Module for verbal communication skills. Strong verbal communication skills are important in all facets of life. Without these essentials, one may find it hard to get a personal point across articulate needs and desires or even compete in the business world. There are many factors that contribute to solid communication skills. Focused listening, one of the best ways to ensure someone that you are truly listening to what they are saying is to intently listen to some This may sound like common sense, but it is a skill that is seldom mastered. Usually when engaged in the conversation, the listener is multitasking, they are listening with one part of the brain and preparing your response with the other.
It is painfully obvious when a person is not wholeheartedly interested in what someone else has to say. Not only does this make the listener look uncaring, but it may also influence the speaker to go elsewhere when he needs to speak about matters. Whether you are in a leadership role or an individual contributor. Strong listening skills are essential to you Your success, hearing something other than what is being said or trying to think of what to say while the speaker is talking can have dire consequences. Regardless of the industry you work in focus listening is a great skill to sharpen. Asking questions.
Asking probing questions is a component that goes hand in hand with focus listening. Rarely does someone truly understand everything another saying without at least asking a couple of probing questions. The key is to not ask questions for the sake of asking questions or ask questions that do not relate to the conversation. For example, Amy talks to Michelle about a project they are going to work on together. The goal of the project is to create a high school lesson plan for a literature teacher. Michelle has never created a lesson plan and has no idea of what is included in one.
The conversation is as follows. Amy says, Hi Michelle. Today we are going to prepare a lesson plan for a high school literature teacher. The lesson is for the book teaching teachers transgress education is the practice of freedom. It is not necessary for you to read the book, we have a summary and analysis for each chapter which is sufficient to develop the plan. There are several sections of the lesson plan that we have to write and it has a non negotiable deadline.
Michelle replies, Brady me I look forward to writing the lesson plan with you. However, I have several questions. Specifically, what are the sections that we must create? Is there a template are certain grammatical rules that we must follow? In what format do we complete the lesson plan? What is the final due date?
Amy felt like she adequately described the assignment and how it should be done. But because Michelle was listening carefully, she had the opportunity to ask several probing questions to gain a better understanding of what was to be done. Communicating with flexibility and authenticity. When speaking to another the one rule you want to always observe is that you are being honest about what you are asking This can be somewhat of a challenge because we are taught to speak with diplomacy being politically correct, especially in the business world. While this is true, it is still necessary to make sure you are not sugarcoating or dancing around the issue, as this can cloud the meaning of what is being communicated. Effective communication does not require the speaker to repeat or continuously restate what is being said.
Even though sometimes one is as honest or clear as they could possibly be. It takes a little more work to relay the message. The ability to be flexible in your speech, whether to make your meaning more clear or to show off that diplomacy you have been working so hard at is significant for verbal communication success.