In this episode, the host (Mohit) talks about how important communication skills are when communicating with clients and also with your own colleagues in the office.

The host also talks about hearing & listening, the role of body language, quality of listening, Do’s and don’ts in a client interview.

Hearing Vs listening:

When someone is speaking, you hear his/her voice but it doesn’t necessarily mean you understand what the speaker is trying to convey. For instance, when communicating with the client during requirement analysis, sometimes we don’t fully understand the client’s requirement. This happens because we hear them but we don’t listen to what they say. I was faced with the same challenge when working on the Vizzve project. When you listen, you are actually paying attention to the speaker’s words. This helps you to understand the requirement clearly and you will perhaps come up with some doubts.

Role of body language

When the client is speaking, make sure you’re facing them, lean slightly forward, and maintain eye contact throughout the conversation. This makes the client feel comfortable when discussing the requirement.

Here are the things you need to keep in mind during the client interview

  • Maintain eye contact Limit your talking
  • Focus on the speaker
  • Ask question
  • Manage your emotion
  • Listen with your eyes and ears
  • Listen for ideas and opportunities
  • Remain open to the conversation
  • Confirm understanding, paraphrase
  • Give non-verbal confirmation that you are listening ( nod, smile)
  • Ignore distractions
  • Nonverbal communication should be appropriate like
  • facial expression,  eye contact.

This is very imperative during a video conference with the client. It is a bad practice to interrupt clients when they are speaking. If you have any questions, you should ask them once the client has finished talking. Asking questions is also important to understand the client’s requirements. You need to be confident, have a smile on your face maintain eye contact and listen carefully during the conversation with the client. Judge and argue mentally.

Do not multitask during the conversation.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the most efficient of generating new ideas and finding solutions to any problems. It allows team members to think freely and give their ideas and opinions. This helps in figuring out solutions whenever you hit a brick wall while working on the project. This also helps save time and complete the project soon.

Final thoughts:

During the development process, we need to monitor tasks properly. We need to create a proper task and store and follow proper agile methodology. When working on a project during the month of August, we face some issues due to miscommunication. We need to write the task in a detailed manner and to do this we need to enhance our listening skills.