a link to this article as it may make a difference in their life, and it will definitely make a difference in yours.

7. Know your subject. I’m assuming here that you want good communication skills to be able to influence others. It is more likely that people will listen to you if they believe you know what you’re talking about. In most instances, they will definitely listen to you if they think you’re an expert. Becoming an expert is a topic for a future article I will post on this site.

When you improve your communication skills using the tips just outlined, you will notice an almost immediate improvement in how you’re received.  This will in turn improve your levels of satisfaction and happiness.

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