General Communication Skills

 When presenting the person will be doing it for a reason, to portray their message to the audience and to do this effectively they must use different communication skills such as:

•  Accuracy
• Questions and Answers
• Cultural differences
• Adapting to suit the audience
• Engaging the audience

Cultural Differences

Cultural differences can have a big impact on effective communication as some words and gestures are acceptable in some cultures but are very offensive in others. It is important to know what will offend different cultures if you are to communicate with them effectively. Also you must know this skill to read their signs because if you don’t you could agree to something without knowing about it. Having this skill allows you to identify different body languages signs so that you can communicate effectively with the people you are presenting to, having this knowledge will give you an upper hand because they will appreciate that you have researched their culture in order to not offend them.

Some examples of the differences that are involved in personal space as in South America people prefer to be closer to one another when they interact therefore the consideration would be to keep the presentation in a small area to fit in with the differences and make it more personal to them.

In some country's women are still not viewed as equals so it would be best to send a man to the presentation as a consideration which will allow the man to fit in more than a woman would. However if this is not possible another consideration is some countries would to not make eye contact with women. If the wrong words or gestures are used when communicating to people with different cultures this could result in them becoming offended, misunderstand what you have said or interpret it in a different way to that you intended. If this happens the message you are trying to communicate would be lost. To communicate effectively it is essential to understand the cultural beliefs of the audience you are communicating to.

Techniques for Engaging the Audience

If communication is to be effective it is important to make sure the audience are engaged if you are to keep them interested in what you are saying. In order to do this the person presenting can use different techniques in order to make sure the audience are listening and attentive. The consideration you would have to make would be handing out hand-outs which will give them something else to do other than staring at the board. Also use open body posture in order to seem friendlier to the audience so they will feel comfortable enough to make eye contact and ask questions to engage.

 

If the audience is not engaged they could become bored and stop listening to what is being said.  To prevent this the person communicating to the audience could do a ‘pattern interrupt’ which will keep the audience engaged with questions and make them think and pay attention.  It is a good idea to pause to create an effect so it does not sound like a robot is just piling information on top of the people listening as this could result in them becoming dis-interested and they would stop listening. It is important to consider what the presentation is about and what you hope to achieve, if you know this then the audience will remain engaged and you will be able to communicate your message effectively. It is also very important to have eye contact with the audience to keep them engaged.