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Overview-Communication Skills-Lecture Handout, Exercises of Communication and Presentation Skills

Communication is a process, which involves sharing of information between people through a continuous activity of speaking, listening, and understanding. Communication is important factor in business management. This lecture includes: Overview, Smart, Listen, Active, Thinker, Effective, Planning, Organising, Result, Produce, Thinking, Flawed, Future

Typology: Exercises

2011/2012

Uploaded on 08/07/2012

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Communication Skills MCM 301 VU
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
193
Lesson 45
Overview
Having had a good thorough study of Oral and Written Communication techniques, which spread over
44-lectures, the students should finally be in a position to understand the importance of effective
communication in their personal and professional life. Starting from the first lecture, which delved on
knowing about “self concept” and “self image”, and ending on the note of having a “self-assessment”
made before drawing your future roadmap (or writing your resume for the job search), the students are
advised to start focusing on some of the lessons they could learn from this course. Although these could
be numerous, depending on how you look at, a few that could be mentioned in an overview are:
1. Becoming a smart thinker;
2. Being an active listener; and
3. Becoming an effective speaker.
Making a great change in your life would depend on how smartly you employ all the tools and techniques
you learnt for good planning and organization in communication. Do not forget we all are born with the
ability to think, listen, and speak, but what will make a difference in our lives is how skilled we are to be
effective. Therefore, few things you could start doing from today is:
1. Think smartly
Finding your identity, being aware of one’s capabilities and limitations, defining one’s goals and
objectives, sorting out one’s priorities, and organizing oneself to produce results require giving a serious
thought by asking yourself questions like:
Who you are?
Where am I?
Where do I stand professionally?
What are my strengths?
What are my major problem areas? And so on.
Remember, if you have no concept of your identity, then you have nothing on which to build your plans
for the future. A lack of identity often results in a lack of direction. You must know your strengths and
weaknesses; otherwise the process of defining your goals and working toward them would be flawed. So,
start thinking now. Thinking seriously and smartly.
2. Listen actively
Of the various ways we interact with people, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, nearly 42% of our
waking time is spent in listening. A good communicator needs to be a good listener; otherwise barriers
occur and affectivity suffers.
It is important, therefore, that of all the levels of listening discussed so far (Active, Passive, Partial, and
Preferential listener), one should develop skills to become an Active Listener. Understanding the listening
process is of paramount importance which is: Receiving; Filtering; Understanding; Remembering;
Evaluating; and Responding. Don’t forget that the most crucial phase in the listening cycle is the
“remembering”. We tend to remember only half after listening, and that too not what was said, but what
we think was said. Memory for speech is not reproductive, it’s reconstructive. Acknowledging these facts,
start developing attentive listening skills, i.e.
-Keep an open mind. Listen non-judgmentally. Recognize your own biases. Welcome new
viewpoints rather than resisting them.
- Be motivated to listen
- Be alert to nonverbal cues
- Listen with a goal in mind
- React to the message, not to the person.
- Listen for supportive ideas without personal prejudice or bias.
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Lesson 45

Overview

Having had a good thorough study of Oral and Written Communication techniques, which spread over 44 - lectures, the students should finally be in a position to understand the importance of effective communication in their personal and professional life. Starting from the first lecture, which delved on knowing about “self concept” and “self image”, and ending on the note of having a “self-assessment” made before drawing your future roadmap (or writing your resume for the job search), the students are advised to start focusing on some of the lessons they could learn from this course. Although these could be numerous, depending on how you look at, a few that could be mentioned in an overview are:

  1. Becoming a smart thinker;
  2. Being an active listener; and
  3. Becoming an effective speaker. Making a great change in your life would depend on how smartly you employ all the tools and techniques you learnt for good planning and organization in communication. Do not forget we all are born with the ability to think, listen, and speak, but what will make a difference in our lives is how skilled we are to be effective. Therefore, few things you could start doing from today is: 1. Think smartly Finding your identity, being aware of one’s capabilities and limitations, defining one’s goals and objectives, sorting out one’s priorities, and organizing oneself to produce results require giving a serious thought by asking yourself questions like: Who you are? Where am I? Where do I stand professionally? What are my strengths? What are my major problem areas? And so on. Remember, if you have no concept of your identity, then you have nothing on which to build your plans for the future. A lack of identity often results in a lack of direction. You must know your strengths and weaknesses; otherwise the process of defining your goals and working toward them would be flawed. So, start thinking now. Thinking seriously and smartly. 2. Listen actively Of the various ways we interact with people, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, nearly 42% of our waking time is spent in listening. A good communicator needs to be a good listener; otherwise barriers occur and affectivity suffers. It is important, therefore, that of all the levels of listening discussed so far (Active, Passive, Partial, and Preferential listener), one should develop skills to become an Active Listener. Understanding the listening process is of paramount importance which is: Receiving; Filtering; Understanding; Remembering; Evaluating; and Responding. Don’t forget that the most crucial phase in the listening cycle is the “remembering”. We tend to remember only half after listening, and that too not what was said, but what we think was said. Memory for speech is not reproductive, it’s reconstructive. Acknowledging these facts, start developing attentive listening skills, i.e. - Keep an open mind. Listen non-judgmentally. Recognize your own biases. Welcome new viewpoints rather than resisting them.
  • Be motivated to listen
  • Be alert to nonverbal cues
  • Listen with a goal in mind
  • React to the message, not to the person.
  • Listen for supportive ideas without personal prejudice or bias.
  • Don’t get angry
  • Remember it’s impossible to listen and speak at the same time.
  • Try to get into the other person’s inner frame of reference.
  • Listen for speaker’s main ideas and concentrate on their meaning. Take advantage of your brainpower.
  • Do not jump to conclusions. Listen for facts before forming your opinion.
  • Ask questions. Show your interest and attention. Keep them pertinent to the speaker’s frame, not yours.
  • Listen with the heart as well as with the head. 3. Speak effectively How to be an effective speaker, a good negotiator, and an impressive communicator? Answer to all these questions lie in the various aspects of a good speech. And a good speech is how skillful the speaker is. Of the various techniques we discussed in our lectures salient components of an effective speech are the: - Speaker
  • Message
  • Audience
  • Channel
  • Feedback
  • Setting The speaker One of the major components of any speech or presentation is the speaker himself or herself. Many presenters, while using visual aids, forget that they are the presentation and not the visual aids. They tend to put too much effort into the visual aids and forget that those are just aids to the speaker. There are three factors that contribute to a speaker’s affectivity: a. Speaker’s motivation b. Speaker’s credibility c. Speaker’s delivery or the speaker’s style a. Speaker's motivation : It can be approached in terms of two considerations: Whether direct personal reward (monetary compensation) or indirect rewards (feeling good about helping others) are involved. Whether immediate rewards (cash) or delayed rewards (getting a college degree after four years of college) play a part. In essence, one or both of these factors may motivate a speaker. Before speaking you should consider what your motivations are. b. Speaker's credibility : A speaker's ideas are accepted as believable only to the degree that the speaker is perceived to be credible. The speaker's credibility depends on his/her trustworthiness, competence, and good will. The speaker who is well organized will usually be considered competent. The speaker who is attractive and dynamic will be seen as more credible than one who is not. c. Speaker's delivery : The delivery, the way the message is presented, should compliment the speech's objective. A well-written speech delivered poorly can quickly lose effectiveness. The message The message refers to everything a speaker does or says, both verbally and non-verbally. The verbal component may be analyzed in terms of three basic elements: a. Content b. Style c. Structure
  1. pictures
  2. objects C. Aural
  3. tone of your voice
  4. variations in pitch and volume
  5. other vocal variety The feedback By "feedback" the speaker receives information about how his or her message has been received by the listeners and, in turn, responds to those cues. The feedback process is not complete until the speaker has responded to the listener. This process includes the listener's reactions to the speaker's response and so forth. The setting The place in which you deliver your presentation may be one that enhances or interferes with the effectiveness of your presentation. Determine ahead of time what the facilities are like before you speak. This way you can properly plan your delivery or make adjustments, if necessary. 4. Write purposefully Good writing style is important to good communication. Communication happens only when you write something that somebody else reads and understands. For this, you must use words and concepts that mean the same thing to you and to your reader. In other words, you must adapt your writing to your reader. Here again, good writing proceeds from clear thinking (or smart thinking?) – thinking that gives importance to the reader, not to you. To write purposefully, don’t start writing briskly with the hope that your thoughts will somehow clarify themselves by the working of the magic of words. It won’t happen. There is no such magic. You have to spend a good amount of time practicing: planning and organizing, before you start writing purposefully. Refer back to the exercise of going through the following four steps: i. Determining your purpose ii Considering your reader iii. Choosing your idea iv Determining your content Much of your writing success could be attributed to the quality of preparation, which could consume as much as 60% of the total time devoted to the actual writing. 5. Live happily Communication performs many important functions related to our day-to-day needs. Our success in satisfying our personal needs rests with our skills in interpreting and responding to the communication behavior of other people. In order to gain this skill we must be willing to understand human and interpersonal communication. We must also be willing to understand the underlying causes of human behavior which mostly result from the misconceptions that undermine our communication endeavors only because we think that:
  • We need more communication,
  • Communication eliminates problems, and
  • Meanings are in words. It is important, therefore, to remind yourself of the gainful application of the communication skills and maximize the awards to you and the people in your life. To sum up, the study and practice pf communication should be a lifetime process, and it must ensure a happy and a healthy living throughout.

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