IMPROVIING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS

    In a Communications course I took recently at the University level,the woman who wrote the text mentioned, that the Five Essential Steps of Interpersonal communication are:  listening skills; people skills; emotional intelligence; appropriate skill selection; and communicating ethically. 

   In the 1990's, I started noticing, my Annual evaluations at work, started to show that my communication skills was the area in which I needed to improve the most.  So I've been concerned about this for nearly 20 years .  Of all the elements listed, I was most excited about improving my listening skills.  I have been guilty in the past, of listening to people with one ear, and looking for the opportunity of putting my '2 cents' in.  So I've changed my behavior and have been really striving to listen to people when they talk to me   

    This begins with looking at them straight in the eye, giving them all my attention, forgetting about what I want to say, and transmitting to them the idea that I really care about what they are saying.  I've been working on this for  quite a while, but I still need n mor improvement.  Learning to listen is a skill that is necessary in order to building the 'know', 'like' and  'trust that is critical in building relationships