Communication Skills - Start Here!
Why you need to get your message across
Effective
communication is all about conveying your messages to other people
clearly and unambiguously. It's also about receiving information that
others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible.
Doing
this involves effort from both the sender of the message and the
receiver. And it's a process that can be fraught with error, with
messages muddled by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient.
When this isn't detected, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted
effort and missed opportunity.
In
fact, communication is only successful when both the sender and the
receiver understand the same information as a result of the
communication.
By successfully
getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas
effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you
actually send do not necessarily reflect what you think, causing a
communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way
of your goals – both personally and professionally.
In
a recent survey of recruiters from companies with more than 50,000
employees, communication skills were cited as the single more important
decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey, conducted by the
University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, points out that
communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well
as an ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to
job success.
In spite of the
increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals
continue to struggle, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas
effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This inability makes
it nearly impossible for them to compete effectively in the workplace,
and stands in the way of career progression.
Being
able to communicate effectively is therefore essential if you want to
build a successful career. To do this, you must understand what your
message is, what audience you are sending it to, and how it will be
perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding your
communications, such as situational and cultural context.
Communications Skills – The Importance of Removing Barriers
Problems with communication can pop-up at every stage of the communication process (which consists of the sender, encoding, the channel, decoding, the receiver, feedback and the context – see the diagram below). At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion.
To
be an effective communicator and to get your point across without
misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the
frequency of problems at each stage of this process, with clear,
concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process
through below:
Source...
As
the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're
communicating, and what you want to communicate. You also need to be
confident that the information you're communicating is useful and
accurate.
Message...
The message is the information that you want to communicate.
Encoding...
This
is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate
into a form that can be sent and correctly decoded at the other end.
Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey
information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate
and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues,
mistaken assumptions, and missing information.)
A
key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who
you are communicating with will result in delivering messages that are
misunderstood.
Channel...
Messages
are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including
face-to-face meetings, telephone and videoconferencing; and written
channels including letters, emails, memos and reports.
Different
channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not
particularly effective to give a long list of directions verbally,
while you'll quickly cause problems if you give someone negative
feedback using email.
Decoding...
Just
as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding
(involving, for example, taking the time to read a message carefully,
or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from errors in
encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly
the case if the decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the
message.
Receiver...
Your
message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt,
you have in mind the actions or reactions you hope your message will
get from this audience. Keep in mind, though, that each of these
individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and
feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your
message, and their response. To be a successful communicator, you
should consider these before delivering your message, and act
appropriately.
Feedback...
Your
audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal
reactions to your communicated message. Pay close attention to this
feedback, as it is the only thing that can give you confidence that
your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has
been a misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the
message a second time.
Context...
The
situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may
include the surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate
culture, international cultures, and so on).
Removing Barriers at All These Stages
To
deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the
barriers that exist within each of these stages of the communication
process.
Let’s begin with the
message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganized, or
contains errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and
misinterpreted. Use of poor verbal and body language can also confuse
the message.
Barriers in
context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too
fast. When in doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be
mindful of the demands on other people’s time, especially in today’s
ultra-busy society.
Once you
understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s
culture, making sure you can converse and deliver your message to
people of different backgrounds and cultures within your own
organization, in your country and even abroad.
The first skill that you'll learn in this communications skills is 'How to Make a Great First Impression": This is
essential if you're going to have the chance to communicate your
message.
that will be our next skill inshaalah
Why you need to get your message across
Effective
communication is all about conveying your messages to other people
clearly and unambiguously. It's also about receiving information that
others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible.
Doing
this involves effort from both the sender of the message and the
receiver. And it's a process that can be fraught with error, with
messages muddled by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient.
When this isn't detected, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted
effort and missed opportunity.
In
fact, communication is only successful when both the sender and the
receiver understand the same information as a result of the
communication.
By successfully
getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas
effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you
actually send do not necessarily reflect what you think, causing a
communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way
of your goals – both personally and professionally.
In
a recent survey of recruiters from companies with more than 50,000
employees, communication skills were cited as the single more important
decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey, conducted by the
University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, points out that
communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well
as an ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to
job success.
In spite of the
increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals
continue to struggle, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas
effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This inability makes
it nearly impossible for them to compete effectively in the workplace,
and stands in the way of career progression.
Being
able to communicate effectively is therefore essential if you want to
build a successful career. To do this, you must understand what your
message is, what audience you are sending it to, and how it will be
perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding your
communications, such as situational and cultural context.
Communications Skills – The Importance of Removing Barriers
Problems with communication can pop-up at every stage of the communication process (which consists of the sender, encoding, the channel, decoding, the receiver, feedback and the context – see the diagram below). At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion.
To
be an effective communicator and to get your point across without
misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the
frequency of problems at each stage of this process, with clear,
concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process
through below:
Source...
As
the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're
communicating, and what you want to communicate. You also need to be
confident that the information you're communicating is useful and
accurate.
Message...
The message is the information that you want to communicate.
Encoding...
This
is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate
into a form that can be sent and correctly decoded at the other end.
Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey
information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate
and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues,
mistaken assumptions, and missing information.)
A
key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who
you are communicating with will result in delivering messages that are
misunderstood.
Channel...
Messages
are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including
face-to-face meetings, telephone and videoconferencing; and written
channels including letters, emails, memos and reports.
Different
channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not
particularly effective to give a long list of directions verbally,
while you'll quickly cause problems if you give someone negative
feedback using email.
Decoding...
Just
as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding
(involving, for example, taking the time to read a message carefully,
or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from errors in
encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly
the case if the decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the
message.
Receiver...
Your
message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt,
you have in mind the actions or reactions you hope your message will
get from this audience. Keep in mind, though, that each of these
individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and
feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your
message, and their response. To be a successful communicator, you
should consider these before delivering your message, and act
appropriately.
Feedback...
Your
audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal
reactions to your communicated message. Pay close attention to this
feedback, as it is the only thing that can give you confidence that
your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has
been a misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the
message a second time.
Context...
The
situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may
include the surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate
culture, international cultures, and so on).
Removing Barriers at All These Stages
To
deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the
barriers that exist within each of these stages of the communication
process.
Let’s begin with the
message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganized, or
contains errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and
misinterpreted. Use of poor verbal and body language can also confuse
the message.
Barriers in
context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too
fast. When in doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be
mindful of the demands on other people’s time, especially in today’s
ultra-busy society.
Once you
understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s
culture, making sure you can converse and deliver your message to
people of different backgrounds and cultures within your own
organization, in your country and even abroad.
The first skill that you'll learn in this communications skills is 'How to Make a Great First Impression": This is
essential if you're going to have the chance to communicate your
message.
that will be our next skill inshaalah
