Vince Venditti is the Chief Marketing Officer at American Residential Services, a leading air conditioning, heating and plumbing company.
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If you're in business, you know communication skills are super important. But have you ever thought about why? It's simple: Effective communication can help build trust and rapport with your team, allow you to lead and influence cross-functionally, inspire and motivate your team as a leader, and help you grow personally and professionally.
Effective communication helps prevent misunderstandings and conflicts and can ensure that everyone works toward the same goals in a productive and efficient manner.
Communication is more than having the best vocabulary or enunciating your words perfectly. It's a two-way street; listening is just as important as speaking. In fact, the best communicators are not the best speakers but the best listeners. By concentrating on actively listening, you can develop and master productive conversations, build critical leadership skills and cultivate honest, open and transparent relationships professionally and personally.
Here's why the best communicators are the best listeners and what you can do to sharpen your communication skills.
Why Active Listening Matters
Active listening is an essential part of effective communication, and it makes a huge difference in how your message is received and how well you understand others. When you are fully concentrating on what the other person is saying, you're more likely to understand their message.
In a digitally tech-enabled world, getting distracted during a conversation is easy. You may get pings on your phone, emails piling up in your inbox or in-app messages accumulating. Still, it's important to minimize distractions as much as possible to be fully present in a conversation.
Being fully engaged during a conversation demonstrates that you value what others are saying and are interested in others' perspectives. This builds trust and rapport between you and the other person, which is important personally and professionally. When people feel heard and understood, they are more likely to trust you, resulting in long-term relationships and collaborative, productive work environments.
Additionally, active listening allows you to respond appropriately to what you've heard. When fully present, you can pick up on nuances in tone, body language and nonverbal cues that may add meaning to the conversation and help you respond most effectively.
How To Sharpen Your Communication Skills here are several strategies you can use. Here are some:
1. Focus on timing. There is incredible power in being able to time your words effectively. Take advantage of pauses to allow your audience to absorb and comprehend your words.
2. Use nonverbal communication. Pay attention to your own nonverbal cues and observe the nonverbal cues of others. Lean in to show that you are actively listening, make eye contact and use your hands to show that you are engaged and interested in the conversation if you're comfortable and it feels natural.
3. Empathize with others. Empathizing with an employee or teammate can make a difficult conversation easier, and tailoring your responses to the individual or your audience helps to build rapport and trust and can also help to resolve conflicts.
4. Ask open-ended questions. Asking questions can help clarify information and demonstrate that you are fully engaged in the conversation. To help ensure the conversation is productive, ask open-ended questions that encourage discussion and exploration.
5. Use the technology at your fingertips. Technology can be a powerful tool for communication. Use video conferencing, instant messaging and other tools to communicate with others, especially if they are in different locations.
6. Seek feedback. Finally, ask colleagues, friends or family members to provide honest feedback on how you can improve. Take their feedback seriously, and work to incorporate their suggestions into your communication style.
Whether you are a business owner, leader or employee, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively can make all the difference in achieving your goals. The best communicators are those who listen well, not those who talk the most!
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