Health & Fitness Tools

How to Master the Art of Communication

13th July, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

The majority of people – due to their very nature, have a fascination with the sound of their own voice – which usually seems to manifests itself in a compulsion to keep on talking. However, there is a great deal of difference between speaking and communicating, with the latter requiring considerable application of effort. People with inherently good communication skills, or individuals who have extensive management training experience, know what to say at exactly the right time, at what place and to whom. Even more importantly, they usually understand when not to say anything at all, and simply listen. There are certain key characteristics that depict whether a person is a good communicator or not – one of them is being a good listener. You may be able to easily communicate your ideas and various points of view to others fairly clearly, but when it comes to listening to most people, you find that you’re an absolute failure. In the majority of people, the quality of their listening ability is directly related to their understanding of what’s being said, and with the constantly evolving environment in business today, exceptional listening skills have become a vital attribute for achieving any degree of success.

Here are some business coaching tips that will help you to improve your listening skills:

1. Pay attention to what the other person is talking about. It’s essential to focus your attention on the speaker, and it’s not just a matter of having good eye contact, but the overall posture of your whole body makes a significant difference as well.

2. Let the other person speak. Patience is the essence of any good communication ability. It’s important during the act of listening that you should allow the other person to put forward his/her opinions, while making a point to not interrupt in the middle of the discussion.

3. Do not impose your opinion. To avoid conflict, you should respect the opinions of others, and at the same time, try not to impose your opinions on others either, as it often happens that the opinions of any two people don’t even remotely come close to common ground.

4. Ask meaningful questions. It is important that during a discussion only meaningful questions pertaining to the discussion are asked or raised. These questions should always help guide the discussion trend towards a meaningful conclusion.

5. Help and support the other person. Good listening requires creating a supportive environment for anyone speaking in order to help them sense that all is going well. Encourage the other person, and let them feel that you are interested in listening his/her opinions or views.

6. Restate your thoughts. Listening is quite different from hearing, and it’s not the easiest of skills to master. Although listening alone will certainly enable you to gain some knowledge, or at the very least help you to reach an opinion, it is still quite important that at the end of any discussion you should be able to easily restate, in sequence, all of the previous thoughts from the conversation.

It’s invariably true that the more you engage your listening skills, the more effective your active listening ability becomes. Most people may be very familiar with the act of speaking, but how many have ever really considered the value of actively listening to others? The tips stated above might not guarantee that you instantly turn into a excellent listener, but what they certainly will do is boost your listening skills greatly, automatically improving your overall communication ability.

Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of the L2L Group, specialising in providing Executive Coaching, Training and Consultancy Services to Businesses across the Globe. Want to learn more about these business success strategies? Get Alan’s popular FREE Business Pack today!