In any industry, effective communication is the key to building long-lasting connections and creating meaningful messaging for your audience or customer. Let’s take a look at the strategy behind effective communication.

First, we’ll begin with understanding the difference between communication and effective communication. Communication can easily be described or broken down as the delivering of information, but effective communication is when the information is actually able to be received by the audience. This is an important distinction because while the delivering of your message or information may be great, if the information is not received and understood, then the message is not effective. This can be difficult when you are talking to a larger audience, as everyone tends to learn, take in, and understand information in different ways, but the goal is to make whoever you are speaking with truly understand what you are saying.

Personally, this is a skill that I have been trying to work on, as I have noticed that I can have a tendency to be long-winded at times in conversation. I have been working on trying to utilize some strategies that make myself better with effective communication.

Below are a few simple tips for effective communication.

1. Try to avoid making the individual you are talking to – or working with – feel that they are being held hostage in a conversation. This can mean that either you, or the other individual in the conversation, is not able to get a word in. We tend to see this in conversation when someone is continuously being talked over or interrupted as they are trying to speak.
2. When you are having a conversation, try to make the point clear and succinct. Try to boil down what you are looking to say into fewer words, as it will make it easier for the other person to understand what you are saying or requesting from them. It’s essential to not provide too much information at once, your message can often get lost when too much detail is provided.
3. Try to avoid being the person who is talking way longer than you need to be. Although it’s a common to go off on a tangent, these lone expressions inconversation are frequently perceived as rambling.

These are only a few simple ideas to try and focus on or start with that I have found beneficial for myself. I challenge you to try and focus on at least one, if not all of these simple techniques to help effectively communicate better.