communication skills training

communication skills training

Enhancing Communication Skills: The Essential Guide to Effective Communication Training

1. Introduction to Communication Skills Training

By combining the expertise of employees from various departments with the detailed analysis gained from communication assessments, companies can gain valuable insights into their communication effectiveness. Such insights can identify valuable low-cost improvements to communication systems and practices, which, in turn, can reinvigorate corporate culture and easily lead to spinoff solutions – including training, consulting, and coaching – to address subsequent challenges. This feedback process cannot be achieved without conducting communication assessments, which provide relevant data for all employees. Such an open and transparent engagement is central to achieving effective communication systems, which will lead to success. Only when the communication strengths and weaknesses of each department are understood can the proactive steps of creating teamwork and open collaboration be achieved. Leading business departments often create benchmarks for new successful approaches to business operations and business success. Highlighting preferred communication manners and work habits can significantly improve the spirit and bottom line of a company. However, it is important to acknowledge that as with learning any skill set, those who wish to be fundamental communication skill developers must be willing to face the process with courage and an open mind.

The communication skills required for professionals include a range of important abilities. Some of these capabilities – such as verbal and written communication skills – are easily recognized, while others – including nonverbal communication and managing meetings effectively – are often overlooked. Successfully developing communication skills typically involves a combination of activities including training, education, and coaching. The training can cover such core subjects as professional presentation skills and essential business writing. Education allows participating professionals to gain valuable insights by learning how to apply the latest communication tools and software to enhance their skills. Effective communication coaching from an experienced mentor can motivate professionals to develop and hone their unique communication skills. Although highly effective collaboration, team building, and career success require excellent communication skills, all too often our professional lives are driven by toxic layers of inner chatter, doubt, confusion, and misunderstanding. Those who develop strong communication skills can connect with their clients and co-workers in a manner that conveys confidence, respect, and focus. Such strong foundational communication skills lay the groundwork for teamwork, solution-oriented initiatives, and business success.

2. Key Concepts and Theories in Communication

The key concepts of the March-Simon formulation, those that make it particularly relevant and insightful, are as follows: Communication occurs with the transmission of a signal or sign from a source to a recipient. There are certain requisite components for such communication, including a sender, sign, medium, receiver, and code, each of which plays a certain specialized role in the occurrence and success of communication. In addition, communication has a particular function, being defined by the words thought, feeling, or objective. Finally, March and Simon introduced yet another concept, that of noise. It is an interruption of communication, a blockage between the signal and the recipient. Individuals recognize, intuitively and from their own experiences, that communication is a dynamic problem-solving activity that demands special skills and knowledge.

Probably the most accurate summary of the communication process and its complex components is contained in a text created by James G. March and Herbert A. Simon and titled “Organizations”. They defined the very basic elements of the communication process in one sentence. They wrote, “Communication occurs when a communication source transmits or signals to a recipient some thought, feeling, or objective. The communication source, transmission, and recipient are encoded by the sign that is transmitted through a medium or the signal and is ultimately decoded by the recipient.” They went on to discuss communicators, senders, signals, receivers, and the codes that make possible the transmission of information.

3. Practical Strategies for Improving Verbal Communication

A good general principle is to use small words, as few as possible, and in simple sentences. Talk about simple, direct ideas in a pre-specified, non-abstract style.

Specific: 1. Think before you speak. 2. Choose the right words. 3. Be interested. 4. Respond to what is being said. 5. Be aware of your listening stance.

General: 1. Ensure that the listener is ready to listen. 2. Be clear. 3. Be receptive. 4. Promote understanding. 5. Put it over with style.

Verbal communication is the backbone of all human communication. The dynamics of effective verbal communication are extremely complex, governed as much by the context as the message itself. A great deal of an ordinary person’s day is spent interacting with other people, many of whom are relative strangers and some of whom are speaking in their second or third language. It is self-evident that good genuine communication is the basis for good cooperation. Communication is essential in enabling organizations to function. As suggested earlier, making our verbal communication skills explicit can give people ideas to work with and build competence and confidence, as well as encourage a commitment to continuous development.

Practical strategies for improving verbal communication

4. Nonverbal Communication Techniques and Body Language

The early Greeks believed that the pure, the pious, and the good were directly associated with the beautiful and the useful. Aesthetic criteria similarly continue to dominate modern, non-oral communications, such as posters, press advertising, and other visual and print media. This reliance should use another reinforcing channel, the channel of body language. A speech in which the action is congruent with the words has the maximum impact. Freud, the grandfather of subconscious motivation, defined “affect” in human pleasure-seeking. The affect communicated visually by the human body is particularly forceful. Today, there are many psychologists who expound the view that facial expressions, body attitudes, movement, and gesture are our most basic, most spontaneous, and most significant communication channels. Their significance is all the greater because, in our normal, everyday communication, too much of our messaging is confined to the verbal channel. We rarely use congruent physical channels, yet the verbal channel conveys only 40% of the total communication. The wordless message is more significant than the sound. Only 7% of the impact comes from the sound.

Effective speakers ought to be able to use what Kehr calls an “acceptable level of polish and variety” in our means of communicating. These means include both verbal and nonverbal channels. The benefits of a good speaking style are most often accrued in a speech situation. However, it is important for successful sales presentations and normal client contacts that we pay positive attention to the quality of our speech. A salesman must be able to sell himself before he can sell his product or service. Effective body language, good quality eye contact, and good posture contribute to creating a complete message that will be understood and respected. This message should be packaged so that it looks right and uses all the “stuff” that we discussed in Chapter 1. Kehr points out that all speakers have both strengths and weaknesses with respect to various aspects of speech and language. What is good for trade speaking is likely to be good advice for general communications and is equally applicable to all sellers. The sales consultant, who is required to help clients with tax and treasury problems, can apply just about all of this chapter to his or her day-to-day role.

5. Overcoming Barriers to Effective Communication

The most important barriers to effective communication are role relationships, skills, linguistic, and cultural differences. On top of the well-known physical barriers to communication, such as using even intricate technology just to talk to someone, sitting with your back to the door, using very deep chairs, or cross-legged, using language that offends the other person as the listener continuously filters and interprets what has been said and listens in “bits and pieces”, not providing feedback as they occasionally glaze over the corners of worn carpet, get used to the office smells, laugh at a recent joke, and often drift off into reverie. With no response to what changes there are no real decisions about what to this subject, and so the importance of effective communication is constantly eroded. Role relationships can get even more blurred and distorted through team involvement, team building, management, and mentoring, delegation, and leadership development/executive coaching.

Being a gatekeeper is generally a position of great responsibility. However, with gatekeeping as a role in a company, it can be detrimental to effective communication. People in subordinate or peripheral roles with the power to terminate communication may become unduly stressed by talking to higher-status people, knowing that what they say probably won’t be popular. People who are gatekeepers or intermediaries may filter what they “think” is the best of their ability, passing on the most important issues. However, this is risky as they have to pass on, or choose not to do so, much of what is said and may not accurately “filter” the right information needed to fully inform the recipient.