One of the most common and widely used training programs is on Effective Communication Skills. While deservedly so because effective communication is extremely important for employees across functions and job roles, there are few key skills or topics that are often missed. If you want to make your Effective Communication Skills Training really ‘effective’ you must incorporate these 7Â must cover topics in Effective Communication Skills training programs
1. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
At this stage you may be thinking that emotional intelligence is a vast topic and it would take too much time to cover the topic. And you are right! However you don’t need to cover the entire content of emotional intelligence. The topics that need to covered are just self awareness and awareness about others. I recommend reading more about Emotional Intelligence here.
Also it is important to incorporate how humans behave under stress and why do they do so. We all know that it’s handling difficult conversations is where most of us struggle. Including EI in the effective communication context can help build those skills.
We have a compete guide on building Effective Communication Skills which you can refer to.
2. ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS
We don’t actual listen what we hear. There are so many sounds coming from all corners. While our brain needs to focus to grasp sounds that we hear, we do miss of many other sounds and importantly the intention of the speaker. Active listening skills is about understanding the communication beyond the sound.
It is about focusing on the message and equally on who is providing it and the body language. It is like reading between the words, you try to understand not only what is spoken but also what has not been. This is a skills worth learning and is a must cover topic for effective communication skills program.
I recommend reading about Active Listening Skills to have more inputs on the subject
3. COMMUNICATING UNDER STRESS
Most of us are troubled by conversation that are stressful and difficult. A normal response by most people is to avoid the conversation or become too aggressive and lose the plot. This is the reason why communicating under stress is an area that must be covered under all Effective Communications Skills training.
4. STORYTELLING
There are numerous research that all point to the fact that storytelling is one of the most engaging forms of communication. We all have grown up listening to stories and stories help us paint a picture of the message. Furthermore it also helps us relate with the emotion.
Storytelling is skill which needs a separate training program in itself. However incorporating some elements of storytelling and helping the participants frame up their own stories will go a long way in making the Effective Communication Skills program much more successful.
5. WRITING ENGAGING CONTENT
Most often we ignore the importance of writing a great content in the communication skills training. If your training program includes written communication, you must include writing engaging content as one of the topics to be covered. This is a skills which is worth having and helps individual a lot in their careers.
6. ARTICULATION OF THOUGHT
Often ignored in Effective Communication training programs, articulation of thought is a must cover topic. Most training programs focus on communicating the message however the bigger picture of clearly conveying the thought process, the idea or strategy is often lacking due to absence of articulation of thought topic.
7. WRITING WINNING PROPOSAL
While a program in itself and often confused as a training required only for sales people, writing winning proposal is actually a skills of conveying the idea in a way that is appreciated by the receiver. This is the most ignore of the must cover topics in effective communication skills program.
Effective Communication Skills a a wide skill area and it requires a lot of concerted effort and gradual improvements to reach high proficiency. Nonetheless the above mentioned topics, if incorporated well in the Effective Communication Skills training will make the process much more easier and overall very effective.
