General communication skills include the ability to listen carefully to what others are saying as well as being able to communicate to them in an adequate manor. These skills should be applied no matter how you are communicating with others. General communication skills should be used when communicating with other people, whether talking or texting them, it is important to remember their needs.
There are many general communication skills to take into consideration when communicating. The main skill is to remember your audience, remember that everyone in your audience is different and you need to keep in mind that they may have different needs that you need to accommodate for. Some of these needs may include cultural differences, special requirements or age. All these differences will have their own needs. People from a different country may not understand more complicated phrasing of terms therefore you will have to explain terms in a simpler format.
Special requirements cover a wide range of needs, for example if a person has hearing problems therefore you may need to speak louder in order for them to hear what you are saying. Or if you are presenting a presentation to a class with somebody who may have sight problems, you may need to make the text bigger, sit them closer to the board or do further explaining if they can not read the text on the board.
Age is also a big factor as to how you communicate with others. Children will not understand complicated terms or big words, you will have to explain things in a simple format for them to understand. You will also have to be able to try and understand what they are saying as they may not know how to explain things. Teenagers and young adults will understand more complicated terms and will be able to take more information in. Although it is important to keep them interested as it is easy to loose their concentration. Adults will be able to concentrate better and will be able to communicate better, both listening wise and verbally as they will have more experience in communicating with others. Elderly people will have even more experience although with age they may have problems with hearing so it is important to try to speak a little louder for them in order to hear what you are saying to them.
To keep people interested in what you are saying it is a good idea to ask questions, so that they pay attention to what you are saying. This helps incase you ask them a question about it and they do not know the answer. Taking questions from the audience also helps as it allows the audience to ask questions about anything that they do not understand. This also gives you the opportunity to develop what you are saying to others who do not want to ask questions but do not fully understand what you are trying to explain.
Interpersonal Communication Skills
Interpersonal communication is when you show how you are listening with nods or smiles ect. As well as how you are interested in what you are talking about by using hand gestures and making eye contact with the people you are communicating with. Interpersonal skills include how you give and collect information, Anticipate and predict behavior, Express personal needs and those needs of others and influencing the attitudes and behavior of others.
Ways in which you can use your interpersonal communication skills include how you speak to others such as the tone of your voice. The tone of your voice is important especially when working in an organization such as Rainbow Lights that record readings of books onto CD’s for their clients who have sight problems. It is important as you will be communicating with the clients using only your voice as they will be unable to make out any body language or facial expressions you are using. The tone of your voice will help the person you are communicating with to tell if you are interested in what you are saying to them. It will also allow people to know if you are happy, upset, angry, excited, ect.
Interpersonal communication skills can also be linked to body language and facial expressions. These can also let the people you are communicating with know what you are feeling. The way you use your body such as slouching or sitting up can allow a person to tell if you are relaxed and uninterested in what they are saying or if you are listening to what they are saying. The look on your face can also allow people to know it you are paying attention to what they are saying or if your interest is on something else.
Facial expressions and body language can display weather or not you are interested in the person speaking or if you know what you are talking about. If you look worried or are fidgeting while you talk, this will give the impression that you are nervous or that you are unsure of what you are saying. Therefore it is important to be able to control your body language even when nervous.
Written Communication Skills
Written communication skills cover a wide range of areas of communicating. From texting friends to emailing your boss written communication affects all areas. It is important that you know how to write to different people. For example if you are texting your friend about a night out, it is fine to use abbreviations, slang and emotions such as smiley faces. However if you are emailing your boss about work or a meeting you must write it formally, lay it out well and be sure to use proper English with no abbreviations or slang words.
When communication through written forms it is important that you use spell check and ensure that your spelling and grammar is correct. This is especially important when creating a document or email for a business need, such as emailing customers about new products or deals or emailing staff about holidays.
You will need to ensure that the email or document looks professional as it will have an adverse effect on the company if the document has mistakes within it. It is also important to have the right information written in the document as if you have wrong information and you send it to customers it could loose the company money and future business from customers that have been affected. Word of mouth can also disrupt the company’s profit as if a customer has a bad experience with the company they can spread word of the experience to other potential customers and they could spread that to others so that the company develops a bad name. This is why it is important to run a spelling and grammar check as well as proof reading the work before you send it.
The structure of the document is also essential to how it reads. It is important to break the information up so that the customer is not all in one long paragraph as this will be hard to read. You must also ensure that the font style and size is appropriate for the users needs. For Rainbow Lights, they know their customers have sight problems, therefore if they are sending an email the must ensure that the text is easy to read or they can send a voice recording around in an email if it is easier for some customers.
However their employees will need emails and letters to inform them of anything that may affect them such as holidays or meetings. These emails need to be laid out appropriately and have the right information within the document. This type of document needs to be written formally, without slang that all members of staff might not understand.
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