Ten Questions to Improve Your Communication Skills

By Keith Rosen, MCC
The Executive Sales Coach

The fact is, because most of us were never taught how to communicate in a way that produces desired results, we continue to experience frustration, resistance, conflicts, or breakdowns in our communication. Examine some of the obstacles that may prevent you from reaching certain objectives during the communication process:

• We want to be heard and listened to, but we don't always concentrate on the quality of our message or give the gift of our own attention.
• We want to be understood, yet we often fail to verify that our communication was successful.
• We want acceptance and agreement from others, and we often become consumed with having to be right or to prove our point; we ignore creating a greater outcome together.
• We want some kind of action or response from the other person, but we do not let them know what we really want or how to achieve it.
• We want to understand the message that the other person is communicating to us, yet our ability to listen is tainted by our perceptions of the person speaking and by the outcome we are looking to achieve. So, we often pass judgment on the speaker, evaluating the messenger rather than fully accepting the entire message.