Communication - How To Communicate Effectively?
Why do I wish to talk about communication?
Gerald R. Ford said: “If I went back to college again, I'd concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.”
And I share his thought, that nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.
Can it be thought? Or is it something that we learn throughout our lives?
Well, I believe life is a big teacher and we learn as long as we live. But I also think everybody can come to a satisfactory point where they feel comfortable communicating with others and where they can communicate effectively.
And I wish to help you do just that - feel more comfortable expressing your thoughts and do it effectively.
One of the most important things I have learned from my English professor (well, actually, since I'm a Croat it was my Croatian professor but you know what I mean) and will remember as long as I live is there are 4 main points to communicating effectively. You need to surpass them all in order to communicate effectively.
First, you must clear with yourself what your message is. What do you want to communicate? Knowing the subject matter inside and out doesn't always have to be. It's just that you need to think about what you're going to say next.
Secondly, you need to give a good thought to what you are actually saying - there are many ways to say things and you need to ask yourself whether you're doing it correctly? Are you communicating exactly what you are thinking? Could it be comprehended in many ways?
Next, we come to a point where you need to know what your correspondent(s) actually heard. Now this comes down to a very simple thing as you won't try doing a meeting in a subway during rush hour, right? Almost in every case your correspondent(s) will hear what you said, unless you mumble. And if not, you will know it then.
And the final point is what did your correspondent understand from what you said? Now this is the most difficult one and will be obvious only after continued communication as you can't know what's happening inside people's heads just by looking at them. Maybe if one looks you with a strange look, then you'll know you said something that doesn't make sense at all.
The point is, I'm not telling you to find out answers to all these 4 questions literally. Just make sure you pay attention to the first two points, that concern you, and the rest will fall in place.
With written communication it's even harder to know whether your correspondent(s) understood what you wrote the way you wanted to as you can't see people's faces and reactions on what they read. That's why you need to pay even more attention to what you write.
About the author:
Dom Delimar is the owner of Business-Letters-101.com which was created with the aim of helping other businessmen have more successful business communication.
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