10 Tips to Improve Communication Skills

The most important skills in life are communication skills. Our success with friends, family, and colleagues depends heavily on our ability to communicate effectively. In this article I will present 10 tips that can help you improve your communication skill with people around you. These tips are based on my own experience and studies of successful people. So read on!

Tip 1: Practice active listening.

Listening is a skill and we all can improve it with practice. When we listen we allow other person to express his ideas and feelings. It’s our chance to show him that he has our full attention and respect. We should be open minded and give the person we are talking to enough time to say everything he wants. We should also be open to their ideas without making judgements and pass our own judgment. And finally, we can encourage them by asking questions that will bring out stronger responses.

Tip 2: Be aware of body language.

Our body language expresses how we feel about what is being said to us whether it’s a conversation or a speech. Our gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice send out messages to the other person even before we open our mouth. That’s why it is so important to be aware of our body language so that it matches with what we say. Sincerely happy people smile, whereas angry people frown. When you feel down on yourself or are very nervous your body language will show it even before you open your mouth. It’s important to be aware of this so that we can avoid sending the wrong messages with our body language to other people.

When we give someone a compliment, it’s important for us to match our body language to that compliment in order to avoid sending mixed signals. For example, if we say “You have beautiful eyes” while looking at the other person’s feet, it can be very confusing for him/her. Instead of just saying words, we should try to elaborate on them with our body language so that people can understand exactly what we are trying to communicate.

Tip 3: Make eye contact.

Avoiding someone’s eyes while they’re talking is a sign of disrespect and insecurity. On the other hand, looking into someone’s eyes shows that we trust and respect him. By making eye contact we encourage the other person to talk more and share his thoughts with us.

Tip 4: Be an active listener.

Once we develop the skill of actively listening and speaking it is important to apply it in our daily lives. We should be open to changing our opinion while others are talking to us. We need to make sure that we are not interrupting them because it can seem very rude and disrespectful to other people. Don’t judge the person you are listening too, but instead understand where he is coming from. Be interested in their ideas and try to see things from their perspective.

Tip 5: Use open ended questions to encourage others to talk about themselves.

Bad questions like “Do you like it?” or “What do you think about it?” should be avoided because they only allow for one word answers (Yes/No, Uninteresting/Interesting) that don’t give us any information on the other person’s thoughts or feelings. Instead we should encourage the other person to talk about themselves by asking open ended questions such as: “What do you like (dislike)?”

Tip 6: Don’t interrupt others when they are talking.

It is very frustrating if someone interrupts us while we are talking because it can seem that our thoughts are not important to them. We shouldn’t interrupt others because it is rude and shows that we don’t care about how they feel. Even if we think someone’s idea is wrong, we should listen first and express our views later, after the other person has expressed his ideas.

Tip 7: Don’t change topics abruptly.

It’s important to stay on one topic when talking to other people. When we change topics abruptly, it can be very frustrating for the other person because he will need time to process the new information before responding. We should try to avoid this by sticking with one topic so that the other person doesn’t get lost in between our conversation.

Tip 8: Don’t speak ill of others.

We all have a tendency to gossip but it’s important to avoid this behavior because it can create a very bad image about us. People who gossip are usually insecure and do not feel good about themselves. We should try to steer the conversation into more positive topics that don’t involve putting others down. Instead of saying negative things about other people, we should talk about the good qualities that they possess.

Tip 9: Don’t monopolize conversations.

This tip is really just an extension of the previous one because it also involves talking poorly about others. When we monopolize a conversation, it can seem like we don’t care about what the other person has to say. We should make sure that we don’t dominate conversations by talking more than the other person does. We should be open to changing topics and spending time listening as well.

Tip 10: Avoid using filler words.

Filler words are just extra words that people use when they don’t want to respond with a simple “yes” or “no”. For example, instead of saying “Yes, I did it”, we can say something more convincing like “Yes, I did it yesterday”. Filler words can be very frustrating for people because they don’t understand exactly what we are trying to say. We should try to cut down on those filler words and phrases by being more direct with our language.

Conclusion:

Communication skills are important for everyone but it’s particularly important for introverts because we tend to be quiet and need to work on encouraging conversation with other people. The tips in this article will help us improve our communication skills so that we can become more confident when talking to other people. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below!