Picture credit - pixabay
Day 15 - Communication Skill
What is Communication Skill?
Communication Skill is the ability to effectively give and receive information.
Different types of communication - Verbal (oral/ written)/ Non-verbal/ Visual, Formal/ Informal, One-to-one/ One-to many...
The purpose of communication - to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to influence, and to meet social expectations
How to improve Communication Skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Communication.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Communication.
- Learn - Invest time in learning different models/ techniques of Communication Skill
- Apply -
- Identify a model suitable to you
- Create a template to document the flow of the process
- Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
- Maintain record/ process flow of every important communication you did
- Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
- Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
- Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
My learning for the day
Author - QuercusApp
“The denial, or withholding of feedback, is the most severe form of psychological punishment we can inflict on one another.” - Charles Coonradt, Grandfather of Gamification
Feedback is a tremendous gift that we can give someone.
The probelm is - we are not trained how to give this gift. You often know what you need to say but don’t know how to present it well.
These frameworks will help you.
1. The McKinsey model
McKinsey’s feedback model consists of three parts: Part A is the specific action, event or behavior you’d like someone to change, Part B is the impact of that behavior, Part C is a suggestion for what the person could do differently next time ("When you did [X], it made me feel [Y]. In the future, I would recommend that you do [Z]")
Examples -
From David Jackson - “When you checked in on my progress every 10 minutes, it made me feel like you didn’t trust me to complete the project and I couldn’t maintain my focus on the task. In the future, I would suggest we agree upon specific milestones and check-in points to ensure the project will be completed on time.”
From Saberr Blog - “When you arrived late for the team meeting, it made me feel frustrated as we couldn’t get started. In the future, I would recommend you let us know if you are delayed.”
The McKinsey model’s strength is that it diffuses arguments by focusing on facts so that the person you’re addressing is less likely to take your words too personally.
2. The Stanford method
This method is called IL (I like)/ IW (I wish)/ WI (What if) method. In this approach, your feedback starts the sentence with either “I like”, “I wish” or with a suggestion phrased as “What if … ?”
Examples -
From Saberr - “I like your presentation style.” “I wish you could add a couple of stories to make your presentations more effective.” ”What if you give more time for Q&A?”
From Akshay Kothari - “I like that we had sushi for lunch yesterday.”, “I wish that we all looked at metrics daily”, “I wonder if Apple is going to approve our iOS app anytime soon”
3. The SKS model
SKS is - Stop-KeepDoing-StartDoing
Begin your feedback by addressing the following questions - What should the person stop doing? What should the person keep doing? What should the person start doing?
Examples -
1. Stop doing - What are you doing that is causing you to be less effective?
2. Keep doing - What are you doing right that is getting the right results?
3. Start doing - What new things should you begin doing to be more effective?
His words - “In my view, the annual performance meetings do not work. Business priorities go on changing and the KPIs set at the beginning of the year have no meaning. The SKS model helps me because it empowers my team members to own the tasks. Since these meetings are quite frequent, my team members do not get a rude shock about their performance at the end of the year. One more advantage I found in this model is that the meeting gets over in 15 minutes. It also gives focus to my team members.”
Hope you can pick up a method suitable to your taste and use it whenever you want to give feedback.
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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