Effective Communication Skills

Effective Communication Skills

1. Perspectives in Communication

   • Our idividual perseptions are the 'filter' through which we comunicate with others
   • The same words can have very diferen meanings depending on how we interpret them.
   • We need to speack with specific words in a certain order to have a clear meaning.
   • Effective listeners remember that "words have no meaning - people have meaning"
   • Other factor that afect our perspective: 1.- Our past experiences 2.- Our Prejudices 3.- Our Feelings 4.- Our Environment.
     • Not all of our past experiences are negative, they can confirm our communication as well.
     • Prejudices are partly due to culture and personal preference or experience. No all prejudices involve a negative characteristic.
     • There are two way in which your feelings can influence your comunication. The first is how you feel on a given day and the second is how you fell about a specific person.

2. Basic Listening Skills

   • Most listeners retain less than 50% of what they hear.
   • We listen for: To build relationships, to understand others, to be entertained, to learn, to show empathy, to gather information.
   • A tool for a good listener is becoming aware of your own behavior, feelings, and listening habits
   • Active listening skills: being attentive and involved, to be consciously and pay attention to the speaker.
   • Pay Attention: look to the eyes, no distractors, body language, avoid side conversations and stop mental chatters.
   • Demostrate that we are listening: use correct facial expressions, be open and relaxed and use smal coments (yes, right, ok).
   • Understanding: use reflecting and paraphrasing phrases.
   • Don't interrupt: We will only be limiting our chance of understanding the message
   • Respond appropriately: be honest and open, be respectful and be thorough.

3. Elements of Comunication

   • Is most believable and mos effictively if we use together the tree elements of the face to face communication: 1.- Tone of voice 2.-Body language 3.-Words
   • Over half of the information we send to others is through non-verbal methods.
   • The tone of voice we use is responsible for about 35% to 40% of the message we are sending
   • It's not what you say, it's how you say it that matters the most in relating yoy message.
   • Body language is a useful tool that we can learn to use. We can use a person's body language to realiza that your message is incomplete - there is more to say or there are questions to be answered.
   • It´s not what you say, it's how you say it that counts.

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