Teens that lack social communication are at risk of behaving in an unhealthy manner within relationships. And a lack of social communication usually means a lack of communication skills in a company environment during their working years.
To circumvent this occurrence, your friends at Dale Carnegie Training of Michigan are pleased to offer you the following five simple strategies to help young adults in your life develop communication skills:
Be a good role model — Teens look to their teachers and parents for cues as to how to conduct themselves. This includes how they confront problems, how they engage in conversation, and how assertive they are in a given situation. Try to be a good role model for teens assessing your reactions and explain to them what you did and why.
Rehearse situations — Role-playing offers teens the chance to practice how to act in a situation that is non-threatening. You can try different scenarios such as conducting an interview, team member engagement exercises, or providing help.
Review body language exercises — Help teens learn how to read facial expressions, body language and gestures. Try pointing out the cues and help the teens to practice and recognize possible messages. Pay attention to pacing, inflection and tone of voice and show the teens how these cues are often as readable as spoken words.
Examine perspectives — Give teens a chance to consider other points of view by questioning. For instance, pose questions like “Why do you think he is turning away?” or “Why do you think she is making a face like that?” If you ask questions like this, it will help the teen build empathy.
Provide positive feedback — Observe the teen in various scenarios and then share what you observed. This will help the teen to know areas where he or she require improvement. Provide both negative and positive feedback and also offer suggestions where applicable.
For more information on teen communication skills join us for “The Dale Carnegie Course for Teens,” being held in Ann Arbor on May 14 and Novi on June 18.
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Michigan, providers of professional development and management development courses and information in Michigan. We would love to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter @micarnegie.
Photo credit: freedigitalphoto.net/Ambro
Send to Kindle