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If you have poor interpersonal communications skills, which include active listening, your productivity will suffer simply because you do not have the tools needed to influence, persuade and negotiate - all necessary for workplace success.
Lines of communications must be open between people who rely on one another to get work done, says Monique Rissen-Harrisberg, CEO of communications skills training company The Voice Clinic.
"You must be able to listen attentively if you are to perform to expectations, avoid conflicts and misunderstandings, and succeed in any arena," she says.
Rissen-Harrisberg has provided a few short tips to help you enhance your communications skills and ensure that you are an active listener.
| 'You must be able to listen attentively if you are to perform to expectations' |
Start by understanding your own communication style.
Good communication skills require a high level of self-awareness. Understanding your personal style of communicating will go a long way toward helping you to create good and lasting impressions on others.
By becoming more aware of how others perceive you, you can adapt more readily to their styles of communicating.
This does not mean you have to be a chameleon, changing with every personality you meet. Instead, you can make another person feel more at ease with you by selecting and emphasising certain behaviours that fit your personality and resonate with him or her. In doing this, you will prepare yourself to become an active listener.
Be an active listener. People speak at 100 to 175 words a minute, but they can listen intelligently at 600 to 800 words a minute. Since only a part of our mind is paying attention, it is easy to go into mind drift, thinking about other things while listening to someone. The cure for this is active listening, which involves listening with a purpose. It may be to gain information, obtain directions, understand others, solve problems, share interest, see how another person feels or show support.
| Our personal filters can distort what we hear |
If you're finding it particularly difficult to concentrate on what someone is saying, try repeating their words mentally as they say it. This will reinforce their message and help you control mind drift.
Use non-verbal behaviour to improve the flow of interpersonal communication. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions such as smiles, gestures, eye contact and even your posture. This shows the person that you are communicating with that you are indeed listening actively, and will prompt further communications while keeping costly, time-consuming misunderstandings at a minimum.
Remember that what someone says and what we hear can be amazingly different. Our personal filters, assumptions, judgements and beliefs can distort what we hear. Repeat back or summarise to ensure that you understand.
To find out more about the programmes offered, contact The Voice Clinic at 021 423 2488 or www.thevoiceclinic.com
- This article was originally published on page 12 of Cape Argus on January 12, 2005
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