10 Tips to Master the 4 Types of Communication Skills

You can possess effective communication skills, not just good ones. This article contains ten suggestions to help you become a better communicator.

Note: This article is by Vanessa Edwards, who gives us 10 tips to improve your communication skills.

They say that communication is the most important factor in any relationship, whether a business or personal relationship, which is true. Communication issues are the reason behind many divorces, but you shouldn't let this fact bring you down.

What Are Communication Skills?

Communication skills can help us express our thoughts and opinions to others. Whoever masters them is able to deliver and receive various forms of information through verbal or non-verbal communication and using body language. Communication skills help us deliver our messages and express our thoughts and emotions to others.

Why Are Communication Skills Important?

We communicate with others daily, whether through verbal communication, non-verbal communication, or body language. Communication skills help us convey our ideas and viewpoints to others effectively.

In 1952, public relations professor Scott Cutlip introduced what he called "the 7 Cs of communication" to help people make clearer, attention-grabbing points when talking to each other.

These seven principles are as follows:

• Clear: Defining your goal of communicating with the other party.
• Concise: Your speech should be brief and relevant.
• Concrete: Creating a vivid perception of the topic you are talking about, supported by facts and evidence.
• Correct: Ensuring that what you say is free of mistakes as much as possible and that your audience can understand it.
• Coherent: The topic and ideas you present should be logical and easily understood.
• Complete: Providing the audience with all the information they need so that they can act on it.
• Courteous: Being frank, honest, and friendly in your speech.

Through these seven principles, you can ensure that your audience understands what you are saying easily, so that they can employ it directly and effortlessly. As a result, you become a reliable source of information because you can simply deliver your message to the audience in an understandable way. Making the conversation innovative helps listeners stay motivated and makes them imagine your ideas vividly. which leaves no excuses for them to withdraw from the conversation.

Keep in mind that the more effectively you communicate, the better you become at communicating, and the more people will listen to you and apply what you say.

Communication Skills Types

You may be wondering: What types of skills can you use to get people to listen to you?

Below, we will summarize the main types of communication skills mentioned in a study conducted by Drexel University, so that you understand the basic methods of communication:

• Visual communication: Realistic or mental images through which you express your interpretations and ideas.
• Written communication: Using different types of written communication to convey your idea in a clear and concise way.
• Listening: Actively listening to words and sentences so you can connect ideas and understand the overall meaning of the message.
• Verbal communication: Speaking words to express your ideas directly to your listeners.
• Non-verbal communication: Using body language to express your point of view, such as expressions through facial features, finger pointing, or eye contact.

These terms might sound familiar to you, but are you sure you have mastered these skills? If you're not sure, here's an explanation of how to communicate in each of the types we mentioned:

1. Visual communication

It is said that eye contact is the easiest way to communicate because our brains automatically interpret the words and sounds we hear in the form of images. Because of social media, advertisements, television, and phones, we have come to express everything using images with brief and expressive captions. These images convey specific messages, aimed at making the viewer understand them without effort.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words because we can deduce a lot from a few shapes, lines, and colors.

2. Written communication

Do you remember how you used to write something to your colleague at school and give it to them so that the teacher would not hear you talking to them? This was probably the first form of written communication you used, and it is undoubtedly an effective method.

If you are a member of the workforce, it is worth knowing that 73% of employers are looking for employees with strong written communication skills because SMS, social media, and emails that we use daily are all part of the commercial process. They help us communicate effectively by giving us the opportunity to express ourselves concisely without interruption from others.

Furthermore, written communication saves you the trouble of speaking. Therefore, it is a wonderful way of communication that is very useful, especially for introverts, as they can declare their points of view without having to speak.

3. Listening

Active listening is one of the most important types of communication. According to a study conducted at Riau University, Indonesia, 40% of communication between people occurs through listening.

Therefore, without listening to what the other party is saying, you are actually missing out on nearly half of what they are trying to convey to you. You cannot connect with the person who is speaking to you unless you listen to them. There are four types of listening that we practice daily. We will summarize these styles below so that you can determine which type of listener you are:

• Complete listening: Paying great attention to the vocabulary and tone in which the other party speaks.
• Therapeutic listening: Letting our friends and loved ones express themselves.
• Deep listening: Focusing on understanding the main points and points of view of the person speaking.
• Critical listening: Using reasoning, facts, and logic to analyze the message the speaker is presenting.

4. Verbal communication

You are using verbal communication, whether you are conversing with your coworker via Zoom or hanging out with your friends and talking about the most recent celebrity news. Verbal communication is a great way to allow others to hear your thoughts and relate to the ideas you are trying to express.

Some people, like the American hip-hop singer Kanye West, are very confident when speaking and they convey their point quickly. So what benefit do they gain from that?

Many people, like Kanye, use complexity and intonation, such as rhythm and voice tone, to make their ordinary words express the message they want to convey, which helps the audience understand their idea. Interestingly, when you talk to someone face-to-face, you will definitely notice their non-verbal communication style, which we will discuss now.

5. Non-verbal communication

You must understand what it means if someone has ever looked at you with hatred or contempt. This is a form of non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication means using any part of your body—other than your voice—to express yourself in order to attract the audience and achieve the result you desire.

You might have noticed or observed one of these non-verbal communication cues before, such as:

• Hand gestures.
• Eye contact.
• Common.
• Challenge.
• The distance between you and the other person.

Verbal communication plays an essential role in communication between people, representing 65–90% of the meaning that we aim to convey through our social interaction.

However, a recent study has clarified the important idea that non-verbal communication is important because we do not pay attention to words or don't listen to each other. This is exactly what makes recognizing different types of non-verbal cues essential, as non-verbal communication will remain a commonly used method of conveying our ideas.

10 Tips for Effective Communication

For better communication, you must possess the means and skills that enable you to deliver your message correctly to your audience. Below, we present the ten most important communication tips that will improve your ability to speak and listen:

1. Use clear cues

The late American writer Paul J. Mayer said, “Effective communication between us as human beings is the secret to success in personal and professional life.”

Clear cues stand out as the art of conveying words directly and concisely to the listener in terms of communication skills. It might initially appear to be a simple skill, but it can be interpreted incorrectly, which causes a cognitive bias that manifests as the false belief that we have communicated the message we intended to.

A study conducted by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that cognitive bias in perceiving the effectiveness of a cue also includes our mistaken belief that the way we deliver the message is more important than its content.

For example, many people are unsure whether others like them because they act quietly and do not use many cues. In other words, many people fear not being liked by others. So if you enjoy working with your colleague, express that openly.

This type of bias also results from the false belief that you have provided enough information to the listener, when in fact you have not. You can tell that you are falling into this kind of bias when you hear phrases such as:

• “This should be obvious.”
• “This is so obvious that it doesn't need to be said.”
• "I don't have to tell you that."

Eliminating this bias requires expressing by using clear and direct signals, for example:

• If you like working with a colleague, let them know.
• If someone does a great job on a project, let them know.
• If someone is annoying you, let them know.

In short, be honest in your expression.

2. Show your distinctive qualities

Singularity is the ability to be special and unique. Each person has their own qualities in their communication style, which distinguishes them from others. Whether you create impressions with your voice, your entertaining personality, your posture, your clear speech style, or any other qualities, you can improve them by highlighting your distinctive communication skills, whether verbal communication, using body language, or other non-verbal communication methods. You can also show appreciation for others by praising their distinctive qualities. Try doing the following:

• Praise them for their unique sense of fashion.
• Send them a message praising their discipline and creativity.
• Show them appreciation for their unique personality traits.

3. Read facial expressions

Reading facial expressions is a basic communication skill that allows you to understand a person's feelings through their facial expressions instead of relying on what they say. There are seven common facial gestures among the general population that express seven different emotions, as follows:

Accordingly, a person's facial expressions are directly related to their emotions and behavioral experiences toward others and toward themselves, according to the hypothesis of receiving feedback through facial expressions. A study that used humor to test this hypothesis revealed that people feel comfortable expressing their emotions with their faces under the right circumstances, which has an impact on their emotional and physical behavior.

In short, changing your facial expressions can affect your thinking, your feelings, and the message you are trying to convey to the other party. Reading facial expressions is a very effective method of communication. It is now possible to receive training in reading facial expressions if you want to improve your ability to decode others' emotions through their facial expressions.

4. Express yourself using your facial features

If people constantly tell you that you have an upset face, you might need to pay more attention to this form of communication skills.

Have you ever heard of the poker face experiment? In short, it is a study conducted to show how stressful behaviors can affect facial expressions and, thus, the emotional development of infants and children. At the end of the experiment, it became clear that if your face is devoid of expressions or does not reveal any emotion, it becomes difficult for others to communicate with you because they do not know whether you will be interested in them or not.

However, there are some tips to show a deeper understanding of what others are saying by showing more expressions on your face. Here are some of these tips:

• Have empathy as you listen to the other party and respond verbally.
• Help others identify their feelings so you can show empathy with your facial features.
• Understand the main idea the speaker is trying to convey so you can connect with them on a deeper level.

As long as your goal is to get rid of the poker face and have an expressive face so that you can show interest and improve your communication skills, there is nothing wrong with making some odd expressions at first, such as laughter or other weird gestures. However, if you are having difficulty with this, continue reading to learn about another solution in the following tip.

5. Read facial expressions through eye contact

Using eye contact to read faces enables you to communicate directly to get information and then use your facial expressions to demonstrate interaction. Making eye contact is crucial for this method to be effective.

When you focus on a person's face while they are speaking, mirror neurons are likely to imitate the speaker's face and make you react in the same way. This method of communication demonstrates your high level of tact and attention to detail. You only need to focus intently on the other person throughout the conversation. 

Bonus tip: Use face-reading through eye contact during your next business meeting. It is one of the most influential communication skills in the workplace.

6. Use words that have a strong impact

Words have a very powerful impact, depending on our view—as humans—of words in general and our choice of specific words. Using words with a strong impact is one of the most effective communication skills in the workplace because we live in a world dependent on digital systems that drives us to constantly use our phones and respond to messages we receive.

Social and corporate jargon can be a real obstacle to our ability to communicate effectively. Therefore, our words need to be powerful and easy to understand. Here are some of them:

You can also use powerful words to strengthen your impact on others, and you can reveal the communicative traits you share with others, which is known as spontaneous trait transference.

To elaborate further: Spontaneous trait transference means that the way you describe others is the same way others see you. The fact that it occurs right from the beginning of communication is what makes it spontaneous.

This can be seen in the workplace when your manager compliments you or when you hear someone talking about someone else. This process can be positive or negative, but the point is to use strong words to deliver your message with positive assertiveness and tact and to improve your verbal communication skills in general.

7. Use embodied cognition

You must be aware of this situation. For example, you might feel anxious and experience a slight accelerated heart rate when you go to the doctor to get some tests done and you see them setting up medical equipment to give you an injection. This is due to embodied cognition, the most recent hot topic in social psychology. The theory states that the origin of our behaviors is the interaction between our nervous system and our environment in reality, which stimulates our brain to think in a certain way.

So what does this have to do with communication?

You can make your body react, whether through meaningful messages, sounds, specific images, or specific voice tones, which might prompt your brain to think in a certain way.

An easy illustration of this is when you see a chair and feel like sitting down on it, or when you smell food and decide to eat some even though you are not hungry.

This mechanism of behavioral motivation has been described as “a communication mechanism within the individual that aims to provide suggestions to the brain in order to motivate the body to do something.” Simply put, it is stating that the body affects the mind just as much as the mind can affect the body.

For example, a student once advised her colleagues, "We must not be like a sinking ship. We must contemplate before acting.” Her colleagues will freak out despite the fact that she started the sentence with a negative emphasis because the metaphor is still painful.

Therefore, you must choose your words carefully and pay attention to the negative side of their positive meaning. You can hang pictures on your office's walls or listen to audiobooks of motivational speakers that you prefer.

8. Exchange feedback

Feedback is like an answer to a message or a response to a specific behavior. No one likes to waste their time talking. Therefore, feedback is a very effective communication skill because it proves to the other party that you are paying attention to them. Furthermore, it is one of the safest and most effective verbal communication skills. It is also crucial in the context of commercial work because it fosters an engaging dialogue about the subject at hand.

A 2017 study illustrated different types of feedback:

• Informal feedback: It depends on verbal and non-verbal responses to specific actions or statements.
• Formal feedback: A structured assessment in which people give direct criticism to the speaker.
• Summary feedback: A detailed summary of the topic at hand with constructive comments and solutions to enhance shortcomings.

Properly provided feedback is an important skill for communicating with others because it develops and enhances your confidence in receiving criticism from people you know and those you do not know as well, while also enhancing your confidence in communicating with others.

Practical tip: Find a friend to practice feedback with you by imagining specific situations, such as a job interview or a TED talk, as you exchange criticisms and comments.

9. Use positive body language

Positive body language includes all forms of communication through expression using the body. It is a very effective way of communicating, even stronger than verbal communication, because our body gestures always reveal the truth.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall confirmed that there are more than 700,000 body language patterns and that 65% of the intended meaning in normal conversations is expressed through body language. Although these percentages and numbers may vary depending on where you are in the world, we will interpret what each body part can communicate. (at least in Western culture):

9.1. Head

Nodding the head down means approval, while moving the head up means disapproval. Although sometimes the intended meaning is the opposite, you can learn more about this through a more in-depth study of the meanings that are expressed using the head.

9.2. Face

You can make a subtle gesture with your face to express anger, happiness, sadness, or even contempt. Clenched teeth or pursed lips can have many meanings.

9.3. Eyes

Eyes can tell you a lot, depending on where the speaker is looking. They can express boredom or intimacy, for example.

9.4. Mouth

Lip movements convey acceptance or rejection, as well as possibly the level of conversational engagement or boredom.

9.5. Hands

A greeting, farewell, or threat! For example, hiding your hands behind your back or in your pockets can mean some kind of threat, while spreading your fingers or opening your palms indicates sincerity.

9.6. Legs and feet

How do you know where a person wants to go? Simply look at their feet.

Learning how to develop communication skills by paying attention to body language allows you to understand others you are talking to and to know whether they are enjoying themselves or bored. Body language can also help you discover discrepancies between what the other party says and means. Furthermore, you become more aware of your body language, so you determine the message you want to deliver to the recipient.

10. Tell stories

If you want to improve your communication skills at work, at home, or in society as a whole, you can resort to the ancient method that is still used today in many cultures around the world, which is storytelling.

Storytelling is a way of communicating that stimulates the listener to imagine events using the details narrated by the speaker. It has two benefits: conveying the message to the audience and keeping them entertained. It is an effective way to increase your verbal communication skills and a great exercise for the audience to actively listen.

Storytelling requires the following:

• Using visual illustration methods, such as pictures or items.
• Practicing rephrasing in case one of your listeners doesn't understand what you just said.
• Increasing non-verbal cues using body gestures.

In Conclusion

Communication skills are so important because we need them to understand each other. Your face, body language, or verbal declarations can all be used to express what you are thinking.

However, in all cases, you must use communication skills to convey your message to others. Despite the fact that you might not be familiar with some of the theories we discussed, non-verbal communication is a common practice that we all engage in and use on a daily basis.