5 Surprising Facts You Should Know About Effective Communication

Communication has a perception of being very simple. You just say what you feel and it’s all straightened out. However, actual meaning of communication is lost in interpretation and translation. What we say can be misunderstood and cause tension and chaos.

What is effective communication?

Effective communication is way more than being simple. It isn’t simple exchange of information. It is more about considering the emotions and intents of that information. It works both ways, you just don’t have to be a good speaker but a good listener. Speaking involves conveying the message in exact intentions while listening involves grasping the idea other person is conveying. Listening and Understanding are important pillars of effective communication skills.

Importance of effective communication

Effective communication is imperative in numerous parts of life. Most jobs require strong and effective communication. Effective communication also has benefits of exceptional interpersonal relationships with peers and family.

These communication facts are just going to surprise you. Have a look.

1. Facial expressions matter way more

We care very less about our expressions; our focus is words. What if I tell you that more than half of what you said just doesn’t matter because your expressions weren’t aligning with your words.

2. Our thinking and listening doesn’t align

Not just that they don’t get along well but they seriously have some issues. Apparently our hearing is much slower than our brain’s ability to think. We listen only 100-125 words per minute while our brain can utilize up to 3000 words per minute during thinking.

3. Listening and vision also have conflicts

We process images faster than words. We can only listen and store 7 bits of information at a single time. While our vision stores the images seen forever in our long term memory. We are more likely to remember images for a longer time.

4. Your employer loves effective communication

The best employers want someone with exceptional communication skills. Someone who knows about verbal communication and has fair knowledge on how to improve communications skills for benefit of the company. Even your promotions are based on your ability to overcome communication barriers.

5. Words definitely speak louder

Our words have the ability to impact others. The impact sometime is vast enough to spread over decades. Our words can influence people positively and negatively. It might hurt someone more than we can imagine. According to a study emotional distress is felt more deeply. Most of this distress is caused by what we say to each other.