Effective Communication Skills

Effective communication skills are the key to your success because there are people everywhere!

Our effective communication live workshops and tools will show you:

Advantages of effective communication Effective communication in the workplace Effective communication techniques Four styles of communication (DISC) Conflict resolution strategies Communicating Using Email Persuasion and sales strategies Non verbal communication

Effective Communication

Effective communication happens largely at an unconscious level... and that's why the most effective communicators of all time paid as much attention to how they were delivering their message as they did to the exact words that they were using. And that's why it's so easy for email to go horribly wrong.

Don't get me wrong... words are critically important to getting your message through loud and clear, but the psychology behind them is more important. And that's why Maximum Advantage is dedicated to combining the latest advances in psychology and linguistics with time tested methods to give you a communication edge that some might consider to be "unfair"

What is Effective Communication?

Our brains do not think in words... they think in symbols. Because of this a person can be fluent in multiple languages, and they do not think in one language and translate into another. They actually think symbolically and then convert the symbolic thoughts into the appropriate language.

Therefore, effective communication is accurately transmitting the symbolic concepts in your brain to the brain of another person or persons. Communication is not effective if you only transmit your ideas. In order to have effective communication, the other person(s) must receive and interpret them as you intended.

The Communication Process

The effective communication process is a six step cycle, and unfortunately the communication can break down or become confused at any step. Sometimes the symbolic message isn't even clear in our own brain, and yet we still expect others to know what we mean! Then the encoding, sending, and decoding phases all provide opportunities for errors and misunderstandings to crop into the process. In the fifth step, the receiver has to filter the message and decide what it means based on their own values, beliefs, filters, and memories. If any of these steps fails, the result is confusion, conflict, and frustration.

Effective Communication Video

Here's a short video that explains exactly how the effective communication process works.

How To Communicate Effectively

Considering how many opportunities there are for communication to go wrong - it's amazing that it ever goes right!

Here are my seven rules for effective communication:

1. Take responsibility for the success of your communication. If they're not "getting it", it's because you're not giving it in a way they can understand. To learn to communicate in ways that people instinctively understand, visit Communication University.
2. Realize that the unconscious mind is your greatest ally. Here's a demonstration. 
3. It's not about you. To communicate effectively, learn to see the world for the other person's perspective.
4. If what you're doing isn't working... do something different.
5. Communication can change reality. That's why advertisers spent $165,000,000,000 last year... and you can have the same impact when you know how. Here's information about persuasion.
6. Every action has a positive intention. You just have to find it.
7. It's better to be successful than right. The world demands results, not excuses.

Effective Communication Skills

Here is a short list of some of the skills that it takes to be an effective communicator. Think about your own communication style and which skills you are strong in and which ones you could do better.

	Listening for facts and feelings to make sure that you interpreting the message as intended.
	Asking questions effectively to guide listeners to solutions.
	Recognizing and defusing the filters people are using when they communicate.
	Creating rapport to smooth difficult messages and build relationships.
	Uncovering the unique values that drive each person and then constructing your message to match their personal system.
	Using non-verbal cues to understand what the speaker really means.
	Finding and replacing the cues that cause the "domino effect" in conflict and confrontation.
	Breaking unempowering belief cycles without directly attacking a belief.
	Overcoming objections by agreeing.
	Building and using stories to make a point without anyone realizing it.
	Replacing destructive patterns such as anger with empowering patterns that get better results.
	Reading the secrets hidden in every email message.