Success Through Communication

Success Through Communication

Do you think, you would benefit if you were to develop your communication skills?

Since we all succeed by means of team work, communication is a vital skill to master.

Communication may be defined as: a transfer of information and/or emotion.

Communication as the transfer of information

These are the logical elements of your communication. The types of information you need to communicate are:

1. Facts.
2. Figures.
3. Technical information.
4. Proof that your ideas are right.

Communication is also the transfer of emotion. These are the emotional elements of your communication. The emotions you need to communicate are:

1. Optimism.
2. Friendliness.
3. Enthusiasm.
4. Fun.

In order to get the best from yourself and others work to improve your communication skills.

Communication Channels

There are three channels of communication:

1. Words:

Logic: facts, figures, information and proof.

Rhetoric: Enthusiasm, vision, motivation, positive emotion.

2. Tones:

Voice tones: Loud or quiet. Fast or slow.

3. Visual impact:

Body language: How you appear.

Work habits. How you act.

Score yourself out of ten for each of the following seven questions

1. How would you rate your ability to transfer facts, judgements and information FROM your mind to the minds of others, without any misunderstanding, omission or error? Do people always understand you, (Score higher); or are there frequent examples of other people not understanding what you mean to say? (Score lower).

2. How would you rate your ability to gain information from the minds of others? Do you ask the right questions, and do you listen well to the answers? Or are you sometimes not as attentive as you think you should be?

3. How would you rate your ability to handle words? To what degree would you say you have, The Gift of the Gab; or To what degree are you highly articulate?

4. What emotions do you think you inspire? Do you inspire positive emotions in the minds of others around you? Do you tend to inspire feelings of optimism, cooperation, and friendly good humour? or do you tend to depress or upset people? Are you annoying?

5. Are you able to handle conflict situations in a constructive positive way, or do you find conflict situations stressful, or difficult to handle well?

6. Generally, how would you rate your body language? Posture, gestures, expressions?

7. How would you rate your voice tones? Voice volume, pitch, accent, variability?

What did you score high on? What did you NOT score high on?

Is there anything you think you need to improve? If yes, then what?

Vocabulary

You have three layers of vocabulary.

1. Full vocabulary. All the words you know.
2. Active vocabulary. A smaller number of words that you actually use.
3. Speech habits. An even smaller number of words you use often.

Speech habits

Speech habits are words or phrases that you use habitually, every day, without even thinking about them. Some people have some good speech habits. Which is splendid. Others have bad speech habits. Which is a bit crap.

Bad speech habits:

• Sort of thing. (I went down the park, sort of thing. I had a go on the swings, sort of thing).
• Is'n't 'alf. (I really like it. It isn't 'alf good.)
• Crap. ( I know you think it's all crap).

Have you got any bad speech habits? Think about it and name them here.

Good speech habits

Five polite phrases you need to incorporate in your good speech habits:

• Yes, please.
• No, thank you.
• Would you mind if we ....?
• Would you please ....?
• Thank you very much for X. I appreciate it.

In addition, show interest in anything that strikes you as worthy of honest praise.

People like praise. Give people what they want, and they will love you for it.

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