Welcome to Enhancing Recovery Part 1.
I'm Dr.
Lynn Brown.
Today's topic is Communication Skills Part 1.
An active communication is a two-way process in which you adapt to the point of view of the other person.
You try to understand what the other person means and feels.
An active communicator gives feedback.
Feedback is defined as providing a response based upon what was said.
It isn't ignoring what was said to state your own point.
An active communicator checks whether the message has been understood correctly.
This means to cross-check with the listener to make sure that what the person heard is what you intended to convey.
An active communicator appeals to those things the other person values.
The adage,
Know your audience,
Applies here.
It is important to speak in such a way that makes sense to the listener.
An active communicator presents ideas clearly and openly.
We know what we want to say,
So we may not remember that the listener may not have the knowledge we have.
So be sure to express yourself in easy to understand words.
Rules of Active Communication.
The sender and the receiver are each communicating with one another.
In other words,
Communication is a two-way street,
Not a monologue.
The sender has a responsibility to ensure that the message has been received.
It is not enough to speak.
We need to make sure that the listener has actually heard and understood what we were attempting to communicate.
More than one method of communicating may have to be consciously used in order to get the message through.
There are three ways we learn hearing,
Seeing,
And doing.
So you may need to find ways to share what you want to communicate that are helpful to the listener that you normally wouldn't feel the need to use.
In order to speak effectively,
You must listen effectively.
Listening is something most of us don't do a very good job with most of the time.
Our minds wander or we start deciding what we will say in response to what the person is still talking about.
Be sure to concentrate on what the person is saying,
Working on attempting to really understand what they are trying to communicate.
Tips for Active Communication.
For each of these tips,
Determine how good you are at it and give some thought to what you can do better.
1.
Concentrate.
2.
Listen for key points.
3.
Have a purpose for communicating.
4.
Use eye contact.
5.
Indicate listening non-verbally.
6.
Ask open-ended questions.
7.
Check understanding using restatement and questions.
8.
Become comfortable with silence.
9.
Don't interrupt.
Let yourself get distracted or focus on your own response.
Copyright 2017,
Lynn Baranus-Brown,
Published by Best Life Publications.
No part of this audio recording may be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner.
