Ever wondered, what if we are not able to convey our message to someone? I mean to say, what if you want to say something to someone but you can’t, and even if you say they don’t understand? Quite frustrating, right? We all know that “communication skills” is the key to interacting with each other; if there was no communication, there would be no understanding or flow of things.
The same is applicable to corporate life as well; if you’re good at Communication (not just speaking and hearing), real Communication is more than that. So, where was I? Yes, when you are good at Communication, you can grow personally and professionally because it will be easier to understand things, convey the primary message to anyone, and remove any misunderstandings.
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We regularly come up with new topics that will surely assist you to improve your soft skills, as you must already know the importance of soft skills and how are they helpful to make you grow professionally. Communication comes under that category, so we will be discussing many things.
In this article, we are going to discuss many effective communication strategies.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started with a basic question:
Table of Contents
What is Communication?
In very simple words, you can define communication as a process of exchanging (sending or receiving) thoughts, ideas or messages through verbal and non-verbal methods. For instance, when you say something, and someone listens to what you say, they respond back, and then you listen; this is two-way communication. It could be done through sign language as well.
Now, you must be thinking, you already know what Communication is, but is this really a big topic to write an article on?
To be honest, yes, communication is a vast segment of soft skills that can entirely change your persona and aura. If you’re good at communication, you can not only manage a team but can be a good leader as well. Good communication is otherwise known as effective communication.
Don’t know what that is? Well, let’s talk about good communication skills.
What is an effective communication?
I will first start with a basic definition; when it comes to communication then, it is a process of exchanging information, whereas in context, effective communication is a process where the primary aim is to achieve desired outcomes by making sure the engagement, understanding, and clarity are among all the human/parties involved.
Wait a minute:
How is Communication different from Effective Communication?
A lot of people who know the value of good communication skills often look online at the difference between communication and effective communication.
If you’re one of those people, then here’s some good news: in this section, we will learn about the critical differences between communication and effective communication.
Let’s get started.
Aspect | Communication | Effective Communication |
---|---|---|
Definition | It can be defined as a process of exchanging thoughts, ideas, or, say, feelings with humans. | It can be defined as a process of communication in which the intended purpose of communication is achieved with clarity. |
Focus | The communication focuses on exchanging general information. | Effective communication focuses on the achievement of desired outcomes with clear message delivery. |
Objective | The main objective of communication is that the message is delivered or transmitted. | While for effective communication, the objective is that the party clearly understands the message and no confusion is there. |
Characteristics | The clarity, relevancy, or consistency may lack. | Effective communication is all about clarity, relevancy, and consistency of message. |
Outcome | It can not always achieve the desired outcomes. | The communication is effective only if desired outcomes are achieved. |
I hope this section was helpful for you to understand the basic and key differences between communication and effective communication.
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Now that you know everything about communication, it’s time to know about:
What are the 13 Tips to Effective Communication Skills?
It is quite clear that if you have good communication skills, you will grow in various ways, both personally and professionally. Now, if you wish to improve your communication skills, then this article is going to help you out because we will be discussing some steps that, if you follow, will help you improve your communication skills and convert them into effective communication.
When you follow the strategies or, say, the steps given below, you will be able to resolve conflicts between you or other parties and can build stronger relationships as well.
Now, without making it late, let’s get started and know about the steps to effective communication skills.
Active Listening
If you wish to be someone who is really good at communication, then you need to be good at active listening because communication also includes listening. In short, if you are not properly listening, you are not getting the point, and so you won’t be able to reply back because you did not pay attention while listening to the person’s message. When you are fully engaged in the listening process, you will properly get to know what exactly the speaker is trying to convey, and it will be easy for you to connect with the speaker. This is what active listening means in effective communication skills.
One more thing: when you do active listening, you are not just listening to the words; you are also understanding the context, body language, and tone, as all of them make equal contributions.
Empathy
If you want to be heard, make sure you are properly listening to the other person. Likewise, if you want to connect with someone, you need to make sure that the other person is able to connect with you. So, to do that, you need to make a deeper level of understanding, which is only possible if you show empathy to the person. You need to keep yourself in the place of the speaker or the person and feel their feelings, experiences, and challenges; only after that should you respond.
If you do this, you will notice that the other person will have a mutual understanding with you and will surely give you good validation.
Concise Expression
Even if you are saying something good but your expressions are not clear to the other person, then there may be a case that the other person may get confused. That’s why we say that expressions are quite important for any sort of communication.
Suppose you are discussing some ideas or strategies, and when you don’t give proper expressions, your partner or the team will have some issues in properly understanding them, which often leads to confusion and misinterpretation as well.
![](https://growzical.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/quick-way-to-an-effective-communication-1024x1024.webp)
Now, when you follow proper and concise expressions, that will be considered as one of the most effective communication skills.
Positive Reinforcement
When someone praises you or gives you a reward, you feel good, right? Likewise, the same happens in effective communication as well. During or after the conversation, if you keep on giving rewards, praises, or recognition to the parties or, say, individuals, then you will motivate them.
Now, how does it help? Well, it creates a supporting environment and encourages other people to feel valued, which itself denotes your leadership qualities and also strengthens your relationship.
Adaptability
Suppose you are from one culture where certain things are done now when you move to another place where the culture is different, and if you keep behaving just like how you used to, in that case, the mutual understanding may differ depending upon the circumstances. This is where the role of Adaptability comes into play; when you’re adaptable, you’re willing to accept, understand, recognize, and implement the diverse communication norms and styles, which will result in good rapport building.
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One more thing, Adaptability could be both verbal and non-verbal, but anyways Adaptability is and will always be a key contributing factor to effective communication.
Non-Verbal Cues
Words are powerful, but do you know what is also considered powerful? Well, that’s your body language, which includes facial expressions, tone, intentions, gestures, and much more. Sometimes, a lot of communication is done with body language itself, so if you are saying a very good thing with concise expressions but your body language is not supporting you, in that case, you won’t look like a confident person.
No matter what sort of message you are conveying, if your body language doesn’t work with your message, then that might not be considered as effective. It further reduces trust and credibility as well.
Open-Mindedness
During any conversation, when you’re open-minded, that means you’re welcoming new ideas, feedback, thoughts, perspectives, and more. If you wish to be someone that people will inspire, then you need to be open-minded, as it pushes the exchange of communications to the next level, leaving a positive impact on yours.
Alongside, it also promotes the betterment of the relationships and further results in the increment of respect from the person with whom you are communicating.
Respect
Would you ever go to someone where you don’t get respect? You won’t, right? Now, would you participate in any conversation where you won’t get respect? Again, you won’t.
So overall, if there is respect in any conversation, the other party feels valued and respected, and in return, they will do the same.
In short, if you wish to communicate effectively and let people hear you, then you need to show them respect and consideration as well. Once the other party understands that you’re giving them dignity and courtesy, they will get involved in the communication.
Assertiveness
When you want to be a good communicator, you need to make sure that what you are trying to convey is properly done in a respectful and clear manner. If the other person is not getting the concise message with respect, they will lose interest in the communication.
Also, as per the assertiveness point of view, you need to set boundaries along with stating opinions without being aggressive. You have to know how to respect the boundaries of other people as this is going to promote a healthy relationship.
Feedback
When a person wants to get involved in effective communication, then that person must be willing to accept the valuable insights and opportunities by means of feedback. Now, when you offer or give feedback to someone who is in communication with you, make sure that you’re giving constructive feedback in every possible respect.
![](https://growzical.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/importance-of-feedback-1024x1024.webp)
Now, why is feedback required, why is it so important? Well, when you provide constructive feedback, then personal and professional development is done because if you give the feedback and the other person takes it as an open-constructive message, then they will not only respect you but even have more trust in you because you are helping them improve.
Confidence
The word itself says a lot, and when you are confident, the listeners will always pay attention to what you are saying. Why? They understand that you are confident enough to deliver a message or thoughts or ideas to them, and since you’re confident, they will be able to trust you as well.
Talking in other ways as well, when you are confident during any conversation, what you have most is clarity. If clarity is there, the other person will be able to understand your message clearly, and so the communication will be effective.
Clarification
What if you did your best? You are following a good tone and a clear and concise message, and yet you failed to achieve the required outcomes. Well, that might be possible if things were not clear to the other person. We all know the role of clarification, and if there is no clarification, then it might be possible that the other person won’t be able to understand exactly what you are trying to convey.
Now, the thing is, how can we clarify?
To be honest, that’s quite easy; all you need to do is ask questions; if the other person has any confusion with your thoughts or ideas, they will let you know; otherwise, what you can do is summarize everything in between to make sure that you both (parties) are on the same page.
Follow-Up
Last but not least, one of the key skills of effective communication is doing follow-ups. It’s not like calling someone again and again; it’s like questioning the previous discussions (if possible); otherwise, continuing where you left off shows that you’re accountable and attentive.
Apart from this, what you can do is you can send a summary of the conversation or say the minutes of any meeting or feedback to ensure that you both are on the same page. Additionally, make sure to maintain a positive attitude during follow-ups.
So these are some tips that you can follow to communicate effectively.
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However, there are still many more tips that you can follow, which we will be updating in this article regularly, so it would be best for you if you keep checking this article.
Conclusion
If you go through this article, you will get to know what exactly communication is and how it is different from effective communication. We have discussed some tips to improve your communication and convert it to effective communication that leaves a positive impact on yours.
Overall, if you wish to deliver your message to the audience or humans in an effective manner, then you have to follow all of the tips that have been mentioned in this article above.