Introduction To Communication Skills

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION SKILLS

1.1       Introduction

Communication skills are skills that enable people to communicate effectively with one another. Effective communication involves the choice of the best communication channel for a specific purpose, the technical knowledge to use the channel appropriately, the presentation of information in an appropriate manner for the target audience, and the ability to understand messages and responses received from others. The ability to establish and develop mutual understanding, trust, and cooperation is also important. More specifically, communication skills include the ability to speak in public, make presentations, write letters and reports, chair committees and meetings, and conduct negotiations.

1.2       Overview

With good, solid, interpersonal communication skills, you will be more likely to succeed in both your personal life and in your career. What are some of these skills? Take a look at any basic interpersonal communication book and read the titles of the chapters. You'll see perception, listening, language, emotions, non-verbal communication, self-disclosure, communication climate, conflict resolution, and others. Being excellent at these skills will make you excellent at being a good friend, good spouse, and good employee, boss, co-worker, or business owner.

                                    

The ability to communicate is the primary factor that distinguishes human beings from animals. And it is the ability to communicate well that distinguishes one individual from another. The fact is that apart from the basic necessities, one needs to be equipped with habits for good communication skills, as this is what will make them a happy and successful social being.

In order to develop these habits, one needs to first acknowledge the fact that they need to improve communication skills from time to time. They need to take stock of the way they interact and the direction in which their work and personal relations are going. The only constant in life is change, and the more one accepts one's strengths and works towards dealing with their shortcomings, especially in the area of communication skills, the better will be their interactions and the more their social popularity.

Today, effective communication skills have become a predominant factor even while recruiting employees. While interviewing candidates, most interviewers judge them on the basis of the way they communicate. They believe that skills can be improvised on the job; but ability to communicate well is important, as every employee becomes the representing face of the company.

1.3       Communication Process

            Communication process can best be defined with the help of the figure given below.

Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver in an understandable manner. The importance of effective communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. From a business perspective, effective communication is an absolute must, because it commonly accounts for the difference between success and failure or profit and loss. It has become clear that effective business communication is critical to the successful operation of modern enterprise. Every business person needs to understand the fundamentals of effective communication.[1]

Currently, companies in the United States and abroad are working toward the realization of total quality management. Effective communication is the most critical component of total quality management. The manner in which individuals perceive and talk to each other at work about different issues is a major determinant of the business success. It has been proven that poor communication reduces quality, weakens productivity, and eventually leads to anger and a lack of trust among individuals within the organization.

The communication process is the guide toward realizing effective communication. It is through the communication process that the sharing of a common meaning between the sender and the receiver takes place. Individuals that follow the communication process will have the opportunity to become more productive in every aspect of their profession. Effective communication leads to understanding.

The communication process is made up of four key components. Those components include encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback. There are also two other factors in the process, and those two factors are present in the form of the sender and the receiver. The communication process begins with the sender and ends with the receiver.

The sender is an individual, group, or organization who initiates the communication. This source is initially responsible for the success of the message. The sender's experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skill, perceptions, and culture influence the message. The written words, spoken words, and nonverbal language selected are paramount in ensuring the receiver interprets the message as intended by the sender. All communication begins with the sender.

The first step the sender is faced with involves the encoding process. In order to convey meaning, the sender must begin encoding, which means translating information into a message in the form of symbols that represent ideas or concepts. This process translates the ideas or concepts into the coded message that will be communicated. The symbols can take on numerous forms such as, languages, words, or gestures. These symbols are used to encode ideas into messages that others can understand.

When encoding a message, the sender has to begin by deciding what he/she wants to transmit. This decision by the sender is based on what he/she believes about the receiver’s knowledge and assumptions, along with what additional information he/she wants the receiver to have. It is important for the sender to use symbols that are familiar to the intended receiver. A good way for the sender to improve encoding their message is to mentally visualize the communication from the receiver's point of view.

To begin transmitting the message, the sender uses some kind of channel (also called a medium). The channel is the means used to convey the message. Most channels are either oral or written, but currently visual channels are becoming more common as technology expands. Common channels include the telephone and a variety of written forms such as memos, letters, and reports. The effectiveness of the various channels fluctuates depending on the characteristics of the communication. For example, when immediate feedback is necessary, oral communication channels are more effective because any uncertainties can be cleared up on the spot. In a situation where the message must be delivered to more than a small group of people, written channels are often more effective. Although in many cases, both oral and written channels should be used because one supplements the other.

If a sender relays a message through an inappropriate channel, its message may not reach the right receivers. That is why senders need to keep in mind that selecting the appropriate channel will greatly assist in the effectiveness of the receiver's understanding. The sender's decision to utilize either an oral or a written channel for communicating a message is influenced by several factors. The sender should ask him or herself different questions, so that they can select the appropriate channel. Is the message urgent? Is immediate feedback needed? Is documentation or a permanent record required? Is the content complicated, controversial, or private? Is the message going to someone inside or outside the organization? What oral and written communication skills does the receiver possess? Once the sender has answered all of these questions, they will be able to choose an effective channel.

After the appropriate channel or channels are selected, the message enters the decoding stage of the communication process. Decoding is conducted by the receiver. Once the message is received and examined, the stimulus is sent to the brain for interpreting, in order to assign some type of meaning to it. It is this processing stage that constitutes decoding. The receiver begins to interpret the symbols sent by the sender, translating the message to their own set of experiences in order to make the symbols meaningful. Successful communication takes place when the receiver correctly interprets the sender's message.

The receiver is the individual or individuals to whom the message is directed. The extent to which this person comprehends the message will depend on a number of factors, which include the following: how much the individual or individuals know about the topic, their receptivity to the message, and the relationship and trust that exists between sender and receiver. All interpretations by the receiver are influenced by their experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skills, perceptions, and culture. It is similar to the sender's relationship with encoding.

Feedback is the final link in the chain of the communication process. After receiving a message, the receiver responds in some way and signals that response to the sender. The signal may take the form of a spoken comment, a long sigh, a written message, a smile, or some other action. Even a lack of response, is in a sense, a form of response. Without feedback, the sender cannot confirm that the receiver has interpreted the message correctly.

Feedback is a key component in the communication process because it allows the sender to evaluate the effectiveness of the message. Feedback ultimately provides an opportunity for the sender to take corrective action to clarify a misunderstood message. Feedback plays an important role by indicating significant communication barriers: differences in background, different interpretations of words, and differing emotional reactions.

The communication process is the perfect guide toward achieving effective communication. When followed properly, the process can usually assure that the sender's message will be understood by the receiver. Although the communication process seems simple, it in essence is not. Certain barriers present themselves throughout the process. Those barriers are factors that have a negative impact on the communication process. Some common barriers include the use of an inappropriate medium (channel), incorrect grammar, inflammatory words, words that conflict with body language, and technical jargon. Noise is also another common barrier. Noise can occur during any stage of the process. Noise essentially is anything that distorts a message by interfering with the communication process. Noise can take many forms, including a radio playing in the background, another person trying to enter your conversation, and any other distractions that prevent the receiver from paying attention.

Successful and effective communication within an organization stems from the implementation of the communication process. All members within an organization will improve their communication skills if they follow the communication process, and stay away from the different barriers. It has been proven that individuals that understand the communication process will blossom into more effective communicators, and effective communicators have a greater opportunity for becoming a success.

1.4       Communication Competence

Communication competence is the ability to choose a communication behavior that is both appropriate and effective for a given situation. Interpersonal competency allows one to achieve their communication goals without causing the other party to lose face. The model most often used to describe competence is the component model which includes three components:

Ÿ  knowledge

Ÿ  skill

Ÿ  motivation

Knowledge simply means knowing what behavior is best suited for a given situation. Skill is having the ability to apply that behavior in the given context. Motivation is having the desire to communicate in a competent manner. Therefore, communication competence is the degree to which a communicator’s goals are achieved through effective and appropriate interaction.

            Initially communication competence was defined as the ability to interact well with others.  The term 'well' refers to accuracy, clarity, comprehensibility, coherence, expertise, effectiveness and appropriateness. Communication competence is best understood as a situational ability to set realistic and appropriate goals and to maximize their achievement by using knowledge of self, other, context, and communication theory to generate adaptive communication performances.

            Communicative competence is measured by determining if, and to what degree, the goals of interaction are achieved.  As stated earlier, the function of communication is to maximize the achievement of “shared meaning.” Three interdependent themes related to communication competence are control, responsibility, and foresight. To be competent, we must "not only 'know' and 'know how,' we must also 'do' and 'know that we did'.   Communicative competence is further defined as the degree to which individuals perceive they have satisfied their goals in a given social situation without jeopardizing their ability or opportunity to pursue their other subjectively more important goals. Another useful framework for understanding communication competence is known as the component model of competence because it is comprised of three specific dimensions:

Ÿ  motivation (an individual’s approach or avoidance orientation in various social situations),

Ÿ  knowledge (plans of action; knowledge of how to act; procedural knowledge), and

Ÿ  skill (behaviors actually performed).

            Communication competence is an impression formed about the appropriateness of another's communicative behavior and that one goal of the communication scholar is to understand how impressions about communication competence are formed, and to determine how knowledge, skill and motivation lead to perceptions of competence within various contexts.

1.4.1    Six Criteria for Assessing Communication Competence

Following are the six major components for assessing communication competence.

            (1)        Adaptability (flexibility)

                        (a)        The ability to change behaviors and goals to meet the needs of                                           interaction.
                        (b)        Comprised of six factors:

i.              Social experience - participation in various social interactions

ii.             Social composure - refers to keeping calm through accurate 
perception

iii.            Social confirmation - refers to acknowledgment of partner’s 
goals

iv.           Appropriate disclosure - being sensitive to amount and type of 
information

v.            Articulation - ability to express ideas through language

vi.           Wit - ability to use humor in adapting to social situations;
ease tensions

           

(2)        Conversational Involvement

                        (a)        Behavioral and cognitive activity
                        (b)        Cognitive involvement demonstrated through interaction behaviors
                        (c)        Assessed according to three factors

                                    i.          Responsiveness - knowing what to say, know roles, interact
                                    ii.          Perceptiveness - be aware of how others perceive you
                                    iii.         Attentiveness -  listen, don’t be pre-occupied

            (3)        Conversational Management

                        (a)        How communicators regulate their interactions
                        (b)        Adaptation and control of social situations
                        (c)        Who controls the interaction ebb and flow and how smoothly the                                         interaction proceeds
                        (d)        How topics proceed and change

            (4)        Empathy

                        (a)        The ability to demonstrate understanding and share emotional reactions                             to the situation
                        (b)        Need not lead to “helping” the other person
                        (c)        Cognitive understanding
                        (d)        Parallel emotions

            (5)        Effectiveness

                        (a)        Achieving the objectives of the conversation
                        (b)        Achieving personal goals
                        (c)        A fundamental criteria for determining competence

            (6)        Appropriateness

                        (a)        Upholding the expectations for a given situation
                        (b)        A fundamental criteria for determining competence

 1.4.2       Aspects of Communication Competence

            Communicative competence is a concept introduced by a renowned linguist Dell Hymes and discussed and redefined by many authors. Hymes' original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes.[2]

            The points given below identify eight aspects of communicative competence. They are grouped together in two groups of four:-

           

(1)        Linguistic Aspects

                        (a)        Phonology and orthography

                        (b)        Grammar

                        (c)        Vocabulary

                        (d)        Discourse (textual)

            (2)        Pragmatic Aspects

(a)        Functions

(b)        Variations

(c)        Interactional skills

                        (d)        Cultural framework

1.5       Barriers to Effective Communication

         Recognizing barriers to effective communication is a first step in improving communication style.  Do you recognize these barriers from your own personal and professional experience?

1.5.1       Encoding Barriers

The process of selecting and organizing symbols to represent a message requires skill and knowledge.  Six obstacles, listed below, can interfere with an effective message.

(a)        Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver.  A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver.  Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message.  If a customer is angry, for example, an effective response may be just to listen to the person vent for awhile. 

(b)        Lack of Basic Communication Skills.  The receiver is less likely to understand the message if the sender has trouble choosing the precise words needed and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. 

(c)        Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject.  If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message.  Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way?  Others cannot.

(d)        Information Overload.  If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information.  If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver with an information avalanche.

(e)        Emotional Interference.  An emotional individual may not be able to communicate well.  If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that person may be too preoccupied with emotions to receive the intended message.  If you don’t like someone, for example, you may have trouble “hearing” them.

1.5.2    Transmitting Barriers 

Things that get in the way of message transmission are sometimes called “noise.”  Communication may be difficult because of noise and some of many problems, four of which are given below:

(1)        Physical Distractions.  A bad cellular phone line or a noisy restaurant can destroy communication.  If an email message or letter is not formatted properly, or if it contains grammatical and spelling errors, the receiver may not be able to concentrate on the message because the physical appearance of the letter or email is sloppy and unprofessional.

(2)        Conflicting Messages.  Messages that cause a conflict in perception for the receiver may result in incomplete communication.  For example, if a person constantly uses jargon or slang to communicate with someone from another country who has never heard such expressions, mixed messages are sure to result.  Another example of conflicting messages might be if a supervisor requests a report immediately without giving the report writer enough time to gather the proper information.  Does the report writer emphasize speed in writing the report, or accuracy in gathering the data?

(3)        Channel Barriers.  If the sender chooses an inappropriate channel of communication, communication may cease.  Detailed instructions presented over the telephone, for example, may be frustrating for both communicators.  If you are on a computer technical support help line discussing a problem, it would be helpful for you to be sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to taking notes from the support staff and then returning to your computer station.

(4)        Long Communication Chain.  The longer the communication chain, the greater the chance for error.  If a message is passed through too many receivers, the message often becomes distorted.  If a person starts a message at one end of a communication chain of ten people, for example, the message that eventually returns is usually liberally altered.

1.5.3    Decoding Barriers

  The communication cycle may break down at the receiving end for many reasons. Five of them are listed below:

(1)        Lack of Interest.  If a message reaches a reader who is not interested in the message, the reader may read the message hurriedly or listen to the message carelessly.  Miscommunication may result in both cases.

 (2)       Lack of Knowledge. If a receiver is unable to understand a message filled with technical information, communication will break down.  Unless a computer user knows something about the Windows environment, for example, the user may have difficulty organizing files if given technical instructions. 

(3)        Lack of Communication Skills.  Individuals with weak reading and listening skills make ineffective receivers.  On the other hand, those who have a good professional vocabulary and who concentrate on listening, have less trouble hearing and interpreting good communication.   Many people tune out who is talking and mentally rehearse what they are going to say in return. 

(4)        Emotional Distractions.  If emotions interfere with the creation and transmission of a message, they can also disrupt reception.  If you receive a report from your supervisor regarding proposed changes in work procedures and you do not particularly like your supervisor, you may have trouble even reading the report objectively.  You may read, not objectively, but to find fault.  You may misinterpret words and read negative impressions between the lines.  Consequently, you are likely to misunderstand part or all of the report.

(5)        Physical Distractions.  If a receiver of a communication works in an area with bright lights, glare on computer screens, loud noises, excessively hot or cold work spaces, or physical ailments, that receiver will probably experience communication breakdowns on a regular basis.

1.5.4             Responding Barriers

 The communication cycle may be broken if feedback is unsuccessful. Two important reasons are given below:

(1)     No Provision for Feedback.  Since communication is a two-way process, the sender must search for a means of getting a response from the receiver.  If a team leader neither permits any interruptions nor questions while discussing projects, he may find that team members may not completely understand what they are to do.  Face-to-face oral communication is considered the best type of communication since feedback can be both verbal and nonverbal.  When two communicators are separated, care must be taken to ask for meaningful feedback.

(2)     Inadequate Feedback.  Delayed or judgmental feedback can interfere with good communication.  If your supervisor gives you instructions in long, compound-complex sentences without giving you a chance to speak, you may pretend to understand the instructions just so you can leave the stress of the conversation.  Because you may have not fully understood the intended instructions, your performance may suffer.