Communication has four main goals: to inform, request, persuade, and build relationships. Effective communication achieves balance between the sender and receiver of information. The two main types of communication are verbal, using speech, and nonverbal, using body language, images, and symbols. Verbal communication skills include developing voice, eye contact, and vocabulary, while nonverbal skills involve gestures, posture, facial expressions, and visual aids.

1. Communication

2. What is Communication?

3. The Four Main Goals of Communication
• To inform – you are providing
information for use in decision
making, but aren't necessarily
advocating a course of action
• To request – ask for a specific
action by the receiver
• To persuade – to reinforce or
change a receiver's belief about
a topic and, possibly, act on the
belief
• To build relationships – some
messages you send may have the
simple goal of building good-will
between you and the receiver

4. The Tao of Communication:
Balanced Exchanges
Receiving Information = the Yin of Communication
Sending Information = the Yang of Communication
Communication is a balance of sending and receiving information.
When the message is effectively conferred by the sender and fully
received and comprehended by the receiver, excellent
communication has occurred. This balance can best be visualized
with the Yin/Yang symbol.

5. The Tao of Communication:
Balanced Exchanges
Receiving: The Yin of Communication
Good communication is not about clever techniques, it is about
sincere understanding.
Learn to listen. Show people that their thoughts and insights are
important to you. Use silence to encourage other people to talk.
Silence, listening and caring about the answers is a great
conversation skill. Strive to understand others. Put yourself in the
other person’s shoes and try to see things through his or her eyes.
Learn to listen to body language and emotions and to hear what
isn‘t being said.

6. The Tao of Communication:
Balanced Exchanges
Sending: The Yang of Communication
Learn how to communicate effectively your ideas to others. To
speak effectively, avoid both too little and too much
communication. Break complex messages into parts and explain
the relationship of the parts.
Focus is everything. Don't dilute your message. Don't cloud the
main issue by insignificant information.

7. The Tao of Communication:
Balanced Exchanges
Forms
(How?)
Yin (Receiving) Yang (Sending)
Purposes Listening Speaking
(Why?) Watching Showing
Reading Writing
Yin (Receiving) Yang (Sending)
Learning Educating
Understanding Persuading
Being Inspired Inspiring

8. Verbal Communication
Verbal communication is the ability to use speech to explain and present your
ideas in clearly and effectively. This includes the ability to tailor your delivery
to a given audience and using appropriate styles and approaches such as
the tone and volume of your voice to convey emotion and feeling and
information.
Speaking can be looked at in two major areas: interpersonal and public
speaking. Since the majority of speaking is an interpersonal process, to
communicate effectively we must not simply clean up our language, but
learn to relate to people.

9. Interpersonal Verbal Communication
In interpersonal speaking, etiquette is very important. To be an
effective communicator one must speak in a manner that is not
offending to the receiver. Etiquette also plays an important role.

10. Public Speaking
The other major area of speaking is public speaking. Some of the major
areas of public speaking are speaking to persuade, speaking to inform,
and speaking to inspire or motivate.

11. 6 Verbal Communication Tips
• Develop your voice – A high whiney voice is not perceived to be one of
authority.
• Slow down – People will perceive you as nervous and unsure of yourself if you
talk fast.
• Animate your voice – Avoid a monotone. Use dynamics. Your pitch should
raise and lower.
• Enunciate your words – Speak clearly. Don’t mumble.
• Use appropriate volume – Use a volume that is appropriate for the setting.
Speak more softly when you are alone and close. Speak louder when you
are speaking to larger groups or across larger spaces.
• Pronounce your words correctly – People
will judge your competency through your
vocabulary. If you aren’t sure how to say
a word, don’t use it.

12. Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication is the process
of communicating through sending and
receiving wordless messages.
Examples of nonverbal communication:
•Gestures
•Body language or posture
•Facial expression
•Eye contact
•Clothing
•Symbols and informational graphics

13. Eye Contact
In the United States it is customary for two people who are having a
conversation to maintain eye contact during most or all of the
conversation. People who are unable to maintain eye contact during a
conversation are often looked upon as untrustworthy or rude. However,
in many Asian and African cultures, eye contact is viewed in a different
way. In those cultures, it is considered disrespectful to look an elder or
authority figure in the eyes during a conversation. By avoiding eye
contact they are showing their reverence for the other person. It is easy
to see how such a small gesture would be capable of causing many
misunderstandings for a person from one of these cultures.

14. Body Language
With your body language, "you're constantly saying
either, "Welcome, I'm open for business," or, "Go away,
I'm closed for business." You may be showing that you
are an opportunity or a threat; a friend or a foe;
confident or uncomfortable; telling the truth or
spouting lies.
When you are operating from inside a really useful
attitude, such as enthusiasm, curiosity, and humility,
your body language tends to take care of itself and
sends out unmistakable signals of openness.
Open body language - together with open facial
expressions – includes uncrossed arms and legs, ease
in facing the person, good eye contact, smiling,
standing or sitting erect, leaning forward, flexible
shoulders, and a generally relaxed aura. Open body
language makes expressive use of hands, arms, legs,
and feet.

15. Visual Communication
Visual communication as the name suggests
is communication through visual form. It is the
conveyance of ideas and information in forms
that can be read or looked upon. Primarily
associated with two dimensional images, it
includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic
design, illustration, color and electronic
resources. It solely relies on vision. Any
informational source produced in a two or
three dimensional form is visual
communication.

16. Visual Communication
Artists use visual communication to express their thoughts and opinions.
Some even use their art to persuade the viewer to feel a certain way
about a certain topic.

17. Review
Communication is the exchange of thoughts, feelings or ideas between two or
more people.
The four main goals of communication are:
•To inform
•To request
•To persuade
•To build relationships
The Tao of communication: Effective communication achieves a balance
between the sender of information and the receiver of information.
The two main types of communication are verbal and nonverbal.
Verbal communication is the use of speech to communicate.
Nonverbal communication is the use of gestures, body language, images, and
symbols to communicate.