Having effective communication is a challenge for everyone. You have to be able to differentiate the environment and the background of the people you are talking to. To ensure that the conversation is going smoothly, you have to know your communication weaknesses.
Poor communication will only lead to misunderstandings between you and others. The effort will be in vain, especially if you are in an organization. If you think your effort in communication is not effective enough, here are some tips to solve that issue.
Tips to Overcome Communication Weaknesses
1. Be clear with the topic
Before you start a conversation, you should be able to understand the idea or topic you are going to talk about. Voicing out the unclear topic only invites confusion among everyone. You also don’t have any idea what kind of feedback you expect by telling it to others.
2. Create the communication standard
This applies when you are in a workplace. The communication guidelines will give you a bit of a clear description of how you talk and what topic you should avoid. With the guideline, you can practice yourself to build a strong foundation to talk with anyone else everywhere.
There is a certain interaction that everyone should do or otherwise. It helps you to follow the environment, especially in business. It also improves the perception of other listeners in a very good way. This standard can be applied to verbal and written communication.
3. Use the right media
There are several media to support your communication. However, the usage of each media will be different. For example, a phone call nowadays is for an important and urgent matter. And email? It is a more professional and formal way, especially to ask some inquiries.
The weaknesses people experience is usually because they can’t differ from the media to communicate their concern to other people. You have to control it by setting the urgency of the problems. The media will also give you the right feedback on communication weaknesses as you expect if you know which one to choose.
4. Be an active listener
You can’t communicate well if you don’t know the problem. To know the detailed problem, then you should be a good listener. Listening to other people is very important because you will understand their ideas. People are going to find you again. On the other hand, you can practice through this.
Focus on the problem or topic from the others. You should avoid holding your phone or doing something else while you are listening. Let other people talk until their idea is complete. After that, give feedback based on the ideas and background you have.
5. Maintain more relationship
The more relationships you have, the more people you talk to. It is a good practice to overcome your communication weaknesses. You will get many ideas from them and it solves the problems you might find in your real life.
The diversity of people you meet also helps you to face them better. Each background of people has its style. You have to do more effort by actively engaging with them and understanding their messages.
6. Prepare for a difficult talk
A difficult talk is hard to avoid, especially in the workplace. Some issues might be too hard to understand, but you have no choice. You have to get used to this kind of conversation and get ideas to know the issue deeply.
When you face a difficult talk, you have to be more sensitive. The body language and tone should be neutral, especially for the bad news. If it’s negative, balance it with some encouragement. This element will give the listener ideas or solutions for the problem.
Some communication weaknesses come from your lack of confidence. The key to having strong communication skills is practice. Find more people with different backgrounds, so you’ll be able to control yourself and be empathetic with the topic.