Communication is exchanging ideas, thoughts, and feelings with each other. The core of communication is to make you understood by others and understand others. For this reason, effective communication requires some skills to reach your goal. People as social creatures have a necessity to act collectively. For the success of common action and cooperation communication is indispensable. As long as communication is good and proper the common action is successful. Besides, effective communication makes people feel satisfied and brings themselves into the forefront in a competitive atmosphere. Contrary to popular opinion, communicational skills that have such significance are not difficult to develop. In this paper, I am going to explain the strategies for effective communication.

The first strategy is to be an effective listener. Since communication is an interactive activity, not only talking but also listening matters a lot. A person who is bad at listening cannot be good at talking as well. As part of communication, an active listener should briefly summarise that s/he listened and ask questions to clarify what s/he understood. Another benefit of effective listening is that it leads the speaker to feel himself or herself valuable. Moreover, listening should also involve empathy. In other words, people should be aware of the emotional position of the speaker while s/he is talking. 

The second strategy to improve communication skills is to obey the rule of 3C. The speaker should speak Concisely, Clearly, and Confidently. Long sentences and talking very fast decreases the concentration of the listener and confuses him/her. So being brief and concentrating on the point makes you understand better. Furthermore, you shouldn’t hesitate to talk with others, and focus on speaking about the core of what you want to say. Although you should speak concisely, you should avoid forcing others to adopt your ideas. So, people will pay more attention to what you say when you speak confidentially. In addition, for the sake of being clear, you should get rid of clutters both verbal and visual. So you shouldn’t say umm, eeee, aaa as much as possible. In parallel with that, also be aware that people tend to use a lot of verbal clutter such as, you know, I guess, yeah, well, like… Getting rid of clutters also increases your clarity.

The third one is paying attention to your body language. You shouldn’t move your arms too much in order not to negatively affect the listener’s concentration. Although you shouldn’t be static while talking, be sure that you are not annoying the listener by your body language. Keeping your eye contact also makes your speech more effective and expresses your respect for the other. Do not forget that your energy and positive approach influence others a lot. Your positive message could easily spread to others and change the atmosphere nicely.

Finally, for the success of communication you should avoid assumptions and judge others. Although assumption is one of the shortest ways of communication, it is also one of the reasons for unhealthy communication – to make assumptions instead of understanding what is said correctly. In addition, judging others during the conversation negatively affects the communication, because most of the time it includes biases. As a result the other speaker can start to create a defence mechanism instead of focusing the communication.

In short, effective communication is one of the greatest skills that benefits people in all their relationships. It is one of the important criterions for employees in determining whom to hire. Also effective communication contributes to developing family, friends and all other relations of people positively. For this reason the strategies that are articulated above are necessary to adopt for each individual.

Muhammed Emin Ersan

Sources:

Etkili İletişim Becerileri Nedir? Nasıl Geliştirilir? eofis.com

Etkili İletişim Becerileri Nedir? Nasıl Geliştirilir? formes.com

TOP 3 Tips To Improve Your Communication Skills! Youtube