How to improve communication – 3 easy Steps

Do you ever have these questions in your mind?

What communication skills are important?

How communication skills and career growth are linked?

How can we improve communication skills?

The answer to your queries is the ability to communicate effectively is the most important skill which we need in today’s time as they are linked to our career growth and growth in life. These are learnable skills and we can very much learn them by following 3 simple secrets.

Also watch my video on How to Improve Communication Skills.

But before we get to know these secrets let us just understand, what is communication?

Communication is the process of transferring our thought, messages to others through various methods or means like written, verbal, or nonverbal.

The main focus here is that the listener should understand our message as we want them to understand. It is needed to establish long term relationships for smooth working.

After working with thousands of students and a lot of research I have developed 3 secrets to improve communication.

The 3 secrets are:-

1. Use KISS don’t KILL
2. Put you before me
3. Follow P3 formula

Secret 1-Use KISS don’t KILL

Here KISS means KEEP IT SHORT and SIMPLE and KILL means KEEP IT LONG and LENGTHY. We should keep our conversations short and simple because it is better to understand and major points are never missed out.

Wherein, If we keep our conversation long and lengthy people may become uninterested. It may also lead to pointless conversations resulting in missing of main points.

While we are keeping our conversations short and simple, we need to take care of certain other points which are as follows:

• Give complete information – We should give complete information so that no important information is missed out.

• Give correct information – We should give authentic data to avoid any miscommunication.

• Innovate the information presented – Information should be presented in an innovative manner for better engagement as innovative and interesting things hold people’s interest.

• Speak what you believe – We should convey the message which we believe in, as it will make us confident.

• Understandable language – We should use the language that listeners can understand, avoid using advanced vocabulary or phrases as they will complicate the conversation.

• Make sure you are understood – During the whole conversation looks for ways to clarify that listeners are understood. If needed rephrase the important point to assure that the message has reached the listeners.

• Make sure you know all – This is the most important point in all to make sure that we have full knowledge about the topic we are about to speak on because incomplete information is dangerous.

If the above points are taken into consideration the outcome will be what everyone wants which are:

• The fillers like hmm, hum, uh which are useless words, have no power, and indicates less confidence will be eliminated from your conversation.
• Listeners will remember the message as short and simple things are easy to be remembered.
• The ultimate result which anyone wants is we are reachable to many, as easy things are understandable by all as compared to complicated things.

Secret 2 – Put you before me

This is the secret which is very important as everyone wants to have things according to them. Here you mean the listener and me means the one who is speaking so, speak according to the listener. We should make sure that we talk, speak, and react the way the listener wants us to do.

When we do this kind of conversation we need to take care of the following points:

• We need to have a conversation rather than silence for which we have to try to have a two-way conversation to make it interesting. Avoid silence for a long time as it may break the engagement with listeners but taking pauses is ok.
• We need to be engaged and be active listeners to understand what the listener wants to know as it will help us to understand what we should say.
• One of the most important things is to give respect to listeners so that they can respect us. We can do so
• By using courteous words like please, thank you.
• By using courteous actions and positive gestures like nodding.
• By using courteous body language to better connect like a smile, eye contact, hand movements, or facial expressions.
• While doing all the above things we should also take feedback as it will give us an understanding of how much we have reached the listener. Feedback can be in various forms
• Verbally by asking questions.
• Gestures by nodding or smiling.
• Written feedback with the help of forms. It is the most recommended one as these can be referred to in the future by us to improve our presentation.

When we do take care of all the above points the outcomes will be the one which every speaker wants.

The outcomes will be:

• We will have a better understanding of listeners as it will help us to have better information about the listener’s needs and the message will reach the listeners.

• The conversation will have a lot of positivity and we will have a better rapport with the listeners.

• The message will be conveyed effectively to the listeners.

Secret 3-Follow P3 formula

This is the formula if not followed rest two secrets won’t work because this is not something that will happen suddenly or in a day.

We need to do it regularly and here the formula says:

• PRACTICE as much as possible by doing it regularly to develop a habit. We can practice for 30 minutes daily for the best results.
  

• PLAY to have fun as enjoying what we do is very important and the element of fun can be added by inventing games like doing commentary, dumb charades in English.
  

• PERFORM to develop by putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations to know how much we have learned. This can be done by participating in various activities like Debates, Competitions, Presentations to get better at it.

If secret no 3 is properly followed using secret no 1 and 2 we can get the best results within 30 days. These are the only things which have helped a lot of people to get better at business communication. This has resulted in growth in life for them.

Now, You know the secrets, steps so do not wait just start it today or it will never happen because it is correctly said “Do it now or never”.

The quote below fully explains all:

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy