One of the biggest pitfalls in effective communication is the lack of active listening. Active listening does not merely include hearing. It includes paying close attention, processing the information, looking for non-verbal clues in the communication, searching for the true message that is being conveyed in spite of the words being sad, and waiting patiently before you give you targeted response.

PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION

It is very easy to get distracted during communication, so it is important that you eliminate as many distractions as possible and then do the best you can to ignore anything else that may tempt your attention to shift.

PROCESSING THE INFORMATION

As you receive information, you will need to sort it in your mind and file it with other relevant information you have. If a person has communicated something with a recurring theme, then you know that that topic is of great importance to them. It is your job to find out why and then address that topic.

LOOKING FOR NON VERBAL CLUES

Less than one-fifth of communication lies within the words that are said, so by not paying close attention to the non-verbal clues, you are missing the bulk of the message. Non-verbal clues include, but are not limited to:

posture

facial expressions

eye expressions

shifting of eyes

tone of voice

pace of voice

how the arms are held

distractions of the other person

returning to or avoiding certain topics

There was a lady at a seminar whose native language was Russian. She stood to tell how she had been impacted by something, but was having a difficult time communicating in her broken English. The man who introduced her suggested that she instead tell the story in her native language. While no one knew the words she was saying, virtually everyone understood her message loud and clear simply because they saw and heard the non-verbal clues. For more info, visit, http://www.communicationessence.com