L33T Index - Communication
Effective Communication
General communication is the ways and methods that a sender and recipient use to communicate with each other. There are multiple different methods that people can use that are effective in getting the message and information across to the recipient so that they will understand what is being said. Different people and cultures may use different methods and techniques to communicate with each other. It means that to communicate effectively you must understand and respect other cultures and people's opinions on gestures and phrases to be able to communicate without causing offence to either party involved. People now use different technologies and methods to communicate with each other, for example people now communicate through the use of emails, where people can write important information in a format that is easily accessible in the modern world. People also use technologies for voice calling such as Skype that allow people to have voice over IP (VoIP) conversations or via real time video conferencing that allow people to communicate from different parts of the world.
Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication is the way in with people communicate on a small level in either groups of two plus. This type of effective communication requires the participants to do more than just verbal talking. For example if a person is doing a presentation they need to use the correct body language and gestures to show and develop what they are saying so that the audience can further understand the information that they are being told and what the presentation is about. This allows the audience to fully understand what the presenter is saying rather than just reading information from an email as the information is being provided on a personal level so that it can be further understood and put into practice. The type of language used is also very important for effective Interpersonal communication as it can either be positive or negative. Using positive language in communication provides the recipient with trust and understanding from the source as they provide information that is effective and can help them improve, for example an employee working on a project may have it reviewed by fellow colleges or peers providing them with positive information that makes them proud of the work and provided them with improvements to make their work better.
Written Communication
Written communication is very important in-order for it to be effective, it requires the sender to check the work for spelling and grammatical errors that will need to correct in-order for documents to be understood and the correct business decisions made. This means that if a person was to send an email to a customer they would first need to proofread the document, carefully checking for any spelling and grammar mistakes and checking that the document is structured correctly. This is important so that the receiver can interpret and understand the information provided so that they can make informed decisions upon the information provided as it is accurate. It is also important for the sender to check the relevance of the message being sent as they will need to convey the correct message to the recipient, this means that the text in the document has to be relevant to the subject that the receiver is expecting.
Barriers to Communication
There can be many barriers to general communication with the differences in different cultures from around the world. Gestures can mean different things from one culture to the next which can cause problems during the communication process. For example the thumbs up gesture in western civilization is considered as a positive message and a response that everything is ok and fine to signify that the person has done the task required correctly. However in eastern civilization this is considered to be quite a rude gesture and can become quite offensive to them and their beliefs. This could cause a major barrier to communication as if a person from a western region did this gesture to someone form an eastern region they could have the gesture misinterpreted and misunderstood so that the original message that was being portrayed gets lost in translation. To combat this barrier to communication if a meeting was to take place between two or more clients from different cultural background research would have to be made by each individual so that they can find out any gestures or phrases that may be offensive to someone and avoid using them so that effective communication can take place and the information and messages understood by both parties.
Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal barriers to communication are usually personal skills and/or attributes that prevent a person from communicating with others effectively. This cannot only just hamper a person's ability to be heard by others but to also hear and listen to other people and their ideas on different subjects and topics that may be very important in business growth. An example of an interpersonal barrier to communication is having an emotional barrier to certain subjects/topics or people. This may have developed through multiple personal experiences that have resulted in the person not being able to communicate effectively. The person may become frustrated and hostile towards a person's opinion on a subject that they feel uncomfortable about which could result in their opinions not being heard as they are not able to express their views due to how they feel emotionally. This is a difficult problems to overcome but with the support of fellow colleges and other organisations providing assistance the person can overcome difficult emotional attachments to certain subjects and topics, which can then ensure that the persons opinions can be heard and understood by others, and they can therefore be confident that their views and opinions stated have been expressed correctly and provide information towards making business decisions.
Written Communication
There can be many barrier to effective communication when communication takes place in a written format. It is easy for written information to be misinterpreted which can result in the message the sender is trying to get off not being understood by the recipient and the wrong information used to make business decisions. For example if the incorrect language is used in a written document such as an email information that has been written may contain Jargon/Slang that the source may have inputted accidentally that when sent to the recipient may be misunderstood resulting in wrong decisions being made as the information is inaccurate as it was misinterpreted. To reduce the risk of this happening the source must proof read and edit any slang language they use in a document and avoid using any jargon altogether to reduce the risk that the information has been misinterpreted. A clear and direct document will assist the recipient as the information will then be easily understood as the information provided will be in a clear and consistent format that provides little opportunity for misinterpretation. This will allow the receiver to understand the message and information being portrayed by the sender so that correct business decisions can be made.