Article published on LinkedIn.com: June 21, 2023

05_communicationg_062123.pdf

CommunicatinG

No matter what your age, background, or experience, effective communication is a skill you can learn.

Developing good communication skills is an important part of living a fulfilled life.

Effectively communicating your career, personal, and everyday needs in a way that comes across clearly, persuasively, and thoughtfully is crucial. Even so, not everyone knows how to communicate.

Knowing how to communicate well is not innate, and many bright, talented, and dedicated people do not get where they should, all because they fail to adequately communicate their points. With a little self-confidence and knowledge of the basics of good communication, you would be able to communicate your message effectively in both conversations and presentations, in all walks of life.

Communication is the process of transferring signals/messages between a sender and a receiver through various methods, such as written words, nonverbal cues, and spoken words. Communication is the mechanism we use to establish and modify relationships.

Communication is selling; after all, we are all selling something. Some of us sell products, other ideas. Some will sell a viewpoint, and surely we all sell ourselves. At every stage of our private lives or careers, whether it be management, sales, training, education, politics, church, home, or parties, we are all engaged in selling something. 

Moreover, the idea of selling can be used interchangeably with the idea of persuasion and reaching an agreement.

So, if communication is selling, then what we want is for our listener to ‘’buy in,’’ to agree. We want to influence him, or her, to make a decision in our favor. Our listener will base his, or her, decision primarily on how he or she feels about us, on information received at an emotional level, and on whether we have made emotional contact.

The first thing to understand about communication is that we are all selling something. The second and even more crucial thing to understand is that people buy emotion and justify with fact. 

The attitudes you bring to communication will have a huge impact on the way you compose yourself and interact with others. Choose to be honest, patient, optimistic, sincere, respectful, and accepting of others.

Honesty is always the best policy. You will never regret being honest. It sounds like the simplest thing in the world, but being truly honest with others and with yourself, can be a real challenge. Communication is also about being sensitive to other people's feelings and facing uncomfortable truths about yourself. This usually requires lots of patience, vigilance, and hard work.

Patience is never easy, but it is probably even harder now than at any time in history. In a world where messages can be sent across the world instantly, seemingly everything is available with a few clicks of the mouse. It is very hard not to expect instant satisfaction.

Nevertheless, patience remains a valuable tool in life. Fortunately, patience is a virtue that can be cultivated and nurtured. It does take time to fulfill this goal, but once this has grown into an ordinary skill for you, you certainly will not be disappointed at what life can offer you with a little patience.

Optimistic people are the real communicators. Seeing only the pessimistic aspects of any situation can cause you to miss opportunities, neglect problems that need to be solved, and fail to take action that would otherwise improve your relationships and quality of life.

Always assuming the worst can have major negative consequences on your life. In fact, studies show that pessimists are more likely to develop chronic illnesses later in life than optimists. Optimists look for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sincerity is all about being genuine, having faith and trust in yourself, and just being rather than trying to project something that you are not. No other formula exists for sincerity than to be sincere.

Respect should be incorporated into your everyday lifestyle and be part of your regular social skills. You should always remember that it takes respect to earn respect.

Being respectful tells people you not only care about others, but you care about yourself. Respect is shown in many more ways than by just using please and thank you. Listening and responding intelligently and seriously will show a great amount of respect.

Accepting others is the most important value in the communication process. We can find it challenging to accept other ways of life and rituals.

However, closed- mindedness and intolerance are not helpful, especially when there is so much we can learn about other cultures. Learning to accept and respect them is an important step that opens your mind to the world around you and everyone's unique differences.

Remember that the wonderful thing about character and integrity, which are intimately related, is that they are some of the few things in life that no one will ever be able to take away from you force ably.

Also, in the same chapter you can familiarize yourself with questions, reflections, and answers about:

Should I be sensitive to other people's feelings?

Can I develop effective listening skills?

What determines my personality?

How can I have the courage to say what I think?

Do men and women communicate differently?

How can I organize my communications?

How do I make eye contact?

Should I be aware of what my body is saying?

What are others seeing?

Should I be aware of conversation pointers?

How can I have great conversations?

What about nonverbal communication?

How can I address an audience?

How can I communicate with children?

How can I achieve effective inter-generational communication?

How can I reach a consensus?

How can I be polite?

How should I Apologize?

How can I forgive?

Do you want to live a long, happy life?

How can I make my personality stand out?

How can I expand my vocabulary?

What should I consider?

Change Your Future, Now!

This 642-page book is the result of a four-year project called Project Tomorrow. During the four-year period, we followed more than 500 trainees, aged from 16 to 72.

The trainees were from colleges and reinsertion programs in administration and computer science. Some of the trainees that were implicated where dropouts from school districts, and others were new immigrants or unemployed workers from different economic and social backgrounds.

To graduate, the trainee had to perform during a period of three months in a business environment. At the end of that time, an appreciation evaluation was performed to determine both the amount of change the trainee experienced during the period and the impact of that change on the trainee.

Many of the questions, reflections, and answers presented in this book are issued from our findings during this period. We would like to thank all the trainees for their efforts and determination during the process.

In a nutshell, to change your life for a better future, you will need to be completely open and transparent as you look inside yourself to answer the tough questions about what you think you need to do to succeed in life.

To help you to develop a clear and detailed program, for your personal growth and happiness in life you will need Change Your Future, Now!

The book through questions, quotes and reflections provides the necessary elements to explore your soul, to find out who you really are, what your true passions are and how you can become more efficient and effective, so you can shape your life.

This 642-page book is the result of a four-year project called Project Tomorrow. During the four-year period, we followed more than 500 trainees, aged from 16 to 72. It is also the fruit of forty years of experience acquired with local and international organizations and companies and during consultancy, change management, transition, and marketing services. For more information go to: www.webtechpublishing.com .

About the Author In addition to writing, Germain Decelles acts as Change Management Strategist. He has over 40 years of business and consultation experience with local and international markets, including sectors such as retail trade, distribution, information technology and communications, transportation, manufacturing, financial services, and government organizations. Other publications: ISO Pour Tous – Le manuel d’information ISO – Le guide de préparation ISO – La gestion du changement en affaires – La gestion de projet d’affaires – Le changement POUR TOUS – Change Your Future, Now! – Mon succès est votre succès – My Success Is Your Success. Press Contact Germain Decelles, o.s.j. WebTech Management et Publication Incorpored

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