How to Create Effective Relationships through Confident Communication

Most people are terrible communicators. This can lead to miscommunication, misunderstandings, and conflict. But it doesn’t have to be this way. All it takes is a little practice and effort. Once you improve your communications, your relationships will improve noticeably. And that’s worth the effort, isn’t it?

Confident communication is the key to effective relationships. Building relationships is important to everyone. No one wants to be in conflict with people and feel disconnected. Most of us want to build meaningful relationships at home and at work. One of the easiest ways to build meaningful relationships is to use more confident communication. Confident communication starts with confident people.

What Does Confident Communication Look Like?

It feels good engaging with people who:

• Listen well
• Use positive body language
• Ask meaningful questions
• Express genuine interest in others

These characteristics and a few others, are examples of confident communication. Highly effective communicators know their engagement with other people makes an important impact and can enhance or prevent building strong relationships.

Communication is More than Speaking

Communication is so much more than speaking. Actually, the bulk of communication isn’t verbal. Did you know that the majority of what is being said between people is non-verbal? It’s true! Most of our communication is conveyed by:

• Our body language
• Our facial expressions
• The tone of our voice
• The gestures we use

That makes it important to consider not only what we say, but how we say it. People pick up on disconnects between what we say and what we convey non-verbally. If I’m smiling and nodding while delivering distressing news, that doesn’t make any sense. People can see when your words don’t match your body.

Great communicators integrate the two seamlessly to build better relationships. They understand how important it is to be consistent with the entire message they are sending out. It’s essential that we are aware of how our actions and words influence the people around us. Our words are important, but what we do with our body language and facial expressions will speak volumes to the people we’re communicating with.

When our communication style is confident, we become better leaders, better family members, and have more positive outcomes.

What Does Ineffective Communication Look Like?

Ineffective communicators tend to:

• Create distrust or defensiveness
• Alienate people
• Fail to read non-verbal cues
• Cause chaos rather than cooperation

I’m sure there are some people who enjoy creating chaos but the majority of these poor communicators simply lack self-awareness of their actions. This lack of self-awareness prevents meaningful connection. Confident communication is the key to effective relationships because learning new and more confident ways to communicate can help you:

• Build rapport
• Establish authority
• Create trust
• Develop empathy

Each of these characteristics leads to better relationships and more effective interactions at home and at work.

How Long Does it Take to Become a Confident Communicator?

Becoming a more confident communicator is a life-long journey. Sorry, not sorry. There is no magic pill that will make you a confident communicator in the next 5 minutes. But there are lots of benefits to developing great communication skills and it can be fun learning new methods and techniques. Where do you begin? Focus on improving the quality of your:

• Listening skills
• Non-verbal communication
• Interpersonal relationships

From there you can dive deeper and further develop your skill sets. In the end you’ll have created a unique communication style all your own that is confident and effective. More important, you’ll have better outcomes with your family, friends, and in your career.

In summary, today’s episode discussed the importance of confident communication in developing strong relationships. Highly effective communicators are able to engage with others in a way that builds trust and rapport. They are also good listeners, and use positive body language and meaningful questions to get to know others better. Confident communication is key to establishing authority and empathy, which are important for creating successful relationships.

Please join me tomorrow for the next episode in my confident communication series, as we’ll look into how your childhood affects your ability to be a confident communicator. If you like this series, please share it with two friends.