Effective Communication Workshop

Communication. You can NEVER overestimate the importance of Communication. Why? As my Communications Professor has stated the most important aspect of society is Communication. How would we live out our lives without communication? How can we understand the world, the people around us, the person beside us without communication?

Usually when people think of communication they think of what we "speak"; the words that come out of our mouths. However, what about the non-verbal communication such as body language? How does body language act as a communication tool?

I attended the effective communication workshop earlier this evening and the title speaks for itself. The workshop was on "effective" communication. It is very, very important that when you're a leader, or thinking of becoming a leader that you can communicate effectively. If you think about all the great leaders (they don't even need to be great they could be powerful) they were effective because of the use of communication to effect the people who followed them.

When I asked the question "how does body language act as a communication tool?" I was thinking of computers, text messages, MSN, the internet. How hard is it to interpret a text message without the tone of voice or the body language? How many times have you found yourself questioning if someone was mad at you or not just by a few typed words in a message? I ask these questions because you tend to think passively about how important communications is in your every day lives.

The workshop touched upon the skills of becoming a good and effective communicator by not only applying certain skills such as appropriate tone and speed but also certain common things to avoid such as lack of eye-contact, closed body (crossing your arms/legs), being too quiet and so on. These small things make a big difference when you're communicating and usually you tend not to realize it. This workshop helped to point out all the little things that might seem obvious to us.

Personally, I think that many of the skills and common tenancies in communication is known by most people so I thought of some interesting perspectives on how to make the workshop more useful and more interesting. I think that if we would have introduced the topic of gender roles and how that plays a part in communication. How a female might communicate compared to a male. Can a male read between the lines? When a female says there is nothing wrong, will a male know that that means that EVERYTHING is wrong? These types of differences would have been interesting to look at. Also possibly different communication styles and rules in different cultures would have been interesting to look at. In most of the West it is expected that you respond or reply right after someone speaks to show that you were listening and you're interested in what you're saying. However, in other countries it's a sign or respect to wait a few moments before responding to show you have considered what they have said and taken time to think about it before you respond. How cool is that?!

Overall, communication is developing and evolving and it is very important to always be working on your communication skills whether it be written, verbal or non-verbal it is very, very important.

Take a few moments and think about ways you can improve your communication skills. Test yourself. Next time you have a conversation with someone tune into what you're saying or not saying and how your tone and body language effects the person your speaking with or look at them!

The first step in becoming a leader is the desire.
The second step in becoming a leader is knowing how to communicate effectively!

Have a good day!