6 Essential Communication Skills You Need

Leo from Actualized.org takes us through the 6 essential communication skills you need to master to become a good communicator. Bad communication skills can create problems at work, managing employees, managing a business as well as your personal relationships. Six key areas sum up the most common failures that contribute to communication issues.
What does it take to become a good communicator?
1. Assertiveness – ensuring you communicate in a way that people understand what you’re meaning, what you want and understand what you want.
2. Authenticity – is about being true to yourself. Most people hold back to be polite avoid offending someone and won’t worry about whether their own values are being honored. You need to be clear about what your own values are and be true to yourself and have the courage to go out and communicate in a way to fight for what you believe in. Being authentic takes effort and work.
3. Open Mindedness – is important to look at different perspectives. Other people’s views might be different to your own. Judgement and insistent on your own points of view is a large barrier to open effective communication. You should always allow people the chance to convince you of their ideas or points of view.
4. Empathy – Humans have mirror neurons which allow us to have empathy with other humans or creatures. They allow us to experience the emotion without being in that situation. People like to know that they’re being understood. Without empathy creates a communication block because the person you’re speaking to will think you’re not understanding them or connecting with them on an emotional level.
5. Clarity – communication needs to be clear. Leo states that, ‘Communication is not what you meant to say, but what the other person received.’ It means making it easy for other people to understand what you mean.
6. Listening Skills – communication also requires you to hear back. People like to feel that they’re being listened to and heard.