What are interpersonal skills?
Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. Interpersonal communication is not just about what is actually said - the language used - but how it is said and the non-verbal messages sent through tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures and body language. When two or more people are in the same place and are aware of each other's presence, then communication is taking place, no matter how subtle or unintentional. Without speech, an observer may be using cues of posture, facial expression, and dress to form an impression of the other's role, emotional state, personality and/or intentions. Although no communication may be intended, people receive messages through such forms of non-verbal behaviour.
Active listening is a very important interpersonal skill because it is a listening skill and yet, as communicators, people tend to spend far more energy considering what they are going to say rather than listening to what the other person is trying to say. Although active listening is a skill in itself, covered in our articles on listening, it is also vital for verbal communication. The following points are essential for effective and active listening are: You Should Arrange a comfortable environment conducive to the purpose of the communication, for example a warm and light room with minimal background noise. You should also be prepared to listen. You should also Keep an open mind and concentrate on the main direction of the speaker's message. You should always avoid distractions if at all possible. You should delay judgment until you have heard everything. You should always be objective. Do not be trying to think of your next question while the other person is giving information. Do not dwell on one or two points at the expense of others. The speaker should not be stereotyped. Try not to let prejudices associated with, for example, gender, ethnicity, social class, appearance or dress interfere with what is being said.An example of this is that a volunteer would have to listen to the manager and also listen to the client if they dont understand something about the talking book and try and help them and explain it to the client.
Opening questions
Opening is an interpersonal skill by using short focused answer- answers to opening questions can often (but not always) be either right or wrong. Openings are usually easy to answer - as the choice of answer is limited - they can be effectively used early in conversations to encourage participation and can be very useful in fact-finding scenarios such as research. The questioner using opening questions has a lot of control over the conversation, forcing brief - often one-word answers. Closed questions can simply require a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, for example: ‘Do you smoke?’, ‘Did you feed the cat?’, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Opening questions can require that a choice is made from a list of possible options, for example: ‘Would you like beef, chicken or the vegetarian option?’, ‘Did you travel by train or car today?’Closed questions can also be asked to identify a certain piece of information, again with a limited set of answers, for example: ‘What is your name?’, ‘What time does the supermarket open?’, ‘Where did you go to University?Opening questions is a very important interpersonal skill because by contrast to closed questions, open questions allow for much longer responses and therefore potentially more creativity and information. There are lots of different types of open question; some are more closed than others.
An example of this is that they would need to ask the manager how to create a new database and also what do they need the database for? they also have to ask the client do they know what to do with the talking book?
Written Communication Skills
Written communication is fundamentally different from other forms of communication. It requires special skills in the construction of the message – not least, the ability to handwrite or type. It also requires a good knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language (such as English) so that the written word conveys the intended message to the audience. You cannot use visual cues such as body language or oral cues such as tone of voice. Writing something can seem very easy, but effective written communication is another matter. You need to understand how you can best communicate in writing and what constraints might be imposed by your working conditions. We will identify how you might use the tools at your disposal to communicate a message to your audience, minimising the risk of misunderstandings. Communication within a team and within an organisation is essential for the flow of information. This communication may be verbal (within a meeting or a one-to-one discussion) or written (an emailed memo or the minutes of a meeting).Effective communication relies on verbal and written communication skills. Throughout this unit, you will be set tasks to stretch these skills.
Email
Electronic message e.g. email. Email is a very important written communication because the charity can keep in contact with their clients and give them update information about the charity. The email can include attachments such as a Word document about the charity. It can be sent to more than one client at the same time. And the email is also used as a way to contact a client to make sure they have updated information about the charity and it is also important that they keep in contact with their volunteer because just incase that a volunteer can’t make it they would have to get a another volunteer to take over for them. If a client can make it then the client can reschedule for the next day or the day after.
Blog
A second example of a written communication is a blog. An online Blog is displaying frequent and chronological comments and thoughts for all to see. An online is a very important written communication because the blog can be seen on the internet by everyone in the world and people can go on to the blog and read about the charity and also the clients family and friends can also access the blog and read about the charity and they can also comment on the blog. The blog is very important for the charity because everyone at the charity can access it and the volunteers and the manager and family’s of the volunteers can also access it in the charity and they can also read other peoples comments and reply to the comments.
General Communication.
For communication to take place, there must be an audience for your message to be communicated
to. Who that audience is will determine the type of language you use, the way you put your wordstogether and how you deliver your message.
Engaging the audience
To maintain the interest levels of your audience, whether they are reading a report you’ve written or listening to a presentation, you need to apply various techniques.Imagine listening to a speaker whose voice never varied in tone – it would soon put you to sleep! When delivering your message, written or oral, make sure that you vary your tone.In an oral presentation, you can create interest by pausing from time to time – long enough to let the audience take in what you have said, but not so long that they think you have forgotten what you were going to say next. You can create a similar effect in written communications if you vary the sentence length, using longer sentences to carry a train of thought, and short punchy sentences to make a point use headings or bullet lists to section off or break up the message into manageable chunks. In a face to face situation you might use multimedia to hold the interest of the audience and keep their eyes from wandering to their surroundings. For example, you could show presentation slides, play music or hold up an object to illustrate a point. You could also say that there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end.
Question and Answer.
Question and answer sessions can be particularly useful for clarifying points that you might have
skimmed over in your presentation. You can’t be sure how much your audience have understood untilyou hear their questions. Apart from satisfying their curiosity, you can use this feedback to improve your presentation for the next time around. A question and answer session can also give the
impression that the audience can throw any question to the speaker, and that the speaker will answer it. this is not always the case.
