4 Developments and Significance of Communication Skills

Dr.T.A. James

Unit Structure.

3.0. Learner Outcome.

3.1 Introduction

3.2The need for development of Communication skills.

3.3 How to develop communication skills

3.4Developing Communication through Listening

3.5 Some important tips for effective listening

3.6 Developing Communication through Nonverbal Communication

3.7 Reading non-verbal Communication

3.8 How do we deliver nonverbal Communication

3.9 How do we develop communication skills to manage Stress

3.10 How do we become an effective communicator by managing Stress

3.11 Develop Communication skills through Emotional awareness.

3.12 How emotional awareness make you an effective communicator

3.13 Effective communication requires both thinking and feeling.

3.14 Significance of Communication skills.

3.15 The essential factors for the development of Communication Factors.

·      Writing skills

·      Reading skills

·      Speaking Skills

·      Listening Skills

·      How to improve listening

·      Conversation Skills.

3.16. Let us sum up.

The use of effective communications skills help us to .understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect. The need for effective skills in communication is very much essential today. Listening is one of the most important skills for effective communication.

Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, and build better relationship at home and work. Another skill of better communication is controlling and effectively managing stress. Emotional awareness can improve effective communication.

Thus communication is an important facet of life. Communication skills are essential in all spheres of life. Be it an interview or dealing with the project leader or working out a solution with a team or writing a report, getting across the point effectively is what matters.

To be successful, a person requires an integrated set of communication skills. These skills comprise, writing skills, speech skills, listening skills, non- verbal skills. One should have communication skills, while reading, writing, listening, speaking, conversing with various groups of people, government officials, bankers, family members, etc.

3.0 Learner Outcomes

• Demonstrate the ability to find out, analyse, and reason out an effective outcome on the developments of communication skills.
• To show the ability to analyse the need for the development of communication skills through formal examples.
• To show the ability to elaborate the significance of developing communication skills.
• To demonstrate the ability how to develop communication skills and the proper use of them in areas ofeffective listening.
• To demonstrate the ability of describing various tips for effective communication.
• To demonstrate the ability how to of develop communication skills in managing stress and emotions.
• To demonstrate proficiency in formal writing, including correct use of a designated style, language and diction.
• To construct appropriate means of listening, speaking and writing for better communication.
• To demonstrate how to develop conversational skills.

3.1 Introduction

Communication skills will help us to understand a person or situation and will help us to find solutions todifferences in opinions, build confidence and respect and create an atmosphere where creative ideas, problem solving, affection and caring can flourish. If clarity is lacking,much of what we try to communicate to others and what others try to communicate to us – communication gets misunderstood. Thiscan cause conflict and frustration in personal and professional relationships. By acquiring these effective communication skills, you can better connect with your friends, spouse, kids, benefactors and co-workers.

3.2 Theneed for the development of communication skills

In this age of information, we need to send, receive, and process huge numbers of messages every day. Effective communication is not only just exchanging information; it is also about understanding the feeling and emotion behind the information. Good communication can improve relationships at home, at work place, and in social interactions by strengthening your connections to others and improving teamwork, decision-making, and problem solving. Good communicationhelps you to communicate even negative or difficult messages without creating conflict or destroying confidence. Effective communication combines a set of skills including non-verbal communication attentive listening, the ability to manage stress in the moment and the capacity to recognize and understand your own emotions and those of the person you’re communicating with.

Effective communication is a learned skill; it is more effective when it is spontaneous rather than formal. Always a speech that is read, for example, rarely has the same impact as a speech that is delivered (or appears to be delivered) spontaneously. In fact, it takes time and effort to develop these skills and become an effective communicator. As we put in more effort and practice, the more instinctive and spontaneous your communication skills will become.

3.3 How to develop communication skills:

There are many ways and means by which we can develop communication skills. Some of the ways we can develop communication is described as given below;

3.4Developing communication skill through listening

In order to be effective in communication, listening is one of the most important aspects.Effective listening means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding how the speaker feels about what they’re communicating.

Successful listening:

• Will make the speaker feel heard and understood which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.
• It will create an environment where everyone feels safe to express ideas, opinions, and feelings, or plan and problem solving in creative ways.
• It will save time by helping to clarify information, avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.
• It will relieve negative emotions. When emotions are running high, if the speaker feels that he or she has been truly heard, it can help to calm them down, relieve negative feelings, and allow for real understanding or problem solving to begin.

3.5 Some important tips for effective listening

• If your intention is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening effectively will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, you can remember the following tips. The more you practice those tips, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.
• We need to focus fully on the speakerand his or her body language, and other nonverbal cues. If you’re not focused and doing other things like, checking text messages, or doodling, you’re almost certain to miss nonverbal clues in the conversation. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try repeating their words over in your head—it’ll reinforce their message and help you stay focused.
• While communicating we need to avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns. Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. You can’t concentrate on what someone’s saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and know that your mind’s elsewhere.
• Do not be judgmental. In order to communicate effectively with someone, we don’t have to agree or disagree with their ideas and opinions. Whereas you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand a person. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can lead to the most unlikely and profound connection with someone.
• We need to be interested in what’s being said. In attentive listening nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting. As a good listener we need to encourage the speaker with some signs of interest.

3.6 Developing communication skills through Nonverbal communication

• In communication we show nonverbal signs to show that we are interested or not interested in the communication.In nonverbal communication, we use body language such as facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing. The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person, tells them more about what we want to communicate to them.
• The use and development of nonverbal communication skill will help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work. It will increase your verbal communication as well.
• We can improve effective nonverbal communication by using open body language – arms uncrossed, standing with an open stance or sitting on the edge of your seat, and maintaining eye contact with the person you’re talking to.
• We can also use body language to emphasize or enhance your verbal message – patting a friend on the back while complimenting him on his success, for example, or pounding your fists to underline your message; biting your teeth when you are really upset and angry with someone.

3.7 How do we improve reading nonverbal communication

• We need toPractice observing peoplearound us in public places, such as a function, a shopping mall, a bus stop, railway station, a restaurant, or even on a television talk show with the sound muted. We need to observeclosely how others use body language can teach you how to better receive and use nonverbal signals when conversing with others. Take a note on how people act and react to each other. Keep observing people and try to guess what their relationship is, what they’re talking about, and how each feels about what is being said.
• We need to be aware of each one’s individual differences. While observing people we need to keep in mind that that nonverbal communication will mean differently by people from different countries and cultures. It’s important therefore to take age, culture, religion, gender, and emotional state into account when reading body language signals. There will of course be difference in the way an African boy’s nonverbal communication to an Indian counterpart.
• We need to observe nonverbal communication signals as a group.If you tend to read too much from a gesture nonverbal signal, then you can be wrong as well.We need to take all the nonverbal signals into consideration and come into a consensus.

3.8 How do we deliver nonverbal communication

• Try to use nonverbal signals to match with your words.Your nonverbal communication should help to support what you have said in words. It should not in any way contradict what you have said.Your body language and your words should agree with each other rather than contradicting. If your words and body language do not agree with each other, then the person who listens to you may think that you are dishonest and not trust worthy.
• Try to adjust your nonverbal signals according to the context.The nonverbal communication need to change according to different situations and places. You cannot use the same tone of voice when you are addressing a child and when you are addressing an educated group of elders. We also need take in to account emotional state of people and the cultural differences while using nonverbal communication.th.
• We can use body language to convey positive feelings even when you’re not actually experiencing them. Whenever we are nervous in facing an interview or during a presentation we can use positive body language to show confidence. Your body language should bring in positivity and confidence even when we are not feeling it. It will make one feel better and make one feel confident. This positivity will spread to the other people in the group and that will help him to communicate well with confidence and enthusiasm.

3.9 How to we develop communication skills to manage stress

Stress will help one to perform well under pressure but it should be in small doses. If stress becomes constant and recurring it may become a hindrance to effective communication and may spoil a person’s capability to think clearly and constructively. It will lead to constant worry and fear and effective communication becomes non-existent. Effective communication thus is possible only in the absence of negative stress. In stress we misread other people and become very ineffective in our communication skills. Due to stress people have problem in their relationships, in their work place and everywhere they go and whatever things that they undertake. If the person can get rid of these stressful feelings and become calm and relaxed he will slowly bring that positive vive in all his approach and he will become effective in his communication skills as well.

3.10 How do we become an effective communicator by managing stress

In order to become an effective communicator we really need to tame our stress. An untamed stress will lead a person to frustration and unhappiness. One cannot become an effective communicator if one is stressed all the time. By learning to control or reduce stress, you can safely face any challenges in life and the emotions you are experiencing. When one knows how to maintain a stress free life, he will be in an energized state of mind and will be able communicate normally and effectively.

How to deal with stress during communication:

• Be aware when you’re stressed. Your whole being will let you know if you’re stressed as you communicate. You will experience that your muscles are tight and the stomach is sore. You get irritated with everything around and you get angry and emotional for every small thing that happens to you. Your breathing becomes shallow and hard.
• You need to take a moment to calm down to get into any conversation ortaking any decision.
• Try to bring your senses to the rescue by taking a few deep breaths, relaxing muscles, meditating and coming to one’s own self.Try to find something that is really soothing to your mind. Be with people who are pleasant and friendly. Be in a place that is devoid of din and noise. Ultimately you need to choose your own things that can bring you peace.
• A sense of humour in the situation.Humour will help you to relieve stress when communicating. Try to be on the lighter side of things and share a joke when things are going too serious.
• Try to compromise on things. Sometimes, it is nice to choose a middle path that reduces the stress levels of everyone around. It is sometimes better to give in and compromise on things that will make everyone happy and relives you of stress. This will improve your relationship with everyone around.
• Try to be relaxed and calm if necessary, and take time away from the situation so everyone can calm down. Take time and be yourself, be in quite place and spend some time in meditation or reflecting upon the movements that you have to make. Go for a walk and be away from the situation and regain your balance.

3:11. Develop communication skills through Emotional awareness You need to recognize and accept your emotions.

We should be aware of our emotions and how we communicate at home and outside when we are emotionally upset. Emotions indeed play a major role in communication at home and at our work place. Always our feelings take upper hand rather than our thinking and reasoning. These emotions really lead us to communicate and often our communications are led by our feelingsrather than by our thinking.It is the way you feel, more than the way you think, that motivates you to communicate or to make decisions.

When we are emotionally driven to act or to decide, we are driven by our impulses and it will certainly harm our relationships and the reasoning and thinking capacity.We will be ruled by our feelings and our communication will surely have the tone of our emotions. This emotional communication will lead to unpleasantness and frustrations and will lead to conflict.

Thus emotional awarenesswill help you to find the tools needed for understanding both yourself and other people, and the real messages they are communicating to you. We need to be aware of our feelings and emotions. Our veryability to communicate depends on being connected to these feelings. We really need to accept our emotional strengths and weaknesses and should be able tackle this source of energy in our communication and make our communication effective. If we don’t try to understand our emotional feelings and act upon only on the rational level we will not able to understand the feelings affection and love of people and that will be lacking in our communication. Bereft of these our communication is in effective and baseless.

3:12. Emotional awareness will make you an effective communicator

Emotional awareness is one of the means by which you can achieve effective communication skills. It is the sum total of all your emotional experiences and the ability to manage all of your feelings appropriately is the basis for effective communication.

Emotional awarenesswill help you to:

• It will help you to understand and empathize with what is really troubling other people
• It will help you to understand yourself, including what’s really troubling you and what you really look forward to.
• It will help you to stay motivated to understand and empathize with the person you’re interacting with, even if you don’t like them or their feelings.
• It will help you to communicate clearly and effectively, even when delivering negative messages.
• It will help you to build strong, trusting, and rewarding relationships.

3:13. Effective communication requires both thinking and feeling

You can develop emotional awareness and you’ll know what you’re feeling without having to think about it – and you’ll be able to use these emotional cues to understand what someone is really communicating to you and you can act accordingly. The goal of effective communication is to find a healthy balance between your intellect and your emotions, between thinking and feeling.

Emotional awareness is a skill you can learn.

By learning to control your feelings like anger, sadness, fear, surprise and joy, you will learn to have emotional awareness and this skill of emotional awarenesswill improve your communication skills. A person who has the skill of emotional awareness will always know how to control his behaviour and act and say the right things at the right time. Emotional awareness is therefore a skill which you can be acquired with constant practice and patience. Once you master this skill, you will have clarity and purposefulness in your communication. This skill of emotional awareness will make you communicate effectively.Its therefore easy to learn the skill of emotional awareness through constant practice of patience and control of our emotions.

3.14. Significance of Communication skills

The very purpose of Communication is to convey ones message effectively to the other person. If the communication is not conveyed clearly, of course there will be ambiguity and confusion. To make communication clear it involves effort from both the sender of the message and the receiver of the message. In order to make communication clear it is essential to have the communication skills. Be it a discussion, a speech, a lecture, an interview, a video conference, a telephonic conversation, writing a report or an email, getting across the message effectively is the most important aspect.

The success of an organization or an establishment depends on the ability to communicate effectively to its clients and employees. In today’s fast changing world nobody has time to repeat or do a thing second time. In such a scenario effective communication is the only solution. Effective communication depends on the use of vocabulary, tone of voice, modulation, intonation of sounds etc.

The use of right word at the right place and appropriate people holds the key for effective communication and the motivation to work hard.It is always true that communications works only for those people who work at it. Globalization has brought in tremendous changes in the Information Technology, multinational companies, I.T enabled services, management institutes, public and private sector and they all need staff who can handle the communication pressure, and the search for the right people is endless. A degree alone will not suffice to fit into these industries and establishments but the recruiters are in search of people with good communication skills.

If you look, you will see that 80 percent of their daily time is spend on communication through writing, reading, listening, speaking and interacting with supervisors and managers in organizations of repute. The success and popularity of any organization is based on effective communication.

Many qualified people are rejected on account of the lack of communication skills. Whatever qualifications and training that youngsters have, the most important aspect of employability today is the communication skills. Your bright future and employability in any organization is possible only through good communication skills. Lack of communication skills will make one less confident and lose good job prospects. The newly appointed person in the firm will have to interact with global clients and should match with their qualities and talents to compete in the job market today. Fluency in language and accent neutralization is a must for lucrative jobs in the global scenario.

3.15. The essential factors for the development of Communication Skills:

The essential aspect to be successful, an individual needs to possess an integrated set of communication skills. It is important to have speaking skills, writing skills, listening skills, non- verbal skills, emotional skills. A person to become a successful communicator he needs to be proficient in speaking, writing, listening, interacting, conversing with people in various aspects of life. Let us examine the major ingredients to become an effective communicator.

1. Writing Skills

In the present scenario writing is an important component needed to become an efficient communicator. Through writing we communicate or convey ideas and feelings. Writing will remain intact even if the writer has disappeared from the scene forever. It is a powerful means of communication even in your absence. The literature that was written thousands of years back still gives us inspiration and courage.Good writing is always considered as good communication.

In order to be a good writer we need to be accurate, appropriate and should always avoid ambiguity. The writing should be precise and apt for the occasion. The writer should have clarity, correctness, consistency and concreteness. A good writer does his writing in the morning hours when the mind is clear and atmosphere is clean and fresh. A good writer uses shorter sentences to have more power punch and it is easier to read and understand.

A piece of good writing will consist of brief content, clear language and all the important points will be covered. While writing we need to keep in mind to have simple language, legible and readable. We need to practice write and rewrite until we are able to capture the idea in one sentence.

2. Reading Skills:

To be an efficient reader one should must practice reading regularly. Reading aloud in front of a mirror helps one to correct the irregularities and get rid of certain flaws. A student should give ample time every day to practice reading to get a grip of mastering the skills of reading. They should make it a practice every day so that it becomes a habit for them.It will not only improve the students reading skills but also refresh their knowledge and wisdom.

We should always encourage them to read inspirational and motivational books. We need to provide sufficient reading materials such as newspapers, magazines, newsletters, periodicals, journals and sports magazines general knowledge books and novels to update their knowledge.Teach the students underline the important points, note down the difficult words and train them to improve their vocabulary. Teach them that through reading they acquire knowledge and they learn to express better in front of their peers and elders.

Reading will enhance young minds and motivate them to explore further into the unknown. Reading indeed helps to have mental development among the youth and they shine well in their academics and general knowledge. The great and wonderful ideas in the books will definitely help the readers in later life and increase their communication skills in every way.

3. Speaking Skills:

Good speaker will attract the crowed like honey that attracts the bees. It is a joy to listen to a good speaker. Whatever career that you undertake today you need to excel in your speech. It does not matter whether you are a teacher, IT professional, engineer, carpenter, nurse, doctor, philanthropist, poet, journalist, accountant, and politician you cannot be successful in your profession without the ability to speak well. Always remember that the crying child will be given milk, the same way those who speak well will be recognized better in the society today.

A good speaker is able to listen well as he needs to speak more. In order to be a good speaker we need be confident, knowledgeable and requires training and practice. A good and efficient speaker will think before he speaks, will know what he is going to speak, he will know something about the audience, will speak with examples and illustrations. One has to develop self-confidence and try to remove fear of psychosis slowly. The following points to be kept in mind before you speak.

An efficient speaker will stick to the time schedule and respect the audience. A good speaker will try to speak simple language and appropriate vocabulary. An effective speaker is the one who modulates the tones and gets the points quickly. A good speaker will have the facts and he will try to answer the questions.

4. Listening Skills:

To be an effective communicator you have to be good listener. One who does not listen will not be able to speak and write. An effective listener will be able do wonders with his speech and writing. These are the three jewels to adorn the effective communicator. To become a good listener we must have patience and openness. To be a good listener one must be paying attention to what people say and should be able to concentrate well. He will be a person who can resist all distractions and encourage the speaker with clarifications. A good listener will be empathetic, very attentive to details, and show lot of interest in the speaker. A good listener will not interrupt the speaker and he will be able to summarize well what the speaker has said. A good listener is an enterprising person with lot of potentialities. He can interact well with people and will be able to solve their problems easily. Good listeners can think well.

There are many ways of listening which can be informative, passive, active, evaluative, appreciative and emphatic ways of listening. There are many factors that hinder listening. Listening becomes difficult if I dislike the person who speaks. Listening is hampered when there is lack of interest and when there are lot of distractions around. If the speaker uses ineffective communication skills and inappropriate inferences, listening will be hampered.

5. How to improve listening:

Listening can be improved through concentration. Listening becomes better if it aided by patience, concentration and interest in the subject.We can listen well if we resist all distractions and maintain eye contact with the speaker. Listening becomes easy if we are attentive to the body language, modulation voice and the gestures and the expressions of the speaker.Show interest in the speaker and make the speech interactive and enjoyable. Do not ignore any point and may note down major points.

A good listener will learn things fast. It is an art and one can master this art of listening through constant practice.Good listening will improve your communication skills and you will learn to improve your relationship with people. You will be appreciated well if you are a good listener. Make it a habit to listen and improve your communication skills and in turn your team relations.

We learn things well if we listen to others.We can also learn so many new things in a short span of time. People acquired greatness through listening and listening will surely propel you to be good speaker and writer. You cannot be real leaner without being a listener. We learn to acquire knowledge through listening to others, and this very listening has made us knowledgeable and intelligent.

6. Conversation skills

“Conversation” is defined as ‘an informal talk involving a small group of people or only two on a particular subject or selected topics’. This skill of conversation will help one become good conservationist and in turn you will become a good communicator. To be a good conservationist one must be a good listener to the partner. You need to pay attention to your partner and respect his or her views.

To gain from the conversation focus on your listener and take active part in the conversation. In conversation the speaker and listener will always need tomaintain friendly relationship.

Conversation should be like a tennis match, each person having his turn to give and receive. The true art of conversation is talking and listening. Good conversation requires delicacy and tact, give and take.

3.11. References

1. Elmhorst, J. M. (1999) Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for Business and the Professions McGraw Hill ,Singapore

2. Spitzberg, B.H. (1994) The Dark Side of Incompetence in Adler, R. B. &Elmhorst, J. M. (1999) Communicating at Work:

3. Stewart, J. and Logan, C. (1998) Together: Communicating Interpersonally in Hargie, O., Dickson, D., Tourish, D. (2004)

4. Tourish, D. and Hargie, O. (Eds) (2004) Key Issues in Organisational Communication. Routledge. London

5. Rasberry, R.W., &Lemoine, L.F. (1986) Effective Managerial Communication Boston MA Kent.

6. Nichols, R. G. and Stevens, L.A. (1990) Listening to People Harvard Business Review 68 pp95-102 in Adler, R. B. &Elmhorst, J. M. (1999) Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for Business and the Professions McGraw Hill Singapore

7. Rhoda A., Aspi H. (2009) “Principles and Practice of Business Communication” Mumbai Sheth Publishing House. 20th Edition, Mumbai,