- Communication (listening actively to others)
Although listening and hearing may seem to be synonyms, it is not quite correct. There is some difference between them. When a person hears, it is only the process where ears are involved. When a person listens to something, he or she thinks the information over, analyzes it and makes conclusions.
Active listening is a method used to better understand a person, his or her psychological state. There are several basic features of active listening:
- When a person listens actively, he or she avoid talking;
- It helps to avoid conflicts, because each side tries to understand the other one better. This is achieved by listening an opponent to the end;
- Using different techniques to be able to understand what an opponent wants to say.
As it has been already mentioned above, one of the main benefits of active listening is that it allows to avoid unneeded and unwanted conflicts. Besides, active listening helps understand the opponent’s mind.
There are many kinds of listening. Discriminative listening develops in the early childhood. Comprehensive listening is what we use every day: listening to communicate, to understand the message. Comprehensive listening is divided into several subtypes:
- Informational listening (to receive information);
- Critical listening (evaluating and analyzing information);
- Therapeutic listening (feeling the emotions);
- Appreciative listening;
- Rapport listening;
- Selective listening.
Open questions are one of the techniques of active listening. Open questions are the question where there are only a positive (yes) or a negative (no) answer. Open questions are aimed to specify something that remained uncertain for a listener. Besides, open questions can show that a listener is interested in the topic being discussed.
Every person likes to be listened to. This helps feel more significant. When listening actively, a listener should show his or her involvement in the conversation, as well as attentiveness. Showing attentiveness can help not only get more into the topic, but also show respect to a speaker.
There are several techniques of active listening. When in a conversation, it is necessary to use all of them. To show that I understand someone’s point of view, I would ask open questions, summarize the information that has been just said, and paraphrase.
- Communication (use verbal communication)
- Mediums. There are two kinds of verbal communication: face to face and public. Before starting communication, one should know about the medium. There are certain rules for every kind of medium of verbal communication;
- Sound. Here, sound means the tone a person uses while communicating;
- Etiquette. One should know the basic rules of etiquette in the society where one lives or the community which one will speak to. There may be some restrictions what can be said and what not;
- Words. The right choice of words may save the situation, as well as it may spoil it. One should think about words choice before speaking;
- Language. One should understand what kind of language may be used according to the surroundings and the audience.
- Communication (deliver presentations effectively).
There are five main formats of a presentation:
- Plenary session presentation (which is divided into stand alone presentation and panel discussion);
- Tutorial presentation;
- Workshop presentation;
- Birds of a feather presentation;
- Lightning talk.
- Communication (use written communication effectively).
Written communication is a type of communication between two persons or a group of individuals, where written words are used for conveying the message. In the past times, where there was no Internet, written communication was used for different purposes. However, nowadays, with the appearance of smartphones and jets, people use written communication more seldom. However, there are cases, when written communication is much better that a phone call or a face to face talk. One of such cases is giving long and broad instructions, as well as orders. Besides, written communication is better when the same order or message should be delivered to several people.
Written communication has many features:
- Choosing the type of medium to convey the message;
- Knowing the main idea and the main purpose of the message;
- Knowing the receiver;
- Timing;
- Clearness of the message;
- Proper language use.
The four formats of written communication are:
- Letters;
- Memorandum;
- Reports;
- Circular.
- Communication (use electronic communication - example: email, fax, text message, radio, telephoneetc).
The four different electronic communication systems are: fax, e-mail, social networks, and instant messages. It has been already mentioned above that before Internet and phone connection appeared, people used writing communication. Hence, there are two types of writing communication: formal and informal. Formal communication is the type of written communication based on the set of strict rules that cannot be violated. People communicate formally with the means of emails, official letters. As an example of formal communication may be official letters, repots, feedback. Besides, formal communication may be used between two people who have just met. They do not know each other very well to communicate informally. Informal written communication is not based on such strict rules as formal communication. Unlike formal communication, informal does not have any strict time boundaries. In some cases, there is even no clear purpose for the writing communication. In the past times, chats and text messages have become the main means of informal writing communication. Informal communication is the correspondence between friends or relatives, as well as between beloved ones.
