Though communication skills are essential in all life facets, it has a vital role to play for professionals. A person with good communication skills can maintain good interpersonal relationships with his friends, colleagues, and family members. It plays a critical role for leaders as they have to communicate the vision and mission to their employees. They also need to motivate their employees to achieve this vision. If you are pursuing MBA or any other management education then working on communication skills is essential.

What is communication?

Communication is a two-way process. One is the sender who sends the message to others. The second is the receiver who receives this message, interprets and reacts. And the third, which is very important, is the medium. The medium is the way the message is sent to the receiver. It could be a telephone call, a video call, an email, gestures, or a TV, Radio, or any other gadget. There are two types of communication; verbal and non-verbal. However, some pieces of literature also talk about interpersonal as a third type of communication.

Though verbal communication is vital and significant, even during verbal communication, the audience perceives a presenter 55% of the time. Therefore, it becomes highly essential to improve your non-verbal communication along with your oral communication skills. Here are some tips which will help you in developing or improving your communication skills. 

Tip 1 – Make Communication a priority

You need to know where and which part of communication you are weak at. You can take the help of your friends, colleagues, or family members in identifying one. Once you know your weak areas only then you will be able to work upon those.

Tip 2 – Watch Movies 

Watch movies which may be a model for communication. Watching English movies with subtitles will help you understand how to pronounce a word. Hence, watching movies will help you improve your vocabulary, knowing idioms and phrases, slangs that help a person communicate properly. Once you are acquainted with the words and accents, you can put the subtitles off and see whether you can understand the conversation or not. 

Tip 3 – Read Books / Read Aloud

Books are known as the best companion to anyone, and if I say they can also help you improve your communication skill, then? Yes, you read it right. If you read books and read them aloud, you improve your vocabulary and pronunciation. Inculcating the habit of reading is very beneficial as it assists you in grasping the precise usage of words and their composition in sentences.

Tip 4 – Take help of Technology

Technology is changing rapidly, and it has contributed successfully to improving communication. Today, anybody can become familiar with the best communication techniques through an assortment of accessible Technological resources. Audiobooks, for example, are the best way to improve one’s communication ability as it helps to know the various phrases or words which can help them communicate better. Voice recorders can be used to record your voice, which can be listened to afterward, and this way, verbal communication can be improved. Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. can be used to watch movies. 

Tip 5 – Take part in Group Presentations and Discussions

You should take part in group presentations as and when you get an opportunity. It will not only help you in making effective presentations but also will help in presenting your idea to several people at once. It will eventually help you get rid of the stage fear and improve your verbal and nonverbal communication. Group discussions will help you improve your listening capabilities, improve your critical thinking, and improve framing your sentences in mind. 

Tip 6 – Write Blogs, Articles or Assignments

Writing blogs, articles, and assignments will also help you in critical thinking, framing sentences, and using the appropriate words, phrases, and idioms. It will also provide you a chance to be critically analyzed by external audiences. A blog will also provide you with an opportunity to become known and boost your confidence level. 

Tip 7 -  Try to be surrounded by English Speakers

This is the best way to improve your communication skills as you won’t have any option but to speak and interact with them in the English language only. This way, you will start having command on language and gain fluency over some time. 

Tip 8 – Be a good Listener

God has provided us with two ears, but just one mouth. Therefore, listening is relatively more important than speaking to establish better communication. It is observed that many people in conversation start thinking about how they are going to answer before the conversation gets over, and hence, they don’t collect the full message. Listening is different from hearing as in listening, we concentrate and retain the context, which can be recalled at any point in time. So good listeners manifest answers in a meaningful way. 

Tip 9 – Have a Company with Genuine Critics

Sometimes we cannot improve our communication skills because when we make mistakes and are made a mockery stock out of it by the people surrounding us, we start hesitating in communicating. So better you create a company of people who help you improve your communication skills and correct you as and when you make mistakes rather than those who laugh at you. 

Tip 10 – Keep yourself motivated

Finally, you must keep yourself motivated all the time and keep working on improving your communication skills. Some other methods could be to take classes (online or offline) and find a good coach nearby who can help you improve your communication skills. 

Poddar Group of Institutions understands how important communication skill is for a student. Therefore, it not only conducts soft skills and communication skill classes in almost all the courses, it offers but also has tied up with some International online providers of English communication skills like Pearson and Cambridge.