Communication is essentially the transfer of ideas, messages or information from one person to another. It is effective when it gets the desired action or response. Basic communication skills are essential for continued success, whether personal or professional. At the very base one needs to understand the communication process.
Thus, one may ask what are communication skills? To answer that simply - Basically, communicating is like a two-way street, which entails the relation between the sender and the receiver. In this process, a cycle of communicating messages is formed between the sender and the receiver. The sender is required to conceive the message he/she wishes to send, encode this message and then transmit. The receiver then is required to receive the message, decode is and clarify his/her understanding of the message.
In order to maintain healthy communication, the two must go through this process, without bringing in other elements of intellectual thoughts and judgments, as they tend to harm the harmonious process of message passing and receiving.
From the sender's perspective one needs to have the following essential skills:
Skills to compose the message
Skills to send the message
From the receiver's perspective one needs to have the following essential skills:
The skill of receiving a message
Without assumptions
Placing biases aside
Actively listening
Thus, the elements of effective communication are:
Listening
Verbal skills
Non-verbal skills