No matter what you want to be — engineer, doctor, author, crusader, or just a good friend, you will always have to communicate well. There is no escape from it. So we decided to belt out this dummies that will take you through the rules of not just talking but also listening, which is an integral part of communication.
No matter what you want to be — engineer, doctor, author, crusader, or just a good friend, you will always have to communicate well. There is no escape from it. So we decided to belt out this dummies that will take you through the rules of not just talking but also listening, which is an integral part of communication.
1. Listen like you want to listen.
You can’t really fake being a good listener because the audience is very crafty; they’ll know who wants to listen to them and who doesn’t.
How to do it: Be attentive, respond to what the audience has to say and for god’s sake, don’t check your mobile phone while someone is taking to you. It just proves that you are not interested in the dialogue.
2. Take notes, show that you are listening
Simply listening is not important; you also have to prove that you are listening. By doing this, you will make the conversation interactive. When your listeners are convinced that you are listening to them, they will open up to you, confide in you and share instances that will add value to the entire conversation.
How to do it: Make an eye contact, nod, prod, react and acknowledge the point of view, don’t overlook the person talking to you, use a positive body language, look relaxed.
3. Take feedback to check understanding
If there are ten people in the group, five of them may understand what you are saying and agree to it, three of them might not understand (so the question of understanding doesn’t even arise), and two of them might not agree at all even if they have understood you. Such a difference of opinion and understanding will always arise, and the best way to deal with it is to keep checking with the listener if they have understood what you are saying, and whether they agree to it or not. If they do not subscribe to your opinion, you will have to find ways to convince them. There is no way you can call a conversation effective if the listener doesn’t understand the communication in the same manner as you would want them to. So, if you are talking about apples, the audience should also talk about apples, not jackfruit.
How to do it: Ask questions, provide feedback, empathise or sympathise, follow-up on conversation.
4. Don’t play a referee in a conversation
A good communicator never judges his audience, it’s an unspoken rule. If your audience senses that you are judging them, they will never open up to you. Even in life, we never confide in people who play umpire in every situation. If you have to at all give a judgment on something, do it after weighing all the factors and not in a haste.How to do it: Don’t frown at people’s opinion, acknowledge their point of view and tell them you respect every word that they just said, shed your prejudice, keep an open mind.
Expert tips by Jaspreet Kaur, corporate and media communication specialist 