Any relationship in your life is built on a foundation of effective communication. You’ll notice there are people around you who have amazing relationships with their friends, peers, and family! You can be that person too. In this post, I will be giving you 5 tips to communicate effectively to build genuine relationships.
These tips are applicable to ANY relationship in your life. They are a guideline which will make it easier for you to become a master at GREAT communication.
It’s not as hard as you think it is though. These are simple steps we forget about because our ego takes over or because we’re too distracted. Trust me these MINOR changes will result in MAJOR communication improvements.
5 TOP Tips for Effective Communication to help you build Genuine Relationships
1) Put your phone away
When you’re having a conversation with someone, your friends, colleagues, or your family, make sure you put your phone away. It is so important to be PRESENT in the current moment.
Your phone is meant to help you communicate with people who aren’t around you. It’s not meant to be with you when the person you need to talk to is sitting right in front of you!
Keeping your phone away on silent will also help you engage more with the person you’re communicating with. This will help you build a more genuine connection because you’ll be able to ask the right questions to get to know them better.
So try this the next time someone comes up to you to have a chat, put your phone on silent and put it away.
You’ll notice the conversation will be much more enjoyable and you won’t have to ask the other person to repeat themselves because you’re not going to be distracted.
You should do the same when you’re on the phone with someone, don’t put them on speaker and do other work, listen to them and engage with them.
This is a non-negotiable tip you must follow if you want to improve relationships in your life.
I actually tried this with a group of my friends at IHOP. We all put our phones away and we spoke for over 4 hours! It was uninterrupted bonding time. It’s one of my many happy memories of my time at UCLA.
2) Be an engaged listener
Have you ever had a conversation with someone and thought ‘oh they’re not interested!’ If you have then you know what it’s like to have a conversation with someone who isn’t engaging with you.
You should be fully present and engaged in any conversation you have. People around you will value this quality and will want to work to build a more genuine relationship with you.
It’s really not difficult to do this, you just have to LISTEN to what they have to say and ask them good follow up questions.
If someone is just venting out their feeling to you, then LISTEN and let them know that you understand and acknowledge their feelings.
As human beings, we are incredibly perceptive. It’s easy for someone to pick up on cues if you’re not interested in a conversation.
So try to always stay engaged, and if you’re in a headspace where you don’t want to have a conversation respectfully let the other person know.
3) Ask questions & share experiences
When you’re having a conversation and there are those “awkward pauses” use them to ASK questions! But ask the right questions to really get to know a person.
Asking questions and sharing experiences are two ways to keep a conversation going and a good way to stay engaged.
You’ll usually find something in common through asking questions or sharing experiences and this helps you bond to build a more genuine relationship.
A big part of effective communication is asking the RIGHT questions. A conversation is just a back and forth of answering questions, so when you ask good questions you have a good conversation.
Sharing unique experiences is another way to bond with someone to build a more genuine relationship. There is nothing wrong with being vulnerable and sharing your story! In fact it’s the key to building long lasting friendships.
Don’t be afraid to talk about your life experiences, but just don’t ONLY talk about yourself ask questions and keep the conversation balanced.
I encourage you to check out this youtube channel where they focus on asking great questions to understand human emotion – The Skin Deep
You can download My LIST of 15+ questions you should be asking to improve any relationship in your life by requesting access to my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY at the end of this post!
4) Don’t judge
Each one of us is 100% unique. We all have our own unique life experiences and thoughts. So it’s so important to NOT JUDGE anyone you have a conversation with.
Each person has a right to their opinion, and a right to express their experiences. You as a listener should listen and engage but never ever judge.
Judging someone will create tension in a relationship and it’s unlikely that the relationship will be genuine.
It’s also important to not focus on building relationships with people who judge you! What’s the point? That person clearly doesn’t value your opinion enough if they judge you for it.
Surround yourself with people who are understanding and don’t judge you. You’ll not only have genuine relationships but more fulfilling relationships.
Remember, you can’t expect for people to not judge you if you judge them.
Consciously make an effort to acknowledge people’s feelings, and do this unconditionally and you’ll notice more and more genuine people will want to be around you.
5) Pick up on non-verbal communication
As an engaged communicator it’s important to not only be engaged through conversation, but also through non verbal communication.
You can be as engaged as possible, but if your body language is saying you’re not interested it won’t be enough.
Engage with your body. This also means that you need to be able to pick up on non verbal communication.
If someone has that look on their face which is screaming “OMG can you please stop talking” pick up on that and give the other person a chance to speak.
This tip will require some practise but once you’re able to pick up on non-verbal cues you’ll be able to better engage with people in your life.
So effective communication is about engaging with people not just verbally, but non-verbally as well!
I hope these tips help you build more genuine relationships in your life. Effective communication is a skill, practice it and use it to transform relationships in your life!
If you enjoyed this post you may like my blog post on – How to manage negative thoughts to build self confidence!
Sound of in the comments to let me know what tips you follow to build genuine relationships in your life!
Here’s to the start of your self care journey!
Cheers,
Disha
FREE List of 15+ Questions to ask to build a connection with someone!
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