This article is part of the “Career Development and Self-Promotion Tips” series.
In today’s fast world, the most common traits for a good professional are striking personality coupled with excellent communication skills. Most of the young professionals are well versed in technical knowledge but lack professional skills like communication. In this article, we will probe the practical tips to improve communication skills and personality development.
How to improve communication skills?
Many people face this grave challenge; they are highly effective when they are working but struggle when communicating their results across and along with the teams they are working in. This leads to their contributions and achievements go unnoticed. For this very reason, a lot of employees face grave circumstances. Examples are available highly efficient workers got axed just because they were not a good communicator. The communication gap can hurt the employees a lot. As the first thing in your resume employees read is your resume introduction, if they find some powerful words and positive thinking, they consider your resume.
You can improve your communication skills by following these proven tips.
First, listen, then speak.
Those who wait get the fruit. It is imperative that you give respect to the people in front of you. It is proven in psychology that humans want to be heard, their opinion gave significance, and their voices noticed. Listening is an important skill, and you can find many research papers and dissertation examples about active listening and its importance in communication.
So, make sure that you are an active listener and listen attentively to what the other person is saying. Instead of throwing counter-argument, ask for clarifications, so nothing remains ambiguous. You must show with your actions that you are giving importance to the speaker.
Respond don’t reply
If you are asked a question in a meeting, what will you do? If you reply quickly, you might not overcome the hurdle even if you are amply prepared on the topic. So, listen to the question, sit back, take a few seconds to think, and respond in a manner that answers the questions and sets you apart as a thought leader and well-prepared professional.
A lot of people tend to reply very quickly and make mistakes in the process. Give your undivided attention to the communication channel that you are using and respond with a well-thought response. Hasty impulses can often lead to disasters in communication.
Respect the other person
It would be best if you classified the people according to your relationship with them. If you are talking to a CEO via a text message, replying with TTYL, TC or OMG is not a good option. You need to respect their role, personality, and your relationship with them. Whereas talking to your spouse in a robotic professional tome might make her mood a bit cranky, so respect the relationship you have with the other person and respond accordingly.
Notes help a lot
Especially in lengthy strategic meetings where a lot of stuff is being discussed, it is imperative to jot down important things that you can go through later in the day and ask your peers over a coffee if you didn’t understand something. Notes taking also give the impression that you are taking the meeting seriously and have a deep interest in the topic/ agenda.
Body language is the key.
What you say must be complimented with what you depict with your body. Body language is 90% of the communication. Your body is your huge ally when it comes to conveying the message across the room. Where words lose weight, your gestures come into play. Especially in meetings and interviews, if you are saying something very enthusiastic but slouching like a tired person, you will lose your audience.
Check and recheck before you hit send.
In professional and written communications, what you write can favor you or against you. So, before sending that “Send” button in the corner, make sure that you have proofread the document thoroughly and keenly. Once you are done, please give it a quick read again and then send it.
How to work on personality development
No one is born perfect, except a few folks. Everyone desires some traits or needs them to survive or excel at a job. So, to improve your personality, you need to pour in some effort. Invest time in yourself and be vigilant about yourself. You can work on your character and improve yourself by following these easy-to-follow tips.
Read what you want to improve.
The first step is to know what you want to improve or identify the areas where you lack. Once you have made the revelation, the following steps become a bit easy.
The first thing that we suggest is to read. The more you read, the better knowledge you will have about your desired needs and personality traits. For example, if you are a semi-introvert person but your jobs require practical communication skills, you can start reading about how an introverted person improves his/ her communication with clients or in a team. This will be a good starting for you to gather some valuable insights into your desired personality traits.
A mentor can reshape your life.
Find a mentor, talk to him about what you can improve. Your mentor can be your boss, your teacher, or any other person that you admire, and they have a resolute interest in helping you achieve your goals. Mentorship is the quickest path of the self-development journey.
Reserve some time for you at the end of each day
It is essential for self-development to reserve some time for yourself at the end of each day. Ensure that you reflect on your everyday activities, ponder what you could have done better, what you did better, what made you happy, and how you can improve the next day of your life for yourself and the people around you.
Be with people who push you towards success.
To be successful, be around people who value success. Get rid of people who drag you down at every cross-section, instead be with people who feel happy to see you achieving your goals and can help you achieve more in life and have a positive outlook towards life. There is no place for negativity in life. It will only halt you in your tracks towards personality development.
These tips and tricks can improve your communication skills and carve out the personality you desire. Keep working on yourself and always be optimistic.
