Principles of Effective Communication

General Skills

Cultural Differences

Communicating effectively with people from different cultures is very challenging.  It can be a struggle to understand someone’s speech or interpret their behaviour even if they are speaking the same language. This can be consistently seen in a workplace as it is common to face barriers or challenges to effective cultural communication. Ineffective cross cultural communication can harm employees, customers and others in a business so it is extremely important to understand the barriers and knowhow to overcome then.

 An example of a cultural difference can be language and misunderstandings which are common among people who speak the same language so it is not surprising that people from another culture face barriers of communication. For example, if a sales director from London asks a contractor from Spain to do something, the two parties may have interpreted some words wrong and language is a reflection of culture and different cultures have very different ways of assigning meanings to words.

Another example of cultural barriers is behaviour, cultural differences in body language and other behaviours can cause miscommunication. For example, in the UK it is important to make eye contact with someone who is speaking to you as it shows you are concentrated and interested in them. On the other hand, in many Asian countries eye contact can display disrespect or challenge of authority, there are also many other behaviours that can cause ineffective communication. Some of these can include facial expressions, the use of nodding, and the amount of time to give someone when they reply to a question.

 Techniques for engaging audience

This next communication skill that is important is engaging your audience, this is important as you need to retain your audience’s interest. An example of this is when giving a presentation and you just be blunt and tell them what you have to say and leave it as that, this could make the audience bored and uninterested. The main aim for engaging your audience is to just keep the audience entertained and interested.

An important factor to take into consideration when engaging the audience is the use of humour, if your sense of humour is different to that of the audience then you could look a bit stupid and embarrassed if you make a joke and no one laughs. Worst case scenario is that they might find a joke that you make offensive but just using humour engages your audience so much more. Another way to engage you audience is the use of technology, technology is another important thing you must consider when engaging the audience. Technology can help you in lots of different ways, it can make presentations a lot easier by using programmes such as PowerPoint as there are lots of different features on there that makes your presentation look great and stand out. Technology can also be used in a presentation by using a video to get your point across even more and the use of pictures but overall, its best to keep it simple and not overdo it.
 

Interpersonal communication skills

 

 

 

Interpersonal communication skills is Interpersonal skills are the life skills we use every day to communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in groups. Employers often seek to hire staff with strong interpersonal skills, they want people who will work well in a team and be able to communicate effectively with colleagues, customers and clients.

Methods

Verbal/oral communication is the most common method of communication although there are many more. Oral communication is simply using words verbally to inform people of decisions being made, providing information, and so on. This is usually done either by phone or face to face. The person on the receiving sided of the conversation must also need to be cautious as to whether or not they can clearly understand what is being said. This therefore means that you will need both listening and speaking skills to communicate verbally.

Another method of communication is lip reading which is used to allow you to ‘listen’ to a speaker by watching the speaker’s face to figure out their speech patterns. This method can be valuable to someone with a speech deficiency. In everyday conversation, people with normal vision, hearing and social skills sub-consciously use information from the lips and face to aid them and most fluent speakers of a language are able to lip read to some extent. If you were presenting to someone who is lip reading, you need to make sure that you keep facing them and speak with an emphasis on words or long words that are important to your presentation.

 

Techniques and cues

 

Techniques and cues are a method of communication that go far beyond words and signals for example; many messages can be understood from body language such as, folded arms and a sad mouth would suggest that the person is unhappy or upset. Once these signals are understood, these signs allows for effective communication. The first technique for effective communication is listening, this is one of the most important aspects of effective communication. For this to succeed, you must understand how the speaker feels about what they’re communicating. When presenting, you need to create an environment where everyone feels safe, you will also need to relieve negative emotions and feel that you’re being heard and understood.

 

Body language is extremely important when presenting, firstly you must watch the audience for signs that gives you a hint if the message is getting across. Some of these signs might be how over tilted heads can represent sympathy or lowered heads indicate a reason to hide something so just remember to watch their head position. Another body language to look out for is you need to look into the audience eyes as people who look to the side or somewhere else seem more distracted or nervous. If someone mimics your body language then this is a sign that they are trying to establish rapport with you. When presenting, make sure your arms are not folded or down by the side, you need to be aware of your surroundings when presenting. Make gestures when presenting, exaggerated movements can express passion or interest in the subject you are presenting. Don’t just stand still when presenting, you need to move around and express great enthusiasm for the subject and then the audience will become more inclined. Also, don’t forget to keep a strong posture as this shows confidence and dedication.

 

Intonation is all about expressing the message in your voice. The voice you use is part of who you are and what you believe, when giving a presentation you need to use your voice effectively. From the sound of your voice, your listeners will make judgments about your attitude toward them and the ideas you're presenting. Make sure you do not speak in a monotone, use various different tones, pitch, volumes and rhythm, this creates work expression in your voice by varying the elements in your voice. Use changes in volume to prevent your voice from slipping into a monotone sound and to alert your audience to the focus of your message.

Written Communication Skills

Proofreading

Proofreading is absolutely essential because a large sum of people in modern days rush through their work and miss spell words and even leave out or use incorrect punctuation. When reading through someone else’s work, it may not make sense to you because they have missed out a comma or a full stop. Proofreading is more important than people seem to realise for the reason that if people can't understand your work which could be a set of instructions then they won't be able to complete the task properly.

The same as proofreading, note taking is another crucial way of teaching because if you ever forget some information you can just look back at the notes you made. It’s always good to have something to look back at if you haven't taught that subject in a long time or you’re just learning it yourself. If you don't need the notes you can always give them out to whoever you’re teaching as well for additional support.

Spelling and Grammar

Correct grammar and spelling is a vital part in written communication. Whoever is reading what you write will form an opinion of you based on the content of your work and errors are very likely to lead them to form a negative impression of you. An example of how important spelling and grammar is, is that some employers state publicly that any CV or resume containing spelling or grammatical mistakes will be rejected immediately. In addition, spelling and grammar is very important because it could cause some confusion with the incorrect spelling and grammar in document. Also, this can lead to being unprofessional and not taken seriously because you have not bothered to spell check your document ensuring that there are no mistakes.

Microsoft word has a built in feature that automatically or manually checks the spelling and grammar of your document but don’t highlight some other mistakes such as;

•             Defiantly instead Definitely

•             Its instead of It’s

•             You’re instead of Your

In conclusion, it is of vital importance that you look through your work and make sure that everything is spelt correctly and make sure there is no grammatical errors as this will make you look important and gives the reader a positive vibe about you.

 

 

 

Barriers

A barrier to communication is anything that interferes with the transfer of intended information from a sender to a receiver. This can include anything from static on a radio, preventing the listener from hearing the program, to a third party interfering in a conversation between two people.

General Skills

One cultural barrier that you could come across when communicating with a diversely cultured audience could be gestures as some gestures may be acceptable in one culture but offensive in another. Another cultural barrier is verbal which means the way you talk, it is extremely important to avoid using slang terms as this would confuse different cultures and could also mean different and offensive things in their language. Another verbal barrier could be that some people are harder to understand because they are of a different culture, this could be overcome by simply asking them to repeat the word or phrase again and this will ensure that you know what they are saying and not be confused. Another thing to do is to plan ahead, this means that the person researches the audience they are presenting to and find out if there are any people from different cultures and make sure you know what you’re talking about. You could then make sure words and gestures that would offend were not included. This would work as if the audience are not offended and feel respected they are more likely to stay engaged and listen to what is being said.

Another barrier to general skills is displaying negative body language and this can be linked into many other cultural terms and mean different things to other people. Having a negative body language can lead to high nerves and unprepared for a presentation. This can be overcome by deciding to balance out the nerves by doing something like meditation or something along the lines and just think to yourself “what’s the worst that could go wrong?” Furthermore, you can avoid nerves by adding fun elements to your presentation such as a word search or a video as this will get the audience involved and therefore not put all of the pressure on you. Also, planning a presentation can also relieve the nerves as you will not freeze and not read from the presentation itself but memorise key points in your head as this would work because it will show the audience that you are professional and actually care what you’re presenting about.

Interpersonal Skills

One barrier to interpersonal communication is nerves, this is because it will make the conversation more awkward and it would interrupt the normal flow of the conversation. Overcoming this can be a great challenge to many people who suffer from nerves and they may need something to take their mind off the presentation such as listening to music or meditation.

Another barrier is if you are speaking to a deaf audience or just even the one person in the audience who is deaf, some deaf people may not know how to lip read meaning you have to sign them. If you do not understand sign language then you will be unable to exchange words. To overcome this barrier, research your audience and know if any of them are deaf and learn some simple phrases of sign language to aid your communication and you should pronounce your words easily and clearly.

Another barrier to interpersonal skills is that you would need to take into consideration the other persons first and main language. For example, if both people have the same first and fluent language then this shouldn’t be a problem as they can communicate effectively towards each other. However, when talking to someone who is not a fluent speaker of English you will need to say words that they will understand and keep the conversation short and sweet.

Another barrier of interpersonal communication is if a mobile phone goes off during the communication between one another as this will cause a major distraction and will interrupt the conversation. To overcome this barrier, ensure that all mobile phones are set to silent or turned off during the conversation as this will ensure that no further distractions take place. Also, if your mobile phone does go off and ring then this can show others that you are unprofessional and don’t really care about the counterpart. All of the audience could be asked to put phones on silent before a presentation is given and this would work as it would remove the chance of the distraction happening and ensure that the audience were not distracted from what was being said.

Written Communication

One barrier to written communication is the lack of spelling and grammar checking. You may have written a piece of work that has words that are misspelt and this can alter the sentence completely because it may mean something else or ruin the whole sentence. Also, the misspelling of some words can make a completely different word because you may even think it is spelt that way such as your and you’re, this can throw someone off track and make your text hard to understand. Another barrier is that the spelling and grammar checker on word isn’t always correct on some words and sentences. Sometimes the spell checker corrects a word to something wrong or it may miss out the correction of a misspelt word as it makes another word. To overcome these two barriers, would be to thoroughly check through your work to make sure that it all makes sense and that no words are misspelt or incorrect in that context. You can also get someone else to proofread your work because sometimes it will make sense to you but to someone else’s perspective, it might not make sense.

Structure is also a barrier to effective written communication. If the document is not structured logically the reader will get lost off and it would be much harder to understand what has been written. One way to reduce this barrier is to structure the work logically using suitable headings and sub headings. This would work as is would be much easier for the reader to follow what was written and they would understand it much better.