Communication Skills Tip: Juggling Speaking & Listening Tools

For my first communication skills workshop back in 1996, I decided to open the two day off-site program by juggling tennis balls (each with a unique communication skills tool written on it.) I did this to demonstrate the challenge we face when striving to be eloquent, dynamic and effective in our communication. As a trained singer, I know that it is possible to multitask during a performance. In fact, it is essential. The term polyphony refers to "Music with two or more independent melodic parts sounded together." As a singer, I had to learn to interpret all the sounds and melodies happening simultaneously in the band while still delivering the often times different melody of the lyrics. This is precisely what happens during the speaking and listening cycle of communication. We hear a multitude of sounds and we must decipher amongst them in order to focus our attention on what is relevant. This is not always easy. I am sure many of you get easily distracted when there is too much background noise. However, by focusing on the higher pitched sounds from the speaker, we can determine what the key messages are in their words. Once it is our turn to speak, we must multitask again while talking and paying attention to the non-verbal cues we receive from our audience. If we cannot interpret the unspoken messages of our audience, we lose our opportunity to create a true dialogue. There are many tasks that we must tackle when engaged in interpersonal communication. How well we do depends greatly on how much we fine tune our instrument: our minds, our bodies and our voices. Put that on your tennis balls and juggle. To be added to Lanartco's Communication Performance Tip of the Week, please connect to this link or send your email address to info@lanartco.com