Twelve Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills

Communication Skills Training: Twelve Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills

Mastering communications skills is one of the best things that you can do, since your future success, health and happiness relies upon your ability to gain the willing cooperation of others. In order to gain their willing cooperation, you will need to properly communicate with them.

Some people are natural-born master communicators; they seem to have been born with the gift of the gab. People such as John Lennon, The Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. They are the lucky few.

You may like these four, or you may loath them, but you would probably agree; this particular fab-four were definitely, Master Communicators.

How could you become a master communicator? Let is look in more detail as to what makes a master communicator.

Communication is a complex subject; it has many component parts. To understand the whole, we must first identify the parts. There are the three major parts of communication:

• Words.
• Voice tone.
• Body language.

Words can be split into two subsets: content and style. Content is WHAT you have to say and style is HOW you express your content.

So now we have four major parts to your communication.

1. Your verbal content.
2. Your verbal style.
3. Your body language.
4. Your voice tones.

Your verbal content

1. Make your content clear. Don't mix your messages. If your main message is lost amongst a crowd of lesser messages, you will lose your listener.

2. Limit the amount. Don't overwhelm the listeners mind with too much information. People have limited memory power. So don't give them too much to remember.

3. Make your content logical. If they cannot see any logic in your message, they will have no reason to accept it.

Your verbal style

4. Suit your style to your audience. Speak to businessmen and women in a business-like style. Speak to children in a simplified-style.

5. Balance your content between talking about general principles and concrete examples. You could either Name the principle and then illustrate with examples, or you could do the opposite; Give examples first, and then draw-out the general principle.

Both systems work, but you need to decide which would be best for your particular message and your particular audience.

6. Repeat your main message. If you want them to remember what you said, repeat, repeat, repeat! Repetition is the mother of memory.

Your body language

7. Dress according to the context. Match your audience's higher expectations. Don't dress up too much, but don't be scruffy either, relative to your audience's expectations.

8. Animate yourself; so that you are not boring to look at. Move and smile. If you are too static, like a stone-statue, your audience will soon begin to snooze. Make your body language support your verbal content. A little showmanship can go a long way.

9. Never point. Don't point your finger. Don't point your pen. Pointing is too aggressive. To emphasise your main points, use an open hand gesture.

Your voice tones

10. Your voice should be slightly louder than is normal. This will give you an air of confidence.

11. Your voice should be slightly deeper than is normal. This will give you an air of authority.

12. Your pace should be slightly slower than normal. This will give you an air of calm certainty and gravitas.

How to Become a Master Communicator Summary

• Make your content clear.
• Limit the amount.
• Make your content logical.
• Suit your style to your audience.
• Balance between "general principles" and "concrete examples".
• Repeat, repeat, repeat!
• Dress according to the context.
• Animate yourself.
• Never point.
• Your voice should be slightly louder, deeper and slower than normal.

Communication Skills Quiz

To discover where your communication skills are strongest, and where they are not so strong, try our quick Communication Skills Quiz.

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