Importance of Communication Skills for Students

Communication skills are essential for the successful future career of a student. In todays competitive world, communication skills in business are the most sought after quality of an educated person. Reading, writing and listening carefully are the three most important communication skills for students. These skills like most of the communication skills sounds too familiar as a result of which we take them for granted.

As regards reading and writing, the only thing that we need to tackle is to adapt with our growing age and concentration. With these two qualities, it is possible to develop reading, oral communication skills and writing skills.

Apart from reading and writing presentations, reports and speeches are a part of school curriculum. This has been introduced in schools and colleges for the overall development of students. This makes expressive skills and managing skills also important for a student. It is also important to develop communication skills in relationships.

What deserves more attention is that most of the students do not feel confident to make presentations and speeches. But realizing the importance of these skills in modern day life, most good schools have made it a regular part of their curriculum. Here comes the role of expressive skills and managing skills.

Expressive skills are those which are used to express our feelings, thoughts and expressions and thus get across our point successfully to the listener. To develop expressive skills, students need to learn is how to communicate effectively and get the full attention of the listeners.

After this, management is an important part of a students life so development of management skills is also important for the success of the student.

Listening skills are also an important skill that should be taught to a student. Listening skills should not only be limited to the classroom but also in a normal conversation. Students should be taught as how to give undivided attention to a person with whom a conversation is taking place.

Also, students should be taught as to how to show the other person respect when the other person is speaking. Such etiquette is a part of conversation in every sphere of life, be it professional or personal.

Now that we have learned as to what specific communication skill a student must have, it is important to learn how to develop communication skills in a student.

The first activity to develop communication skill in students is group activities. Teachers should limit group activities not only in the classroom but also ask students to complete assignments in equally divided groups. Also the teacher should continuously change the groups. This is so that there is more interaction among the students. This process helps a lot in the long run.

The next activity is to develop communication skills for students. This is to put in the habit of active listening. For this, the teacher should continuously read out something from newspapers magazines and other sources in order to ask questions from that. Also the teachers should make it a point to encourage active participation of the students.

By infusing a healthy feeling of competition and curiosity in students, it would become possible to develop communication skills for students. With these tips, go ahead with confidence and put them into practice.

Importance of Team and Team Leader

We all are familiar with the term team. What is a team and what are its characteristics and how to lead a team is importance for any business organization. The growth of both individual and the company largely depends upon the success of the teams involved in its various goals and objective.

I have seen that companies that organize their workers in teams can improve their productivity and identify new approaches to achieving company goals. Therefore I would like here to focus on the characteristics and qualities of effective teams.

Defining Team

One of the many ways for a business to organize employees is in teams. A team is made up of two or more people who work together to achieve a common goal. Teams offer an alternative to a vertical chain-of-command and are a much more inclusive approach to business organization. Teams are becoming more common in the business world today. Effective teams can lead to increased employee motivation and business productivity.

I have worked with large and small organizations, big and small brands, established and startups companies and found the following ten cardinal points for success of team and team leadership.

1) Don’t criticize or complain about people.

It is easier to criticize and hard to appreciate. It is easy to complain and tough to motivate. It needs a leader to avoid criticizing and complaining. Therefore start appreciating today, accentuate the positive and utilize mistakes as opportunities for continued improvement

2) Praise improvement, even minor improvements.

Praising is a leadership attitude. Even small praising words do a lot of improvement in a team member. if you focus on using positive reinforcement rather than negative actions like threats and fear tactics most people want to do the right thing, which means you will find far more success in leading a team.

3) Give honest and sincere praise and appreciation.

All people deeply desire significance. One of the easiest ways you can help fulfill desire that is by offering honest and sincere praise and appreciation whenever possible.

4) Encourage other people to talk and be a good active listener.

Team member want to be heard, really heard, and not patronized. Oftentimes, instead of listening to someone in a conversation, people are really just waiting for an opportunity to speak. If you will listen you will also be heard and when you are heard, you are a success.

5) Make others feel important.

Everyone’s favorite primary subject is themselves, its human nature. Nobody likes to feel ignored and unappreciated. So make them feel important

6) Be sensitive to people’s pride and let them save face.

The simple fact is that all people are prideful creatures. If you can offer criticism or disagreement in a manner that allows them to save face, they’ll be much more willing to cooperate and work with you. Don’t find fault in front of others.

7) Be respectful of other people’s ideas and opinions.

Try to see things from their point of view. When you try to understand another person’s point of view you may find that you learn something. But even if you don’t, you will still find it much easier to respect the people with whom you disagree.

8) If you are wrong, be honest and humble enough to admit it.

As a team leader you can also commit mistakes. At times your decision too can get wrong. In such a situation, admit your mistakes humbly. If you’re honest and humble enough to own up to your mistake, you will gain the respect of those you work with.

9) Set a high bar for people

Let your team member know you believe in their ability to succeed. Set a high bar for your people, believe in them, communicate that to them and be amazed at what they can achieve.

10) Follow the greatest leadership rule ever given

Great leadership isn’t about bossing people around; it’s about inspiring and guiding people towards a common goal for everyone’s benefit. Build your team up, give them credit for their work, praise their efforts and reward them when they succeed.

    There is a saying that states “Be the change that you want to see”, we can adapt that to this discussion by saying “Be the leader that you would want to lead you”.

Importance of Communication skills in Business Scenario

Any organization runs on communication. If communication fails, organization fails. If communication fails, business fails. If communication is not up to the mark, results will not be up to the mark. Therefore,  Communication is important to businesses as it helps everyone tackle their daily operations efficiently. Without Effective Communication in Business, the external and internal structure on a business will crumble.

Overall productivity increases when managers and employees communicate clearly among one another. When communication is poor, managers and employees waste a lot of time because no one understands the tasks. However, when managers discuss tasks clearly, employees tackle projects faster and more effectively. Good managers offer comprehensive training to ensure each employee has the opportunity to succeed.

According to a leading CEO Richard Fertig, “Communication Training (in business) is critical.  In order to ensure top performance, everyone needs guidance and development of skills that may have never been tested at peak performance.  A company that spends time training and educating their employees is promoting and developing their communication skills and likely building a loyal team.”

Primarily, there are two types of communication. One way and two way communication.

One-way communication occurs when a business owner sends messages to customers or employees. Billboard ads, magazine ads, and newspaper ads are examples of one-way communications.

Two-way communication occurs when clients respond to businesses ads. An example of two-way communication is social media marketing. Two-way communication is popular because it helps business owners build strong relationships with their customers.

Both types of communication are literally an art , which can be mastered through training and practice. There are several professionals organizations which help professionals and students mastering the art of communication.

In the modern times, verbal and non verbal communication has gone a paradigm shift. While spoken communication is important in sales, presentation and meeting, non verbal communication or say written communication is equally important to get the message communicated across the table.

One of the modern forms of written communications is Email communication and it has become important tool in overall communication scenario.

There is one professional institute Ride for Pride, that help professionals in developing business communication skills and provide them with professional communication skills, that ultimately help in individual growth as well as help organizations attain their business growth.

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Important of Email Communication in business

Email helps business owners share basic information with their employees, such as security precautions, lunch prices, and office guidelines. Managers appreciate that they can send messages to all employees instantly. By emailing messages digitally, businesses save a lot of money on printing supplies.

Proper Email benefits employees and management too. Whenever there are company policy changes, everyone must understand the reasons why the changes were made. By sending out a company email, everyone will receive the policy changes within a matter of minutes.

If any business relies on teamwork, proper communication is the key to efficient collaborations. Everyone must listen to ideas and specific business needs and goals. If you communicate clearly with your employees, they will respect you. As a result, everyone will contribute to the growth of your company.

Email Communication also helps business owners build strong relationships with their outsourced providers and suppliers. By outlining your expectations and company requirements, your business can avert many shipping issues. In addition, you can implement major changes easily by communicating with your suppliers by email.

I have personally seen that how a poor email can ruin orders, business. But you can improve your email writing skills. Ride for Pride is one of such institutes which help professionals learn the art of email writing skills. Here are some general tips I’d like to share with you:

1. Subject Line

Always have a subject line that summarizes briefly and clearly the contents of the message (example: Re: Summary of Our Meeting with VRS Internationals).

2. Simplified Sentences

Don’t make your email look overcrowded by trying to use too many technical terms or long words. It is always good to write simple sentences to ensure that they are easy to understand. The most common mistake that many of our students make is to translate directly from their own language. This can often lead to confusing sentences. So let;s write simple.

3. Think of who your reader is going to be

Is it a colleague, a client or your boss? Should the email be informal or formal? There is fine difference between informal and formal email communication. Note the difference between Informal and Formal:

Informal – Thanks for emailing me on 15th February

Formal – Thank you for your email dated 15th February

Informal – Sorry, I can’t make it.

Formal – I am afraid I will not be able to attend

Informal – Can you…?

Formal – I was wondering if you could….?

 Some emails to colleagues can be informal if you have a long working relationship and know them well. This is the style that is closest to speech, so there are often everyday words and conversational expressions that can be used. For instance, ‘Don’t forget’, ‘Catch you later’, ‘Cheers’. The reader may also accept or overlook minor grammatical errors in informal emails.

However, if the email is going to a client or senior colleague, bad grammar and an over-friendly writing style will most probably not be acceptable.

4. Be very careful of capital letters, punctuation, spelling and basic grammar

While these can be tolerated in informal emails, they are very important in business emails as they are an important part of the image you create. Give yourself time to edit what you’ve written before you push that Send button. In today’s busy world, it’s very easy to send out many emails without checking them thoroughly: as an English learner, you should make a conscious effort to double check before sending.

There are several professional institutes that help you learn basic language skills and Ride for Pride is one of such institutes.

5. Be positive!

The words you use show your attitude to life, so choose your words wisely.

Look at these words: helpful, good question, agreed, together, useful, I will do my best, mutual, opportunity.

Now look at these: busy, crisis, failure, forgets it, I can’t, it’s impossible, waste, hard.

Now you yourself understand which words you would like to use.

6. Get feedback from mentors

Try and get some feedback on the emails that you write. This could be from your English Teacher or someone you know whose English is at a good level. The best option is to go to some professional training institute in English language like Ride for Pride to hone up your skills.  Use Grammar Checkers to proofread your writing instantly.

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What to do and what not to become a Better Public Speaker

“I don’t like the spotlight.”

“I’m naturally shy.”

“I get tongue-tied in front of a crowd.”

“My face turns bright red when I stand up to present.”

These are the common responses by most of the speakers that we see them everyday. These are nothing but the relfex of public speaking anxiety, which can stop your growth, steal away your friend.. and you can miss the lifetime opportunity.

But you are fortunate that you come across this piece of writing in which I will tell you some of the Dos and Don’ts of public speaking.

What to do ! 

Know your material

The absolute best way to overcome your fear of public speaking is to practice, practice and practice some more. I’m not suggesting memorizing, but at least become very familiar with your main points. If pressed for time, spend a minimum of 15 minutes getting your introduction nailed. Most people are the most nervous at the beginning.

Yoga breathing

This is something you want to do just before you get up on stage. Take three, deep belly breaths. Slowly inhale through the nose for a count of 10-to-15. Hold for 15 seconds, and then exhale through your mouth slowly, again for a count of 10-to-15. Repeat three times. This helps to calm your nerves and put you at ease before you begin.

Find the friendly faces

Even if you have to “plant” someone in the audience when it’s an important presentation, look for the face that’s smiling and nodding. It’s all about building your confidence. The goal is to win over the fear. But don’t focus on them until you’ve hit your stride!

Keep in mind your audience wants you to succeed.

We all think about ourselves when we’re presenting instead of thinking about the audience. We’re worried about forgetting something or stumbling over our words. The audience isn’t aware of what you planned to say. And every single person watching you wants you to be good. They’re rooting for a strong, snappy presenter, who’s not boring. They are not looking for your faults. They want you succeed. So look into their eyes and present yourself.

What not to do!

Don’t Avoid Preparation

Don’t avoid the practice. By avoiding preparing, you don’t have to do anything, including facing the fact that you have no idea what you’re going to talk about or—more importantly—how to make it interesting.

Don’t daydream

Instead of actually preparing or practicing, it helps to delude yourself into thinking that you’ll be great. Before each presentation, I spent countless minutes daydreaming about how comfortable and eloquent I’ll be, and how the audience will love it and ask interesting and engaging questions at the end..

Don’t Over react, be natural

Since, by the time it comes to actually give your speech, you’ve been too busy avoiding and deluding that you won’t have practiced; you’ll need to wing it. Don’t worry, it’s always best when speakers are natural, so just relax, act natural and see what comes out.

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Effective speaking is important for professional growth

As you know, we have to speak every day in our professional life. Whether it is speaking with our colleague, sales meeting or presentation before clients or superiors, we need to be equally effective. Speaking skill is key to success in professional life. It adds to presentation skills, selling skills and overall growth in the organization. Therefore you may be in any industry, any organization, any designation, effective speaking will help you grow.

Effective Speaking is combination of sound of voice and content of the speech. Effective speaking must have a perfect balance of subject, delivery, variety and individual’s style and the emotional quotient of the speaker.

Your voice is unique. May it be gifted, it may not be. Whatever voice you have, you will have to make it effective. By training with Ride for Pride, you can make your voice perfect for your presentations. We help make your voice as per your need and of course, you will have to practice with us. With our training you not only polish your voice but also develop your self esteem.

Aspects of Effective Speaking

Concept of elocution is a thing of past. Effective speaking is much more than simple elocution. Effective speaking is how you able to speak in a public context with confidence and clarity, besides reflecting on your own personality. The major aspects of Effective Speaking are accents, familiarity with voice, and effect of breathing on voice and speech and vocal production.

Accents

You accent may be different. You accent may not be perfect. Your accent may be having the regional flavor. But such issues are taken care by practice and training.

Finding your voice

It is important to get used to the sound of your own voice.  Some of us relaxed in a private situation but in public they are not the same. We help you understand your voice and gain your confidence.

The Effect of Breath on Voice and Speech

For effective speaking you must have control on your breathe so that you speak effectively. It is possible to use physical exercise to help produce a more flexible voice and we at Ride for Pride help you take professional lessons in perfecting voice sounds.

 Vocal Production

Three core elements of vocal production are volume, clarity and variety which make your voice effective. It should have perfect synchrony between volume of voice, clarity of speech and variety in expression, which can me perfected at Ride for Pride.

 

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Importance of Presentation Skills to succeed professionally

What amazes us after board meeting or product launch session, we continue with the talk of presentation made by the directors or project managers. The success of any meeting or launch ceremony largely depends on the presentation skills. Presentation skills not only help the presenter to put his point forward but it helps in winning competition and get competitive edge.  Therefore presentation skills are extremely essential for you to succeed professionally.

In today’s business environment when the competition is too high t workplace and in the industry as well, presentation skills enhances the chances to consolidate and enhance its capability. Therefore if you are able talk well, write well, and present yourself attractively to your superiors, it gives you the competitive advantage. What better way to let other people know what you’re capable of than by presenting a great idea or a plan during a meeting. However, you need to have the necessary presentation skills to succeed in this endeavor.

The most important element during a presentation is “you”. You are the one that the audience is concentrating on. You convey who you are based on your body language, your speech, and your overall mannerism. Every gesture, movement, or even a facial expression you use reflects your personality. So it is important for you to know which gestures or movements you usually do and what should be avoided. However, the most important thing is for you to feel comfortable during a presentation because it is then that you can perform at your best.

The content of your presentation is also essential. It does not matter if you are the most attractive person in the room with the personality to match it if the content of your presentation itself means nothing. So you should prepare an in-depth and comprehensive study of the topic you are assigned and present it in an intelligent and confident manner. It is only then that people can say that you are really indeed, a great worker or business owner. Therefore it is important skill to develop the apt content for the presentation.

You should take note though that the main purpose of the presentation is actually communicating to the audience. If you really want to improve your presentation skills, the first thing you should concentrate on is how you can communicate effectively with the listeners.

Remember that the key to have good presentation skills is not only though the transmission of the message but through the reception of the message as well. The whole content of your presentation should be centered on catching the attention of the audience and keeping it; they should be persuaded of the merits and the benefits of what you had presented.

Developing presentation skills and giving an effective presentation is not an easy matter. It is said that some people are born with presentation skills but you should also remember that presentation skills can be learned. And take note that presentation skills can be developed further when it is being practiced regularly so develop your presentation skills and become an expert. And at Ride for Pride, we make you prepare an excellent presenter in you.