Why are communication skills such a big deal?

Life is about learning, it is not the time that you spend on earth, but the different #ideas and thoughts that you come across, Or the ideas that you create and share make you feel your life.

The increasing quest for #knowledge is the only constant trait of human beings and it is the basis of all developments in science,economics,military etc. This thirst is quenched by sharing of ideas.

Thus sharing ideas makes life worth living. Now Let's deal with the question at hand.

1. Your identity lies in your thoughts.

What makes you unique is the way you think, and to let the world know what your #opinions are about a particular topic, you must know how to communicate well.

2. Makes you the 'social animal':

To have friends and people around, whom you can trust , you must express yourself to them because only after that the person gets a hint of what kind of thoughts you have and does the frequency of your ideas match with their ideas.

3. It makes you learn in a better way

Learning new skills or gaining knowledge is about asking the write questions and then discussing possible solutions to those questions or arriving at new problems. For doing all these things you must be good at communicating.

4. Power

If you are good at communicating and you know how to clearly express your thoughts , then you can control or persuade a large audience, which is called power. Think about the most popular leaders, they have always been great at expressing their thoughts.

E.g.- Martin Luther King Jr, Hitler(negative), Gandhi and more

#Communication is not only about speaking it is about making your thoughts reach the psyche of the receiver.

How do you overcome lack of self-confidence?

Self confidence comes with competence in some chosen field or subject area, and this is amplified when applied in the service of others (meaning when you are value to others in some real way).

What are you good at?

May be you are a nurse, a teacher, an accountant or a doctor. Whatever you are, look at who you help and what impact you have on others.

Knowing that will start making you feel good about yourself (dont compare yourself with others though - that’s a mistake).

And finally, GIVE. Your time, resources or even a bag of meal next time you shop at the grocery store.

It will build a sense of confidence and self-esteem, you can’t miss it.

Agree?

What #strategies have you applied to get better with your #communicationskills ?

While I dont believe I’ve fully “mastered” the art of communication (by that I mean, not just the spoken & written aspects), I do believe I’m constantly getting better, learning something new, from industry peers and those I follow and interact (kids and animals included).

I’d summarize my top 5 strategies as follows:

1) Listen more, but, where possible, be the last one to speak (Nelson Mandela tip)

If you listen empathically to another human being, they will almost certainly be compelled to listen to you in return.

2) Suspend #judgement in any conversation (this one’s hard)

3) Speak not because you have to say “something”, but rather, you have something to “say” that adds value or helps or clarifies a topic

4) #ASK more when you speak (this one is critically important, this alone scores bonus points over the other points above - by doing this, you make it about “them” and not so much about you)

5) And last, but not the least, practice #empathy, being a bit more empathetic in your written as well as spoken conversations.

So what strategies have you applied at work and in your personal life that has helped you?

Comment below.