TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Many social scientists believe that humans are different from animals because we developed language and communication, and that these are the hallmark of Human development. As language and communication advanced our ancestors were able to combine their ideas and experiences with one another and this nurtured the evolution of culture, religion, and science.

Although speaking and communicating is innately human it is often mysterious. In fact, our historic predecessors believed that language and communication were awesome gifts from the gods; the Greek god Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth, and the Roman god Mercury were considered to be the givers of speech, language, and communications.

Communication deserves to be understood as more than a mysterious gift from the gods. We need to answer the question 'what is communication?' Communication stems from a Latin root communicare ‘to make common’. Essentially, communication means transferring ideas, thoughts, desires, etc. from the privacy of ones mind to a common place where other people can share them. But communication is more than speaking. Linguists claim that spoken words are only 7% of communication and that body language, facial expressions, tonality, and style constitute the rest of the 93%.

To account for the 93% of nonverbal communication and to successfully communicate, motivate, and educate we will be greatly helped by focusing on these three points:
· Be clear about the purpose of the communication. By knowing your goal you will organize your thoughts and align your body language and tonality to support your words.
· Be aware of your audience. Keep your attention on the audience and on what you hear, see, and feel from them. Effective communication is a sharing, an exchange that flows back and forth. If you are too internally involved you are perhaps speaking, but not communicating.
· Be flexible. By attending to your audience you may discover that they are misinterpreting or misunderstanding your words and ideas. Keep adjusting your communication until you are convinced that they are hearing what you are intending.

Additionally, effective communicators use the following guidelines:

· Communicate to your listening audience. Understand your listener, get inside their head. To ensure that your message is heard, communicate by expressing your message from the point of view of the other party.
· Communication is most successful when you can abandon your ideas of ‘the proper way’ and look at the world from the eyes of the person with whom you are communicating. Your audience will listen and absorb your information when you present it in their terms.
· Communicate to your audience using their goals, interests, experiences and background as your references.

Finally, powerful communicators consistently implement skills that build rapport and respect, and ensure clarity. They develop and practice:
· Listening skills. Many people in a conversation aren’t really listening. Person B is already preparing responses to person A while person A is still talking. Listening is requisite for an exchange of ideas.
· Paying attention. They know how to focus on the other person, notice their speech, their body movement, their inflection and volume.
· Eye contact. Keeping eye contact with the other person will help keep your attention on them. It also stops your mind from wandering.
· Mirroring. Mirroring is a method of creating similarity, building rapport; a sense of liking. You become a mirror reflecting the body language, speech style and vocabulary of the other person. DON’T BE OBVIOUS. This is a subtle reflection.

Remember, when you communicate your whole body and minds are delivering a message, not just your words. Communicate to your listener. Develop listening and rapport building skills, and be alert, aware, and improving yourself through practice and study.