Just as there are good communication skills, so are there bad communication skills that you need to do away with if you can want to be good at communication.
Achievement in any field requires a reasonable comprehension of the best approaches to speak with others. Poor communication skills can harm your standing, and hinder personal and corporate growth.
Changing poor communication skills or habits is difficult, particularly in case you’re uninformed of what you’re doing, significantly less how others see the conduct. When you can distinguish the issue and comprehend the adverse results of proceeding with the negative communication, you can cause changes by the manner in which you communicate to make for improvement in your professional relationships and career path.
Thi article brings to you, the 15 bad communication skills you need to do away with immediately.
15 Bad Communication Skills You Need To Do Away With Immediately
Here are 15 common bad communication practices that we all fall prey to:
- Not Asking Questions
- Ignoring Difficult News
- Making assumptions before you hear the whole message.
- Letting your emotions control what you say.
- Ignoring Questions In Text Messages
- Waiting To Speak Up
- Interrupting Others
- Rehearsing Responses Instead Of Truly Listening
- Immediately Sharing A Similar Experience
- Not asking probing questions of other people.
- Not to Listening With Intention
- Staying Silent For Fear Of Social Repercussions
- Hitting ‘Send’ Too Quickly
- Expecting people to be a mind reader
- Letting anything distract you from giving your full attention.
1. Not Asking Questions
Oftentimes, we replace asking questions with sharing our opinions and stories which is not right.
With the use of a coach approach in a conversation, you will have an effective dialogue, which is the contrary for alternating mini-monologues.
You could have more access to what you’ve just heard by simply saying, “Tell me more.”
If you want to build trust between yourself and another person, one of the sure ways to do that is by asking questions about the other person. This goes on to show care.
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2. Ignoring Difficult News
There’s much tendency for a number of persons to ignore difficult or challenging news hoping that issues with get resolved on their own or disappear in the twinkle of an eye but no, that’s not how it happens.
This is among the poor communication skills and my advice to you is to process critical issues by considering the worst-case scenario if there’s a refusal to address the issue quickly.
With thinking through the worst-case scenario, you will drive the required action.
3. Making assumptions before hearing the whole message
Making assumptions before you get the full details is among the things you should avoid in communication.
Even if it seems that you know what one is saying or would say, it is better to say put and listen. There are certain things you can learn if you are interested in getting the full message rather than making assumptions.
Assumption can be costly and is to be avoided in communication.
4. Letting your emotions control what you say
One of the bad communication habits we are always guilty of is letting our emotions overshadow our sense of reasoning.
It has been proven that to have effective communication; you have to be in charge of your emotions and not otherwise being the case.
In order to avoid saying what you wouldn’t have said when you are in your best state of mind, ensure you always cool off when something that triggers you emotionally happen to you.
5. Ignoring Questions In Text Messages
People are fond of ignoring text messages especially when a question is inserted into the body of the text message. It’s quite baffling that this is seen among professionals, entrepreneurs, and many more.
To put an end to this act, always exercise patience while reading a message to make sure that the response communication is in alignment and leaves the receiver with a meaningful response.
6. Waiting To Speak Up
Why keep mute or wait to speak up when you are expected to speak up at that point in time? That’s quite bad!
In the face of difficulty lies a reward. As a remedy, I recommend you let go of the idea of right and wrong or good versus bad, as this will make for your understanding difficult communication as useful information that is resourceful for growth.
7. Interrupting Others
Interrupting others is among the bad communication skills you need to do away with and now.
Whether done politely or not, Interruption is not a good communication skill as it passes a variety of messages to the people you are speaking to and also to those who are listening.
For any time you interrupt mistakenly or not, it is wise to quickly apologize.
8. Rehearsing Responses Instead Of Truly Listening
One of the bad communication skills that are rampant these days is the habit of not listening.
People tend to spend time thinking and rehearsing what their response will be instead of listening.
The remedy to this is to be present, listen attentively and hear what the other person has to say.
By so doing, you will give well-thought-out answers as your responses, leaving the other person with the feeling of being heard and validated.
SEE ALSO: Understanding Nonverbal Communication At Work
9. Immediately Sharing A Similar Experience
This often happens because of enthusiasm or a lot of times at impulse.
There’s always a tendency to create a connection between yourself and the speaker when you share a similar experience but don’t just jump into that response quickly.
You need to take out time to listen, ask questions and show real interest and curiosity before sharing your own experience.
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10. Not asking probing questions of other people.
Examples of probing questions include, “Tell me more about that” or “So how did that make you feel?”, etc.
Such questions make the other person know that you care about them enough to ask for more information and make communication more effective.
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11. Not Listening With Intention
You know those times you smile and nod not because you are really understanding or paying attention to what is being said but as a trap to formulate your next comment or response, such is to be worked on.
You need to try as much as possible to listen with the mindset of helping your colleagues feel heard, valued, and understood. This will help you develop greater trust and be more effective at communication.
12. Staying Silent For Fear Of Social Repercussions
As much as silence is golden and the best answer at times, you shouldn’t stay silent when you’re supposed to speak up as it is among the bad communication skills you need to do away with immediately.
Don’t fail to say what is truly on your mind because of fear of social repercussions, as it can make for a struggle in the long run.
The best way to avoid this situation is by practicing the skill of having “tough conversations”
To get ideas on how to avoid silence for fear of repercussion and beyond that, find inspiration on how to do it, I recommend the book, Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.
READ ALSO: How to Improve Communication Skills and be Effective in the Workplace
13. Hitting ‘Send’ Too Quickly
Hey, stop being too quick to hit the ‘send button!
I said so because I don’t want you to have regrets whatsoever which has been the case for many people.
By making use of the “Schedule send” feature in Gmail you will send more timely emails.
By having thoughts on behalf of the email recipients, you can schedule the communication to be with them in their inbox at the most convenient time for them, and not just, by instinct, send it when it is convenient for you.
14. Expecting people to read your mind
There’s no one that is born a mind reader, no not one! So, it would be absurd to expect people to read your mind.
Women tend to do this more than men and use indirect language. But for someone to understand you and do that very well, speak directly Otherwise, you can’t hold them accountable if the cryptic message you are trying to pass on is misinterpreted.
15. Letting anything distract you from giving your full attention
You know that there’s time for everything, right?
When it’s time to listen to someone, gain something via communication, etc., you should give it your full attention and avoid any kind of distraction.
At such times, you should give in to distractions from the TV, your phone, thoughts, and so on.
If such a thing that requires your attention is worth it, then do it well and what is worth doing is worth doing well. You can always attend to your phone, TV later which is hardly the case in communication.
Conclusion
Just as you have seen, there are impedances to good communication skills that can ensure that no effective communication is achieved.
These bad communication skills that we have related to you are to be done away with immediately if you want to be effective at communication. With due diligence to practice the remedies we have related alongside, we are sure that you will be at the top of your game communication-wise.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Poor communication is a situation that occurs when there is a discordance between what is said and what is heard. It usually occurs when the person being communicated to does not understand what the speaker is trying to communicate to them.
Good communication is the effective sharing of information, meaning, thoughts, and feelings between individuals.
Don’t let these communication bad habits define you: Not Asking Questions, ignoring Difficult News, Making assumptions before you hear the whole message, Letting your emotions control what you say,
, Ignoring Questions In Text Messages, Waiting To Speak Up, Interrupting Others, Rehearsing Responses Instead Of Truly Listening
References
- forbes.com – 14 Bad Communication Habits And How Professionals Can Break Them
- lifehack.org – 15 Common Communication Mistakes That You Might Be Making (But You Don’t Even Know)
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