Good communication skills are essential to living a productive and healthy life. Communication skills allow you to effectively convey your thoughts, sentiments, hopes and dreams. Using them allows people to understand you and vice versa. People who lack communication skills have trouble interacting with others, making friends and moving forward in their careers. They often have a hard time expressing themselves clearly and articulately.
Types
Communication skills can be applied to any form of communication. Common forms of communication include verbal, non-verbal, electronic and written. Communication skills include using the proper words, tone and intonation when conversing. They also include taking the time to listen to (or read) and process what the other person is saying before responding. Properly formatting a letter, knowing properly address individuals and understanding (and applying) the appropriate social rules for the form of communication that you are using are all types of communication skills.
Effects
Utilizing communication skills help to assure that your message is being delivered clearly. Communication skills also help you to convey your message effectively to the listener. If you're speaking to a child and you want them to listen to you, for example, you'll need to get down on their level and look them in the eyes. Getting down to a child's level is a powerful communication skill because it allows you to help the child focus on what you are saying and helps to assure that you have the child's attention. Understanding body language can also help you to decipher a message. For example, if a friend is crying but says there is nothing wrong, reading her body language would tell you that something is indeed bothering her.
Considerations
You'll need to use different communication skills when communicating with different people. If you're speaking to someone who has a different native language, for example, you may have to speak more slowly and use clarifying words. Different cultures also have different styles of communication. While Americans greet each other with a handshake, in other countries like China, it may be considered a faux pas.
Warning
If your verbal and non-verbal communication does not line up, miscommunication can occur. For example, if you are scolding a child for hitting his brother, but at the same time hugging him and playing with his hair, your message will become garbled. Your body language, physical cues and words and tone must match up with each other for your message to be delivered clearly and effectively.
Prevention/Solution
You can prevent miscommunication by using your communication skills and common sense when communicating. While it is commonplace to relay messages by email or text message, some topics should be off limits to electronic communication. Since you can't see the person who is speaking and electronic messages are often filled with shorthand and punctuation errors, it can be hard to decipher the true meaning behind the words. Sarcasm will often be mistaken for seriousness and a lighthearted comment can be misconstrued into hurtful criticism.
