7 Best Ways to Improve Your Communication and Relations with Other People
Incredible Tips to Live and Work Effectively With Other People
Communication is the #1 skill we should work on consistently. People are everywhere, and how you interact with them gives all the outcomes in your life.
Before giving any advice, I am particularly interested in interacting with others, especially in communication.
Since childhood, we used to repeat mistakes that made people hate us. On the other hand, there are fundamental tools you can use to make people help you and desire to communicate and work more precisely with you.
As a book lover, I can only leave you with my recommendation. I read often, but I have read this three times and will reread it.
“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.” — Dale Carnegie
The title of this book is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
It gives you real-life examples and rules of communication and interaction with other people. If you have never read this book, please take a look and learn it.
If you want to be successful in your life and become a wealthy person, learn how to interact with people. This book will help you become the best teacher you can find by giving the least resources (time and money).
And now, let’s look at the advice I want to share with you on improving your communication skills at work, in your family, and in other areas of life.
Listen More Than Talk
I want to give you the number one piece of advice: listening. And when anybody tells you that you must listen more than talk, it means that the ratio should be like 1 to 3 or something like that.
Never interrupt, especially when the person talks a lot and gives some advice and information. You need this information and advice!
The only thing you need to do during this monologue — is support it with words like “Mh,” “Yeah,” “Wow,” “Really,” etc.
Ask more questions to improve the dialog. If you want to do it and sit quietly, the person will think you are not interested in this topic.
Additional questions show interest in this topic, and your companion’s words will allow you to collect more information.
Important Note
Ask only a few questions, and only expand the dialogue with reason. Sometimes, people only have a little time to talk.
When you have a work call, it’s better to make it as short as possible and solve all questions you and other people have.
The only case is you need to talk a lot if you have enough time and if you need to find a problematic answer.
People love talking, but they don’t like to talk too much. And one more thing they only want to do a little is listen! Please don’t make them listen to you and other people a lot.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions
Have you ever met a person who knows everything? What does it mean everything, like any question in the world? Great question!
Usually, we label people who know everything when they help others see many things, answer questions, and don’t ask a lot.
But trust me, they have some areas that are closed for them. And sometimes these people can have outdated information they will give you for truth.
So it’s much better when a person has questions than when the person says that he knows everything.
You, me, and the other million people on this planet don’t know many things and must learn them. The only thing that sets brilliant people higher than others is the speed of finding the correct answers to the right questions.
If you know how to find answers quickly, you are a silver! But you are gold if you also learn to find the right questions to achieve your goals!
Important Note
Ask only a few questions in the case if you can easily find them on the Internet. We have a lot of resources in our hands.
If you can’t use them, you will make other people angry with you because you steal their time and energy.
Be a good student who studies and learns new information. There are a lot of books, articles, and videos that may give you an answer to any question. It isn’t good to not use this information.
If you have a specific question or want to get advice, ask your question. But be sure that your question is as straightforward as possible.
And give any additional context and information to make it easier to answer your question.
Look for People Who Know The Answers
It’s better to know before asking if the person can help you. When we hire for new roles in the company, we usually don’t know anybody around.
The first thing we should do is to learn what each person in your circle does. Someone might be responsible for the design, another person for work with an external team, and so on.
Learn about your team and understand who is responsible for each part of the work. If you don’t know, then ask a direct question to a group of people about who is better to ask about this.
Also, it’s good to ask a group of people questions, especially when they have different experiences in that area.
The more people are engaged in finding a solution for your problem, the more chances you get to find the best answer.
Important Note
Only ask some people about your questions, and don’t spam chats with many people.
In this case, you might bother people with notifications, and most of them will ignore you because big chats usually contain a lot of messages that are only interesting to some.
Find one person or a small group of people who might help you. If you are working on a specific project, ask people who are engaged in developing this project.
Remember that it’s OK to ask questions. After you understand who might help you with different things, learn about these people and ask them directly next time. You may even make an online call to make the process faster if they don’t mind.
Work Until You Get Blockers
If you don’t have any questions or issues that stop your flow, continue working. Make pauses and get everything you need to do.
It’s good to have to-do lists or notes where you can see the steps you need to take to get things done.
Find the work that has many variables and questions. In this work, you can delegate or write and ask others questions.
Until they give you a comprehensive answer, work on another task.
Also, if you have huge blockers, prioritize them and ask your team to help. Find people, the team, who can help you.
Never look at the same task for the whole workday. If you can’t do it because of a lack of information, find help and work on something else.
Important Note
Any task may have a blocker. At least many tasks need some investigation and workaround. Try to solve the blockers at first by yourself and then go and ask for external help.
Ask for help only if you can solve the problem. People will stop helping you if you ask them all the time, all questions you have.
Find helpful resources or ask for them, learn them, and use all the information you find, including the Internet, to find a solution.
Be Honest and Tell Only Truth
It’s good to tell the truth all the time. But sometimes, we feel guilty if something goes wrong, mainly if this depends on our work.
People love to hide the truth, don’t say accurate estimates, or are afraid to tell that this work may have many problems, blockers, and other hidden issues.
Some managers prioritize the quick completion of tasks and enjoy making estimations. But often, it could work better.
Sometimes, we must investigate, talk to others, and find answers to some questions.
You can only give reasonable estimates once you know everything about the subject you are working on and how to solve the issue.
Don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know something. You need to learn about it and find the answer to some questions.
Important Note
Some information might be overwhelming, so don’t share this with people who need help understanding it. Try to use the language people understand.
If there are problems you know how to solve, tell it, but say that it might not work.
Don’t be afraid to learn. But sometimes, if you need to give any estimation, provide the approximate time for this problem.
Try to learn more things and get more experience. After several years in any field of expertise, you will be able to see actual results and be aware of all pitfalls.
Be Careful With Commenting Other People’s Actions
Never judge other people, primarily their actions, especially at your work. If you say something terrible about the person you work with, then this person might become very disloyal to you.
Don’t laugh at people if they do something wrong with your family or friends. Judgment is something too heavy that people don’t like the most.
Even if you need to say something about this, use words carefully and try not to make this person feel uncomfortable because of your words.
If the person works on you or you manage him, then try to focus on possible ways to improve the result and help improve the whole process.
Suppose you see your chief’s issues; it’s better not to point to them. These ideas are better to share to convince the person that he found the solution, but not you.
Don’t try to look better than others, and don’t show that they are not as bright as you. Use careful language and say only those words that the person will understand and feel grateful for.
Important Note
You shouldn’t hide the truth if there are high risks of a significant loss in the company or the family, which may affect many people.
The first reason is that you will be the person who is the reason for these problems, even if you haven’t done anything about it. The problem is that you still need to do something to fix it.
The second reason is that you must help others with this issue and improve it for all participants.
Find ways to tell people the truth and look for the solution, but respect other people’s opinions.
Give Comprehensive Answers and Link Other People
If you are the person who gives the answers, then try to help people as much as you can. Please share all the information that might help them.
Also, please don’t be angry with them, because you didn’t know this as well some time ago. Sharing is caring!
And remember that if you help someone, help might return to you sometime after this. But always expect it! Help for nothing.
Important Note
Don’t share private information or information you can’t communicate with others. Ask for permission before sharing this.
Also, if you know a person who might help someone, ask at first that person if he doesn’t mind if someone will ask him.
Only try to help some people; some are lazy and use others to solve their problems. Help to those who need it.
And respect your own time. If you focus primarily on others’ problems, you will have more time to solve your own.
First of all, solve your problems, then help others.
“Even god doesn’t propose to judge a man till his last days, why should you and I?” — Dale Carnegie
