L33T: Employment Tips
Effective Communication and Barriers in Communication
Communication Barriers
General:
Cultural Differences: Cultural differences can cause issues in communication as people may offend people without realizing. This can cause issues as in some cultures what may be a positive gesture may be considered offensive or rude in a different culture.
An example of this could be eye contact. In some cultures regular eye contact shows that you're interested and listening. However, in some cultures it signifies being rude. This is generally an issue because people are unaware that it's happening. It doesn't just have to be based on body language either, it can be vocal.
You can avoid cultural differences by planning ahead and understanding who are you going to be talking to. Having a good knowledge of the person's back round will give you relevant information and how to avoid being rude or unpleasant. In the business world, it is extremely important to be as professional as possible.
It will also help to understand why they believe it is rude and offensive, as if you know a little bit more about why they are doing it, it may be easier to adhere to.
Distractions:
Distractions can destroy conversion. If you are trying to communicate with someone and they're distracted they might not take any information in at all! It's imperative that both parties are concentrating and the conversation of free of distractions. If not it can cause more problems down the like. If you aren't concentrating it will also effect your learning and taking in information.
Distractions can vary from anything, such as a loud fan to a smart phone. It is vital that they are acknowledged and dealt with immediately.
A key step to dealing with distractions would be being in an environment where there aren't potential for them to develop. If a distraction does appear, deal with it by removing it from the room and focusing on the conversation. If you fear that your target audience is distracted, ask them if they are getting distracted and listen to their feedback. If there is a distraction, remove it. Overall if you are not concentrating because of a distraction you should inform someone who may be able to help.
Interpersonal:
Body Language: If you have poor body language, it communicates that you aren't interested and you'd rather be doing something else. It should be avoided at all costs. When in communication it can be considered rude if it looks like you don't care and you might upset the person talking to you. Likewise if you were communicating with someone and they weren't looking interested you'd feel the same.
Examples of bad body language are:
- Folded arms
- Hesitant eye contact
- Slouching over a desk
- Fiddling and getting distracted by other activities
- Tapping your foot constantly
In order to put a stop to poor body language, you should remember not to do any of the above and look like you are interested even when you may not feel that way. If you are talking to someone with bad body language, make them aware that they don't seem interested listen to their response.
Another example is closed body language which may come across as aggressive. To avoid this try to stay neutral and relaxed instead of stiff and motionless.
Lack of Concentration:
A lack of concentration can be serious in many different ways. However in communication, a lack of concentration can lead to mistakes and problems down the line. For example is an employee were to only listen to half of the information they'd miss out on a lot of key facts. This can cause problems as they may perform a task wrong or differently to how they were meant to. As you can tell, the slightest mistake could lead to big consequences so it is very important to concentrate at all times when in conversions.
To stop losing concentration, you can:
- Think of questions to ask (This will increase the amount of thinking you are doing and explore the different aspects of the message they are putting across)
- Stop fiddling or trying to do another task whilst communicating (This will block out any distractions and keep you focused on the person you're talking to)
- Make notes (Making notes can help as you'll have a physical way to remember what they communicated as well as a reason to listen for all key points)
- Engage them in conversation
Written
Poor Spelling: Poor spelling can seriously effect how well your message is received. It spelling errors are common, it could make the information hard to read. It might not effect the readability, but the credibility of you and the company you would be representing. If you make lots of mistakes, it makes you look bad and it also taints the image of the company you'd be working for. So it is important that you try to spell all words correctly. It may be difficult and might be an accident, but you shouldn't be making spelling mistakes and not fixing them.
You can fix the issue by using spell checker in the program you are using. It should pick up any obvious spelling mistakes and it extremely useful when it is a long document you want to check. You could also get someone to help you proof read your work. As if you made the mistake you might not pick it up. Team work is very useful in situations like these. If you are unsure about how to spell something you can always use a search engine to find the correct answer, but it you want to go old school you can pull out a dictionary and look there.
Poor Grammar:
Like spelling mistakes, grammar errors can lead to further issues. When writing emails or resumes, grammatical errors stick out and taint your image as a candidate. It also might jumble up sentences and paragraphs making it extremely hard to understand. A good example this would be a page where there are no paragraphs, commas, full stops or question marks. You wouldn't be able to read to intended message, which would cause big issues in the business world. Overall grammar should be kept an eye on to stop any mistakes that could interrupt the message.
To avoid this always double check your work for basic mistakes and use a software to look for anything you may not have noticed. It may also help getting someone else to proof read as they may spot something that you overlooked. Overall it is important to uphold a good standard of grammar as it reflects on you and your employer. You should always try your best to keep an eye on basic things like paragraphing and sentence structure to stop you from making common mistakes. Revising grammar and punctuation may also help you.