Basic Principles of Effective Communication

Effective communication is the pathway to build a strong relationship between employers and employees but unfortunately it's so often overlooked. There are three important basic principles of effective communication are:

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Action

Attention

The most frustrating thing about communication is when communicating with someone such as employee but they do not listen to you. For example when your in the middle of a conversation and half way through you are rudely interrupted. A lot of the misunderstanding is caused by not listening to people.

Interest
Showt interest in everyone you talk to, or if they talk to you.It is important that you are interested in that people have to say, everyone has a story to tell, and once you’ve heard what they have to say respond perhaps by asking a question or two about, what they have said.

 

Action

There has to be a beginning, middle and end to every communication. It is important to let the other person know you understand and agree, if there is agreement needed. Within communication you should never make a promise you wont be able to keep, for example if an employee was to ask an employer for something, such as vending machines and the employer promises to do so, but due to healthy eating the employer is unable to bring vending machines in, therefore breaking an employee’s promise.

General skills:

Use of language to suit the audience:

It is important that when someone is choosing a language they chose one that will help to express themselves clearly and effectively. It is also important that the style of language chosen will suit the audience for example if someone was to give a presentation it will be formal.

Formal or informal:

Informal language is a tone that adds in conversation into the situation, this would be everyday spoken language which gives the person speaking a casual, relaxed effect.

Formal language is often used in presentation situations where the speaker doesn’t use any short words are slang which is used in society today, bust speaks proper and uses works which only come from the dictionary, the type of presentation would be for example a business presentation where it is important to come across as a high standard business.

Informal: Some adults haven’t got a clue about what is important to the younger generation.
Formal: Adults may not be aware of what is important to the younger generation.

Wording:

Language can often reflect harmful things which that people are against in particular groups. For example, racist language is directed at specific racial or ethnic groups and attacks people using words that would not be tolerated in in any speech situation.

Sexist language is directed against women and men. It may present negatively biased ideas about occupation, social roles, behaviour, and values of each sex.

Engaging an audience:

The best type of presentation is one when it is directed at a specific audience.
They will use language and tone that their audience will appreciate and understand. For example, when speaking to a group of people in the computer industry, technical language field can be used without confusing the audience.

Interpersonal Skills:

Interpersonal skills are sometimes also referred to as people skills or communication skills^. Interpersonal skills involve using skills such as listening and tone of voice. It is how well you communicate with someone and how well you behave or put yourself across. Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in the organization since the number of conflicts is reduced. In informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and comfortable.

Body languauge :

There are many forms of body language and the way in which it can be put across for example when giving directions to a certain area the person who is telling the other person where to go will need to explain where the location is that the person wants to go to, but some people find it easier to use their hands to explain which road to take when giving the directions.

Another example of this is a primary school teacher, for example when the teacher goes to tell the children a story, to make this easier the teacher will use body language, these is to keep the children’s attention and to make it easier for the children to understand.

Although within the business environment body language will have to be used in a positive way when doing a presentation, for example pointing out the right image or piece of text which the person giving the presentation is giving. Body language makes those watching the presentation see that the presentor is confident and understands the presentation in which he or she is giving.

Asking questions- open and closed:

An open question is likely to receive a long answer than a closed question.

·         They ask the respondent to think and reflect.

·         They will give you opinions and feelings.

For example: ‘What did you do on your holiday?’

Closed questions can be answered with single words or a short phrase.

·         They give you facts. 

·         They are easy to answer.

·         They are quick to answer.

For example: ‘How are you?’

Barriers:

Although there are many barriers which could distract a person within a business from giving a presentation, talk or even writing an email. Background noise is a big issue within business, especially when someone is giving a presentation as the noise may distract them and make them loose their place, the background noise may also make the presenter lack in concentration throughout the whole presentation therefore resulting in key points being left out within the presentation.

Communication In writing:
In written communication the sender and receiver are more distinct. This can be done by letters, e-mails, books, magazines, the Internet, presentations or reports.
For example graphs, charts, maps, logos and other visualizations can communicate messages.

Communication theory states that communication involves a sender and a receiver of an email or letter. Emotionscan also be sent to the reciever as long as its the correct time in which they should be used,for example if a sad situation was to happen for instance if someone was to pass away then a sad face should be sent, although if it was a happy situation like a promotion then a happy face would be sent to the reciever.

Letter and Email:

A letter is a written message from one party to another. Althoug letters were the only reliable means of communication between two persons in different locations but in todays society letters have became a less useful way of getting in contact with someone. The only main reason for someone to send a letter would be a personalised letter from a business to one of its valued customer. Email is know one of the well know source to communicate from one party to another, although if a business was to send its customers an email some customers would send it to junk or delete it rather than opening the email and reading it.

Spelling and proof reading:
When the piece of writing is complete it is important for the sender to read through it, this is to stop any typo’s, spelling mystakes or setences which dont make any sense.  Most form of written work is normally formal, therefore it needs to be wordered correctly, if for example it was a letter to a customer from a company it would have be wrote without any mistakes, therefore the reciever would feel special for recieving a letter, meaning the business took time to send the customer a letter, and grammer and punctuation is always important as the reciever may be able to notice mistakes in which the sender has done.

Structure:

Structure is used to present the information so that it is more accessible to the reader. It all comes down to the problem of the short attention span from the reader. You have to provide the information in small manageable chunks so the reader will read the whole way through it. Although while breaking the information down the sender needs to ensure the information is still getting to the point and is valid information in which the reader will be interested in.