Effective Communication Skills

We're going to look at six different effective communication skills. You can click on the following links to find out more about each of them.

1. Practice good listening skills - This includes really paying attention, mirroring, and asking for clarification.
2. Increase your awareness of nonverbal communication - Assumptions are unconsciously made because of tone of voice, gestures, posture, and movement. when you become aware of your nonverbal communication and the other person's you can decrease mis-communication.
3. Recognize when communication barriers show up - Assumptions and defensive behavior can create barriers to communication. There are ways to ask for clarification and increase safety which can diminish the negative effect of communication barriers.
4. Practice the art of clear request - Without a clear request many people feel upset because the other person didn't do what they wanted. Clear requests greatly decrease the upset caused by this mis-communication.
5. Explore your own unresolved issues that get activated by others... Then "bring home the projection." Relationships can give you a lot of stuff to work on in your personal healing journey. When you use this "stuff," healing can really move forward and relationships become way more positive.
6. Decide when and why to have a difficult conversation - Many people barge in and use assertive communication to let the other person know what he or she did wrong. Some people never speak up. There are some good ways to decide whether or not to have a difficult conversation and then prepare for it so that it is a effective and positive communication experience.