Five (5) Signs You Lack Good Communication Skills

Introduction

Communication skills are essential in a successful life. They are a large part of maintaining good relationships, both personally and professionally. If you have poor communication skills, you’ll struggle developing and maintaining friendships and romantic relationships, succeeding in your career, and doing well in job interviews.

You will also find that your own happiness and fulfillment in life can suffer.

The first and hardest step in improving your communication skills is admitting there’s a need to in the first place. We’ve compiled five dead giveaways that show you need to work on improving your communication skills.

1) You generalize a lot

Generalizations are problematic no matter how they’re used. The most common way people seem to notice generalizations tends to be through stereotypes, but there are a number of hurtful generalizations that are common and more subtle.

Examples

· “You always make that mistake.”

· “You never do the dishes.”

· “You complain every time.”

Replacements

· “You’ve made this mistake before.”

· “You haven’t done the dishes in a while.”

· “You complain about this frequently.”

2) You say “I” in most of your responses

While it’s fine to answer with an “I” statement occasionally, if you analyze your conversations and find that all your responses start with “I,” there’s a problem.

Examples

· “Oh, I had that experience the other day…” followed by changing the subject and dismissing their point/story.

· “I know exactly what you’re feeling.”

Replacements

· “That sounds interesting; tell me more.”

· “You must be feeling…”

3) You rarely make eye contact

Making eye contact is an important part to any conversation; it shows you’re invested in the conversation and that you care about what that person has to say. However, not maintaining eye contact can make you seem like unfocused and unconcerned with anything they have to say. There’s a delicate balance between too much and too little eye contact, but it can and should be found.

4) You fidget or look at your surroundings a lot in conversation

Fidgeting and looking around the room while the other person is talking is a clear sign that you’re not interested in what they have to say. It shows that you’re more interested in your surroundings than any information they can provide you with. By maintaining your focus on the person with whom you’re conversing and limiting your fidgeting, you’re showing them that you care about what they have to say.

5) You’re always changing the subject

If every response you have in a conversation is changing the subject to something barely related or entirely unrelated, you’re showing everyone you’re speaking to that you aren’t invested in the conversation and you really don’t care what they have to say. This can be a hard challenge to overcome, but a good way is to practice asking

questions through your responses.

Solutions

· “That must be terrible; what did you do about it?”

· “How did you handle that?”

· “What did you do next?”

Communication skills are necessary to be successful in society and in your career. Without good communication skills, you’ll struggle to maintain relationships, do well in job interviews, and to further your career. The first step to fixing this problem is identifying it in the first place, which can be difficult to do in yourself.

Conclusion

Self-reflection is always challenging, but especially when it comes to communication, but it’s not impossible. We hope this list of dead giveaways that you lack communication skills will help you to improve your communication, leading to an improvement in your relationships and career.