We all communicate. Then, why not to try to communicate effectively? There are several advantages if you know how to communicate effectively.

- improves your well being and your mood
- you decrease conflict and stress
- improves the social support
- you can reduce hostility
- you can also reduce the possibility to get sick.



Maybe you have others reasons beside these, but it does not matter, what really matters is the importance of effective communication skills. With a little practice you can learn to say what you feel, what you think, and what you want, clear and comfortable. You can learn to say effectively what you like and what you do not, to accept graciously the compliments that you receive, to face criticism, to say no, - all those without inducing  extra stress to your mind and body. And because you will communicate more directly, other people will be willing to “meet” your needs.



There are some simple ways that to improve your communication and one of them is to learn to listen. Perhaps it goes without saying but a good listening is more than just to sit quietly, smile and hear the words of someone. It is a process that requires active participation, openness and receptivity.

1. Ask question for clarification. Behavioral decisions you take in a relationship with someone, are dependent on the information that you have. Ask a question in a friendly way when something is not clear. When you ask questions, you demonstrate your concern and interest. You can ask questions like: “Can you tell me more about this, please?” or “Can you give me an example?” or just say “I do not understand, explain please”.

Some people feel like they are attacked when someone is asking them questions. So, do this gently and supportive. Be careful especially with the question “Why”. For example: “Why are you talking like this?” use instead “Are you mad on something about me?”; or instead of “Why you did not call?” you rather use “You had to much work to do?”

2. Repeat what you heard. From the perspective of the one who is communicating, it is clearly when he does, but from the listener perspective, maybe it is not that obvious because listening is an internal process of the one who listens and then it is needed to “come to life”. Interlocutor’s words are the most vivid proof that someone is listened. If you do not pay attention when someone talks to you, you can not hear the words for real and then you can not reproduce them.

3. Find significance.

Repeating interlocutor’s words it does not always mean that we paid attention to his significance of the communication. Asking the right question you will be able to understand everything.



4. Ask about feelings.

Let your interlocutor to know that you heard about the emotional content of his communication. Listen between the lines. What does he feel but he does not say? You can be empathetic if you wonder yourself : “hmm, what can you feel from this experience?”

The body language (nonverbal communication) can give you many clues: posture, facial expression and gestures, they all emphasize emotions and then you can ask the person directly: “I see your tense, how do you feel?”

Any reason we might have for which communication seems more difficult to us, this should be an sign that there is a skill that can be learned.

Any communication plan must ask the fundamental question “What was the purpose of this organization?”, “What goals it is following?” or “Which are the key – objectives?”. These questions are the basis when you are developing a business plan.

Meanwhile you have to wonder about how much the public knows about your company  and what is their opinion regarding to it.



To achieve an objective point of view in this problem, field research will be needed – most of the times are enough the fast questionnaires on the field or through telephone applied on a representative sample of subjects. In this way you can find out how your company is quoted in people’s minds.



Your goal. How you want to be rated your organization over a certain time – for example one year, three years or maybe to the end of a campaign. Do you want to make yourself known by many people and if so, why is that? Do you have the capacity to handle more clients, customers or visitors?

Audience. Which sectors of the community you go for? For example you go to the local opinion leaders such as parliamentarians, local newspaper publisher or those responsible of the fate of the elderly people. “All the people” or “General public” are too vague expressions. The more specific audience target, the more successful you get. To choose your audience does not mean to exclude everyone but to know better a small group of people.

The message. Try to be as clear about the message you want to transmit. The key – messages are usually simple and rarely involve statements about company policies. You should ask “what reasons would have the audience to appeal to us? The answer should be “because we are the best”, but “why are we good?”, “Because people can trust us”- both are key – messages. It is not always needed to communicate with key messages because it can be incorporated into design of the promotional materials.

The methods. The way you can impress the audience depends on the information you have about it. Think beyond media relations. If your speech is the most appropriate one, then use it. (conferences, meetings, visits, all can be part of your plan). Your methods should always be based on your  information about the target audience.



Budget. How much all this will cost? In an ideal world, your budget will cover all the costs needed to your implement strategy. In reality, you must limit your options. You will not be able to apply everything you thought you would so, use your resources on the most effective methods.

Evaluation. Surely this step will give you headaches, but there is no other way to verify if your efforts were successful. Always save time for this operation. Doing this regularly, you can know when things are not as you want. It is a very good system of prevention which allows you to change your strategy rather than to give your head against the wall.

Remember that the best strategy is the one which is flexible and can change in time.

Here are 10 tips to improve the communication with your child.



Most people read and study more for an exam like to take the driving license, than they do for becoming a parent. Reading and finding out more about the subject of “communication with your child”, will may help you become a better parent for your child. A well informed parent is more prepared to offer his child’s start to succeed in life. Communication between people is a very important subject, so children can benefit greatly if their parents are communicative. Expressing the feelings is essential in relationships, especially in the parent-child relationship. If you do not have children yet, these 10 tips can help you if you live near them.

1. Encourage your child to tell you everything he has on his soul and everything he has on his mind. You will succeed if the discussion start is one of his favorite domains: favorite food, toys, movies, cartoons, video games, sport, etc.


2. Be reasonable with your child. Parents often make the mistake of educating their children when they express their feelings. For example, the child says “I hate my nose” and the father responds “But you have a perfect nose”, in this way, the child is left alone with his problem, which it might become worse over time.


3. Teach your child to be patient and to not interrupt your conversation. A simple technique is to teach your child to touch your hand or your shoulder when they have something to say and wait until you finish the conversation started with another person. Usually the children who interrupt their parents during a discussion, lose the chance to learn about self-control and they will become spoiled because they are used to be answered immediately and therefore they will find it very natural to interrupt anyone, anytime.


4. When you have a conversation with your child, get to their level of height because in this way, the conversation will be more fluent because it is an equal level between you two (a higher one may lead to resistance sometimes).


5. Play with your child whenever you have the opportunity. For example, hide a penny in your hand and ask him to guess in which hand is hidden. These games may seem insignificant, but in communicating with your child, even the small details matters.


6. Play with your child’s toys too because play is the children’s language. If you do this, you will create a strong bond and he will begin to trust you.


7. Invent or read small stories to your child. This will help your child to establish a strong link for learning life’s lessons.


8. Keep the promises you make to your child. Children are often fooled by some promises which are not true. Ironically, adults treat the promises made to children more lightly than the promises they made to other persons.


9. “Sacrifice” your time to interact with your children and focus 100% on them – most parents do not bother to interact with children and this can lead to serious consequences in the future.


10. Develop your child’s imagination by asking questions like : “How do you think we could make the dog’s cage?” rather than to give them immediately the correct answer. Through these questions, the child has the opportunity to find solution and this will help him very much in the future.

How to use nonverbal communication to an interview

When you go to a job interview, you might think that if you are a candidate with the best answers to the recruiter’s questions, you will get the job. In reality, this is not a typical case.

There are studies which say that over 50% of the force of each answer, is given by the body language, while the verbal content means approximately 10%; the rest is represented by paralanguage and intonation. Thus, nonverbal communication is proving to be even more important than verbal communication.

The way that an employer evaluate, begins from the moment you enter the door to the end of the interview. If your nonverbal communication skills are not up to a minimum standard, the answers that you give can almost not even matter.



Nonverbal communication matters

If you go to a job interview with a cigarette in the corner of your lips or chewing gum, you will get few points less since the beginning. The same thing will happen if you are not dresses properly or you are wearing too much perfume.



What is important to your outfit when you have an interview?

You must always present yourself as a professional and to pay special attention to the entire process of interviewing. Clothing should be adapted to the job for which you provide.

What do you need to bring with you on a job interview?

-         a portfolio and / or a copy or your CV
-         a pen and agenda
-         mint candy – for the time when you will enter the building
-         for women: an extra pair of stockings (kept in your purse or in the car), this is a backup for unexpected “accidents”.

Things you can not bring:

-         open phone or if you want you can use the “Silent” profile.
-         Gum
-         Cigarettes
-         Coffee
-         Dirty shoes or any other clothing article which is not clean

While you are waiting to enter the employer’s office.

The way you sit, the way you say “hello” to the secretary or to the interviewer, even how you just wait, all this have impact on the impression that you leave. Be friendly and pleasant, but do not exaggerate. If you must wait do it quietly (no phones) and be patient. Shakes hands with the interviewer – firm, not aggressive or too soft.



Nonverbal communication during the interview

-         look in employer’s eyes for few seconds at a certain period of time
-         smile or nod as a sign of approval (when appropriate) when the interviewer speaks, but do not exaggerate. Do not laugh, unless the employer laughs. Be polite and keep a neutral tone in discussion
-         do not stand for nothing
-         do not sit on the back of the chair, because you will look too relaxed
-         keep your feet on the floor and the back straight when you sit
-         pay attention
-         do not interrupt the interlocutor
-         stay calm even if you had an unpleasant experience in a previous interview, keep your emotions and do not look aggressive towards the employer
-         if you are not sure what to do with your hands, you can keep a pen or your own agenda but do not gesticulate much when you talk about your points of view.

Verbal communication is also important. Remember the manners and do not forget to thank the interviewer for his time. Do not use a too common language with abbreviations and colloquial expressions. Speak clearly and resolutely.

Did you know that almost 90 percent of our communication contains nonverbal elements? If so, I am sure you wonder why the spoken language was invented as long as we use more the nonverbal communication, whether it is about business life or everyday life.



How does nonverbal communication help us? Body language helps us to make a good first impression during a job interview, to run our business successfully , to keep a successful presentation through the captivation of the audience’s attention using nonverbal messages, etc. How? Maybe because we have nonverbally emanated exactly that self-confidence that the potential business partners were searching on us; but the body signal that we can send, can be multiple. You know for sure that body language is the reason for what a face to face selling is more advantageous than selling something through telephone, where we use only 40% of the full communication potential that we have.



Whenever we communicate with others, we react to what is said, heard or to what is seen, but in fact, beside these, there is something else which is important, something that does not have our attention: the language of our body which can communicate as much as 1000 words can.

Along to the well-known aspects of the nonverbal language, I noted few extra below.

The language of silence

Knowing when to shut up should be a human quality, valued from ancient times. Even through silence, people communicate something: approval, disapproval, discretion, reason, keep a mystery, admiration, etc.

A manager appeals to silence as a means of nonverbal communication because:

- disapprove certain views and does not want to argue;
- he thinks that there are some facts, situations, on which is better to let silence fall;
- he does not want to disclose a secret service, a mystery;
- he does not want to harm anyone;
- he appreciate that time can solve a delicate situation;
- he thinks that if he will speak, he will have enemies.

On the other hand, using carefully the silence on key moments (in other words preparing us for listening) we can encourage the speaker to continue or to express his feelings and attitudes that, undoubtedly, he would not have otherwise. Silence is, thus, a powerful tool of communication but it has to be used with skill.

The language of colors

Colors influence the communication. It highlights human attitude towards life and towards others. The color of the clothes used by the manager is telling us few things about him.



Colors and their significance:
Red – sentimental man
Pink – he likes to love, to be loved and to take care of others
Orange – he is good organized and determined to realize the plan that he has
Yellow – he wants to discuss
Green – he likes the change
Blue – he is inventive
Navy – he likes to be the boss and to give orders
Black – he knows what he has to do

The significance of the colors may be different in other cultures. For example: while the black is the color of sorrow in Europe, in China and Japan, white means sadness.

Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) favors communication and the cold ones (gray, green, blue) inhibits the communication. Communication is taking place hardly in case of monotony or a variety of colors.

Finally, everyone is adapting their nonverbal language to his lifestyle.

Here are some tips for an effective parent-child communication.

Be available for your child

-         be aware of moments when your child is willing to talk – before dinner, when he goes to bed, in the car, just be available
-         open discussion, so your child will realize that you care about what is happening with him
-         find time, at least once per week, to spend some of your time just with your child doing something what he likes
-         observe your child’s interests and document about them so you will have common topics of discussion – his favorite music or the activities which pleases him
-         you should initiate the discussions and explain the things you though about rather than to ask him questions



Let your child know that you really hear

-         when your child is telling you about his activities, stop any other activity and listen to him
-         show interest in what he is telling you without being intrusive
-         listen to his point of view even if it is very different then yours
-         let him finish what he has to say before you answer
-         repeat what you heard from him just to make sure that you understood correctly his point of view



Answer him in a way that he will hear

-         your child will get away from you if you become angry or defensive
-         state your opinion without rejecting his opinion, admitting that it’s okay to disagree
-         resist the temptation to create disputes about what is the right thing to do. Instead, tell him “I know you disagree with me but this is what I think”
-         during the conversation, focus on your child feelings rather than to focus on what you feel



Remember

-         ask your child about his expectations from the conversation you both have – he wants an advice, he wants just to be heard, he wants help to understand his own feelings or maybe he wants to solve a problem
-         children learn by imitation; most of the times he will mimic the way you solve a problem or he will face the emotions.
-         Talk to you child – do not preach, criticize or do not say things that might hurt him
-         Children learn from their own mistakes; as long as the consequences of their acts are not dangerous, it is better not to get mixed
-         It is possible that your child to tell you just a small part of what is going on, what he has on his mind. Listen carefully what he says, encourage him to speak and this way maybe he will tell you the whole story



To listen and to discuss is the key to a strong and healthy connection between parents and child. It is very hard to be a parent and to maintain a good relationship with your child when he is at the adolescence age, is quite a challenge... especially when parents are confronted with other problems.

If you wish to enhance your interpersonal relationships you need to improve your skill first and then you will have more successful work relationships. You know that the effective communication is a must work so you have to get started. At first, search for tools and tips for an effective interpersonal communication.



If you work with people, for instance in Human Resources,  you have all the chances that one of these days, you will have to hold a very difficult conversation. You will have to follow some steps that will help you when people need a professional feedback, if you want to provide it.

At the beginning you will have to use a soft entry and do not dive into the “angry” discussion; you are giving this way a chance to the person to brace the feedback.



We are often in the feedback role because others colleagues have complained to us about the behavior, dress, smoking habit, etc and here, you have to not amplify the feedback or even excuse your responsibility for it by stating the problem that the coworkers have complained about you. This will harm the recovery of the person who is receiving the feedback.

The best feedback is simple, forward and straight. Do not beat around the bush. I am telling you this because, for the success in the organization, you will need to address this, as it is an issue.



Receive the feedback with grace and dignity. How?

Try to control any defensiveness you have; often the fear not to get hurt is making people to five feedback to another person.

Listen for understanding and practice all the skills you need  to become an effective listener because using  facial expressions and body language will encourage the other person to talk.

Try to suspend the opinion because after all, learning about the feedback provider’s views,  you learn about how your actions are viewed in the world, about yourself in generally.

Another thing to do is that you must summarize what you hear and reflect about it because your feedback provider will like that you are really listening to them.

When you do not understand, ask question to clarify.

Require examples that illustrates the feedback because you will know, understand, and you will be able to share meaning with the person who is providing the feedback.



It does not mean that the feedback is always right just because a person is giving you feedback; this is because they interpret your actions through their own  life experience or through their own perceptual screen.

You need to be approachable because people are avoiding giving feedback to a grumpier; you show that you are open to feedback through your body language, welcoming manner and through facial expressions.

In just few words, you must remember that you are the only one who has the right and the ability, to decide what to do with the feedback.

The interaction between people is the basis of the communication. Communication is one of the most important aspects of our lives.  We all spend 70% of our time during a day, communicating and that is why we can not even imagine a live without communication, because, perhaps, is not even possible.  There are defined few types of communication depending on the number of participants and depending on the type of their relationship such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, group communication, public and mass communication. Depending of the language, there are another 3 kinds of communication: verbal, nonverbal and paraverbal communication.



For people to communicate face to face, verbal communication is one of the ways to communicate and some of the keys components of it are words, language, sounds, speaking. Verbal communication is made by some language rules because if we would use only words alone, would have no meaning and it is right when I say that only people can put the meaning into words.

Communication is the basis of any relationship, work or anything in this life.  It is important to improve communication skills if we can express ourselves correctly we can succeed more in life.



Here are some tips to improve your verbal communication skills.

1. The use of positive words in order to challenge limited beliefs – you will have to use clear and positive words in your sentences because the words you use or the explanations you give affect the other and determine emotions and thoughts.

2. Telling a story – this is one of the ways through which you let others to understand your message. Beside telling a story, it can be the reading of some quotes or telling jokes; verbal communication through stories has the power to induce the person to relate to what you are suggesting beside the sure thing that the jokes usually are helping people to relax more and are making them to open more and listen to you.  But also here, you need to know that the way you transmit the story, it can affect the thinking, the behavior and the emotions of the receivers. They are able to imagine the experience from the story and this will produce a response. A good story, said in the best way, can give hope to the people who are in need of encouragement.



3. Ask the right question – If you need to get the correct answers, ask precise the questions. It will make the difference because you will invite everyone in discussion to a positive debate and you will also become a good listener.

4. Think and prepare what you want to say – whether you are going to speak with your boss or with your sister, always think before you do that because this way you will avoid the verbal abuse.

5. Reduce the pauses – do not stop often your sentences to add expressions like ah, well, uh, etc. because too many of this will get your listeners irritated.

6. Do not use careless language – talk in ways that allow an accurate description of your thoughts or experience and do not except the others to guess what are you really trying to say; avoid words like never, all, always, every. For instance, when you say to your sister that she never answers the phone when you need to, when in fact this happened only twice, you will attract an argument.

Believe it or not, the communication in any way it is, is the most important for the human existence. Can you imagine the human relationship or even the entire humanity without the communication? It is really important because through this way we can express our feelings, our intentions, our personality, we can exchange information, etc.



There are two important streams in the communication networks which is data communication ( which refers to the computer network, the communication between 2 computers) and telecommunication which refers to the human – to – human communication through the global telephone system, only due to some historical reasons exists a difference between these two.  More then ever, the data communication is relying on the telecommunication networks and telecommunication networks on the computer technology. They are convergent.



Types of networks and network topologies :
- network components
- active network components
- the diagram of a network (LAN) interconnected WAN
- repeater
- hub
- bridge
- switch
- router

A network is an infrastructure which allows two or many more computers – called hosts – to communicate to which other.

So, the computer network is a :
-         set of computers (stations)
-         interconnected through communication media (cable, optic fiber, telephone, radio)
-         for sharing by many users, resources
-         physical (hardware)
-         logical (software operating systems and applications), and
-         information (databases, files) associated to the other computer networks.

The computers networks were at first local networks.

- as a characteristic of today, it is a global public network which is becoming a part of human existence at all the levels.
- what made this globalization possible was the acceptance of some standard protocols of communication and concepts of natural existence, such as open systems and delegating the responsibility on the hierarchical tree of the network.



A network or a communication protocol is a set of rules for communication and the work between computers network. The protocol provides that two completely different products to communicate and work together. More abstract, a protocol is a way defined by the transfer data between the distributed stations. It defines an interface ( a clearly separation between different entities) for the distributed scenarios thru which are described the possible interactions and data – exchange components.

Corresponding to the enormous variety of types of communication and their levels of interaction in the network, exists also, a big number of protocols:
-         Ethernet – is the based protocol for the physical networks (cabling, interface)
-         TCP/IP – is a set of protocols underlying the entire Internet infrastructure, but also of the most local networks.
-         HTTP – web, documents
-         POPs / SMTP – electronic emails
-         FTP – file transfer
-         NNTP – news
-         NTP – network time synchronization
-         DNS – award of the domain name

Communication is maybe the most important aspect of our lives. It is hard to even only imagine a life without communication.  Maybe it is not even possible to lead a life without it and this is the reason why even speechless people, deaf people, etc. learn to communicate in any way. In just one single day, about 70 % of our time is spent communicating with others, family, friends, etc, even with ourselves.



All the definitions of human communication have at least the following common elements like: communication is the process of transmitting ideas, information, opinions from one individual to another or from a group to another, any activity - from routine daily activities – until the complex activities help in the companies, organizations, can not be conceived without communication.

Like most of the words of a language, the verb and the noun -  “communicate” , are polysemantic, it has a plurality of meanings. Those specialists in charge with the communication domains, they found from the very first beginning a major difficulty that they are not dealing with a well determined operation but with a variety of them and is hard to say certainty to what extent resembles.

It is the basis of all relations. Life, school – knowledge, work, marriage, etc, a considerable measure of our happiness depends on the communication and on how we communicate. The better we communicate, the more likely we have success in our relationships with friends, family, or in our business life. Because we are “forced” to contact with people, we must make the others to understand us, our feelings, thoughts, everything, to be able to keep relation and to solve life situations and problems.

The communication process it is an extremely complex phenomenon, if we consider the codes variety, situations, channels and the methods of how it is produced; the human communication is using different typologies; depending on the participants number and depending on their type of relationship, there are defined the following types of the human communication: intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, group communication, public communication, mass communication.



The purpose of the communication is to:

–        alert others
–        inform others
–        explain something
–        entertain
–        describe
–        persuade, etc.

To describe the many meanings of the communication that we use and live with every day, it is used the following three items:

-         the form of the communication which is the way of communication as speech, writing or drawing.
-         The communication environment which is a way that combines several forms of the communication.
-         Media which is the ways of the mass communication who were established in a specific group.

The language is the code used to transmit the information; it is the communication tool. It has three forms: written language, verbal and nonverbal language.



So, what do we have to understand thru communication process?

-         a constant challenge to the social psychology
-         activity
-         satisfy the personal needs
-         the link between people, etc.