Have you read the story of the jackal that fell into the washer man’s tub and was colored blue? Here I narrate it once again.
Once upon a time there lived a jackal that strayed into a city in search of food. He was hungry and was being chased by a group of dogs. He accidentally entered the house of a dyer and fell into a vat of indigo (blue), and was stained blue from head to toe. When he escaped from the house back into the forest, all animals were surprised at his appearance and could not place its identity. Taking advantage of the situation, the jackal decided to play the situation to his advantage. He proclaimed that he was Fierce Owl, sent by the king of Gods, Indra, to earth to guard the forest.
The gullible animals believed the jackal. The jackal then appointed the Lion as his Prime minister, tiger as his guardian of the bedchamber and the elephant was made the doorkeeper. He then drove all the jackals out of sight from the forest for fear of being recognized. The animals would hunt food and bring it to the self-proclaimed king and the king would distribute the food to all equally just as a king would do. So he was leading a life of luxury.
One day a herd of jackals were passing by, howling to their glory. Unable to control his natural instinct, Fierce Owl showed his natural voice and howled at the top of his voice. Hearing this howl, the animals realized that they had been fooled by a jackal and killed the jackal instantly. Had he not opened his mouth with out giving proper thought, he would not have been killed.
No body knows what you are till the time you communicate with them. Your success or failure is entirely dependent on what impression you leave on others when you communicate with them.
Communication can be categorized as verbal and non-verbal even your gestures and body language can speak a lot and will be discussed in a later chapter. Here we will be talking about the first type and we will broadly discuss the skills about which you, as a student are more concerned.
Good Communication Skills are essential
Being an effective communicator takes real skill. Communication skills have to be developed, honed and added to on an on-going basis. They are the heart of interpersonal skills and the greater your awareness of how it all works, the more effective your communication will be.
To be effective in interviews or practical examinations you have to communicate well. Here we look at basic communication dynamics, learning skills to improve your communication, using effective communication to improve your personality and promote interpersonal skills.
Communication Core Skills – The Essentials
Communication is Individual: We’re not all The Same. When you look at communication, there is some thing more to merely possessing good presentation skills. Key for successful communication is to strike a good rapport with whom you are communicating. Everyone communicates differently and sees the world differently. The greatest skill you can have in order to instantly and significantly improve you communications skills is to understand the other person’s point view and how they see the world. Then you can adjust your own communication to take that into account.
You are the only one of you. There’s never any one right way to communicate. Authentic effective communication always happens when we reply on those things we know to be true about or for ourselves. Remember your personal style probably says more for you that all the words you use can.
Interpersonal skills. Everything communicates. Remember! If you aren’t clear about what you mean and what your intention is, the other person (or people) could easily (and sometimes deliberately), misinterpret what you mean.
What you do matters, as much as what you say. It’s now accepted that the words account for only 7-11% of a communication. Your behavior will ‘read’ unconsciously to other people and you can certainly be more in charge of the reading matter!
Language is one of the most powerful reflections of how we think and feel about others and ourselves. You need to be aware of the padding, justifications and excuses you use and whether they are appropriate. You can make a big impact simply by changing some of your language and developing your verbal skills, this way you can significantly improve your communication skills.
