Communication skills for StudentsHave you read
story of jackal that fell into washer man’s tub and was colored blue? Here I narrate it once again.
Once upon a time there lived a jackal that strayed into a city in search of food. He was hungry and was being chased by a group of dogs. He accidentally entered house of a dyer and fell into a vat of indigo (blue), and was stained blue from head to toe. When he escaped from house back into forest, all animals were surprised at his appearance and could not place its identity. Taking advantage of situation, jackal decided to play situation to his advantage. He proclaimed that he was Fierce Owl, sent by king of Gods, Indra, to earth to guard forest.
The gullible animals believed jackal. The jackal then appointed Lion as his Prime minister, tiger as his guardian of bedchamber and elephant was made doorkeeper. He then drove all jackals out of sight from forest for fear of being recognized. The animals would hunt food and bring it to self-proclaimed king and king would distribute food to all equally just as a king would do. So he was leading a life of luxury. One day a herd of jackals were passing by, howling to their glory. Unable to control his natural instinct, Fierce Owl showed his natural voice and howled at top of his voice. Hearing this howl, animals realized that they had been fooled by a jackal and killed jackal instantly. Had he not opened his mouth with out giving proper thought, he would not have been killed.
No body knows what you are till time you communicate with them. Your success or failure is entirely dependent on what impression you leave on others when you communicate with them.
Communication can be categorized as verbal and non-verbal even your gestures and body language can speak a lot and will be discussed in a later chapter. Here we will be talking about first type and we will broadly discuss skills about which you, as a student are more concerned.
Good Communication Skills are essential
Being an effective communicator takes real skill. Communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. They are heart of interpersonal skills and greater your awareness of how it all works, more effective your communication will be.
To be effective in interviews or practical examinations you have to communicate well. Here we look at basic communication dynamics, learning skills to improve your communication, using effective communication to improve your personality and promote interpersonal skills.
Communication Core Skills - The Essentials
Communication is Individual: We’re not all The Same. When you look at communication, there is some thing more to merely possessing good presentation skills. Key for successful communication is to strike a good rapport with whom you are communicating. Everyone communicates differently and sees world differently. The greatest skill you can have in order to instantly and significantly improve you communications skills is to understand other person’s point view and how they see world. Then you can adjust your own communication to take that into account.
You are only one of you. There's never any one right way to communicate. Authentic effective communication always happens when we reply on those things we know to be true about or for ourselves. Remember your personal style probably says more for you that all words you use can.
Interpersonal skills. Everything communicates. Remember! If you aren't clear about what you mean and what your intention is, other person (or people) could easily (and sometimes deliberately), misinterpret what you mean.
What you do matters, as much as what you say. It's now accepted that words account for only 7-11% of a communication. Your behavior will 'read' unconsciously to other people and you can certainly be more in charge of reading matter!
Language is one of most powerful reflections of how we think and feel about others and ourselves. You need to be aware of padding, justifications and excuses you use and whether they are appropriate. You can make a big impact simply by changing some of your language and developing your verbal skills, this way you can significantly improve your communication skills. Communication Cycle: There is a neat communication cycle which will help you to understand how to make communication work better. It means that you can take responsibility for every stage on Communication Cycle. Typical Communication Cycle Spoken, , Heard , Understood , Agreed To, Acted On , Implemented
In a typical communication process one or more of above listed steps may be missing rendering process ineffective and inefficient.
Be aware of where you, or others, tend to fall off cycle, as that is where misunderstanding starts which eventually leads to many problems.
Improving Communication Skills
Attitude: You can change direction of a communication if you change your attitude. There is no one attitude that's 'right' one to have, though being direct and clear certainly helps. Just listen to other’s point of view also and do not have fixed ideas. Be prepared to change your line of argument if necessary. Enough has already been said on attitude in chapter one which is considered adequate for purpose of this book.
Effective Listening and Responding: You can have tremendous influence on a communication as listener and responder. When we get little or no response from listener, we often project our assumptions onto them about what they are thinking (and usually we assume they aren't thinking good things about us!).
Be Positive: Use affirmation and encouragement to get best out of any group that you may become member of. Notice when others do things well (even if it's part of their daily routine). This shows you're being attentive and considerate; most people respond well when they know that others are aware of what they do. This will do wonders for students staying in hostels and becoming members of diverse groups. It is also important to have positive outlook about yourself and your achievements what ever these may be. Essential Communication Skills for students. As a student you have to pay special attention to following skills: - ·Listening ·Speaking ·Writing ·Reading
How to be an Effective Listener? Be kind of listener you want others to be when you are talking. Ask, “How would I want others to listen to me?” That’s how you can be an effective listener.
Speaking
This is most important and most feared of skill. Recent studies show that speaking in front of a group is by far greatest fear of most people. Although fear of speaking is common, studies show that one of most admired qualities in others is their ability to speak in front of a group. Furthermore, other things being equal, person who can communicate ideas clearly will be more successful. In order to speak well in front of any kind of audience one has to plan introduction, main body, concluding remarks, timings and mode of delivery among many of other considerations. The first consideration in planning body of what you have to speak is how to organize main points, but organization of sub points is also important. Arrangement of main points and sub points will help both speaker and audience remember material—the speaker while speaking, and audience while listening.
