Communication Skills Activities

Communication and leadership go hand in hand.

In An Integrative Theory of Leadership, Martin M. Chemers describes leadership as “a process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.”

In its Guidelines for Meeting the Communication Needs of Persons With Severe Disabilities, the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons With Severe Disabilities said that communication is “any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person’s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states.”

To lead is to influence others toward a shared goal. Communication is how we transmit and receive the very information of which influence consists.

Influence is the common thread that binds leadership and communication. continue reading »

Communication is a broad topic. It involves both non-verbal and verbal communication skills. The non-verbal communication skills are crucial and we talk about them often. But, today, let’s focus in on the verbal side of things from the perspective of a person actually speaking.

How can we organize our thoughts about these verbal communication skills? It can help to break them down to their basic elements as we’ve done below. continue reading »

It’s great to talk in general terms about communication skills. But to really understand how they are applied, it helps to see examples of communication skills in the context of particular situations.

So here are just a few brief case studies to demonstrate 3 particular communication skills.

First in our examples of communication skills in action is… continue reading »