Effective Communication Skills

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Introduction

An important step to becoming an effective leader is to develop effective communication skills. Communication is the transmission of meaning from one person to another or to many people, whether verbally or non-verbally (Barrett, 2006). Effective communication enables leaders to lead.

Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to covey. As a leader, studying the communication process is important. Communication skills, including the ability to problem solve, work in teams, and adapt to various audiences, are critical in today’s workplace (Levy& Murname, 2004). Since the most successful leaders communicate well, understanding how your communication is working and how it might work better is critical to achieving similar success.

The purpose of this paper is to assess my communication skills and develop a recipe for successful communication that other leaders can use to evaluate their communication skills. I will outline my approach to assessing my communication skills and describe my development plan for improving those skills.

Methods

According to Chambers (2001), communicating is a complex process. The ability to draft a message, deliver it to another, listen for feedback, process it, and continue to communicate in ways that are understood requires skills that take time to develop. The best place to start is to first understand which communication skills need development.

The first tool I used to perform my self- assessment was a comprehensive communication evaluation tool developed by IHC Health Services (see Appendix A). I chose this instrument because I wanted to start my assessment by measuring my overall understanding of the...

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... communicator.

My second goal is to understand the different communication styles and adjust my communication style to the needs of others. This goal will be achieved once I have mastered the art of altering my behavior so that it fits better with another person’s style. This skill will need to be practiced and honed until it is perfected. It will take time to master this skill.

Conclusion

Improving communication skills should be a priority for all leaders. Becoming an effective communicator takes practice. Identifying communication skills to personally work on is the first step in becoming a better communicator and better leader. Great leaders recognize the importance of good communication. Responsible leaders work to prevent communication mishaps and keep the communication flowing throughout their organizations.

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