Soft Skills
1. Effective Listening and feedback
In today’s world, its takes a lot to let someone open up to you. People don’t trust others that easily, thanks to several factors and incidents around us. Usually people around us open up to someone when they feel that the other person is trustworthy enough to invest their time and take a risk in confiding their deepest secrets and inner personal feelings in him/her. Trust is best created by exhibiting genuine interest in the other person. Your actions, words, and decisions to support him/her show how seriously you take their life and decisions. People tend to forgive many things when trust is there.
To be genuinely interested in a person and to communicate effectively, you have to listen to the person without distracting yourself. Engage in eye contact, and observe the reactions of the person while responding to a question or giving advice. Listen to their body language and respond accordingly. Also, active feedback without personal judgments and belief supports greatly in moving the communication in the right direction. Remember: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
2. Reading between the lines
This is by far the most important and key factor in effective communication. Every great leader who was a great communicator was an expert in reading between the lines. They possess the ability to understand, and process the information that is not heard, said or informed. Wise leaders know that there is far more to listen to than non-verbal communication, or para verbal communication. To listen to the unsaid, keep your mind and eyes open, focused, and mouth shut. You will be amazed when you take in more information which will raise your awareness about the subject matter more quickly and in detail.
3. Knowledge and its utilization
You should know what you are talking about. Half baked information leaves you nowhere. Develop a complete understanding of the subject, or topic you are communicating about. Absence of full command over the subject matter will leave the other person disinterested, and you will not add value to a situation or topic. Surface information may be adequate depending upon the audience you are conversing with, but even then knowledge of the subject will let everyone around you listen to you with complete dedication and with genuine interest. Knowledge makes you credible among the audience. Don’t be just a smooth talker. People dislike communicators who are nothing but conservationists.
4. Be Prepared for an ‘alternative’
What most conservationists don’t realize or react to, is how to change course when the conversation is going bad. Always be prepared for the alternative: For successful communication and interaction, its important that you are aligned with those with whom you are communicating with. Your expertise, listening ability, care, respect, trust and empathy should have the right desired effect. If its not striking the right cord, you need to make the right impact by changing things on the go. e.g. questions, humorous stories, relevant data information or bold statements to keep a person or group of people’s mind up and connected with you.
Remember: for a great conversation and effective communication, you are not supposed to ‘assume’ anything. Make sure your message is conveyed across the room and there is no opportunity for people to loose focus.
Effective communication’s key factor is to support and help others by meeting their requirements, understanding their concerns, and adding value to their already built up mind. This is the only way to move forward in the right direction.
Fajad Khan works as a "Sales Leader" for Building and Infrastructure Technologies at SIEMENS. He carries with him an extensive Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Recruitment and Training Expertise, which spans more than a decade, covering America and the Middle East. In addition to his 'Clark Kent' job, he supports start-ups with winning strategies and ideas to make a niche in the market.