There are many things you need to consider communicating effectively. Such as:
- the clarity of your message
- Actively listening to what the other has to say
- Non-verbal communication through body language, posture, gestures and facial expression.
- Tone (how you communicate) and timing (when you choose to communicate)
- The context of what you are communicating (you want to be clear and share the correct information, you want to get your message accurately across to the other person)
- Empathy and sensitivity to understand what the other person is trying to communicate.
- Feeback of the other person, how they are feeling, and what they think
- Clear purpose
Personality
Your personality plays a role when you communicate, believe it or not. Your personality shapes various aspects of who you are which are then demonstrated when you communicate with others. For example, the style you communicate in, your emotional expressions, your listening skills, how you resolve conflict, the clarity in your expressions, adaptability and flexibility, persuasive skills, nonverbal communication (body language, expressions and gestures), communication preferences, leadership communications, social interactions and your cultural sensitivity.
Recognizing these aspects in your personality enhance your awareness in your communication and allow you to improve your communication skills.
Attitudes and values
Attitudes and values can directly influence your communication either positively and/or negatively. When you have a positive attitude, there is a sense of empathy and you can strive to fully understand what the other person is saying and provide the best possible response.
Attitudes also indirectly affect your body language and tone of speech.
Acceptance of responsibility
Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It is important for effective communication. Responsibility enhances empathy by allowing for a deeper understanding of the impact of your words and actions on others. By accepting responsibility for your communication, you can demonstrate empathy by acknowledging the perspectives and emotions of others. This allows for mutual respect and strengthens bonds or relationships.
Appropriate expression of views and feelings
For effective communication you need to make use of your emotions, feelings and expressions. By doing this you are improving your communication by making it more effective. using appropriate expressions such as facial expressions for your views and feelings you enable others to understand what you think and believe. This is important because you need to express this in the right way for effective communication
Respect for others feelings
By respecting the feelings of others, it allows for more effective communication. This is because you can hurt one’s feelings if you communicate in the wrong way. You need to think about how they are feeling because you don’t want to hurt them by accident or make a situation worse. If you respect others, they will respect you. Try putting yourself in their shoes to gain their perspective and feelings in the situation.
