A diagnostic tool in communication can be defined as the capability to decide if an object is performing tasks and if it is functioning effectively. In another view, a style in communication refers to the interactions among people either verbal or non verbally. In simple words, communication style involves combining the language and the nonverbal signs and also, it is a meta-message used to define the way in which a listener interprets the verbal messages after receiving them (Kent, Goetzel, Roemer, Prasad & Freundlich, 2016). In the case where an individual is communicating with other persons, specific levels in the communication procedure should be followed. The steps used in the communication process are sourcing, encoding, channel, decoding, and finally, receiver. Therefore, individuals adopt various styles of communication used broadly in the daily routine of a person. Moreover, there is a need to understand and disseminate various communication styles since they determine the message sent. Therefore, this paper provides a discussion on various diagnostic tools which are connected to the communication process (Siklos, 2014). An individual communication style is considered across areas such as assertiveness perception, active listening, verbal communication, and non-verbal communication.
Various diagnostic tools used in communication are widely discussed in this paper. To begin with, this paper explores several communication styles such as mediators which will be considered when exploring the diagnostic tools. For any person to be a mediator, they require being great listeners, level-headed, easy, and introverted (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2011). In most cases, mediators focus on marinating on the questions issued to avoid providing direct responses. It implies that the mediators need to connect with the questions, followed by friendly greetings which pave the way for effective communication (Lunenburg, 2010).. The tone should be low in the case of verbal communication also facilitating easy discussion. Conversely, a mediator needs to be calm and also, patient to allow application of logic in the communication. Mediators embrace various roles such as being conveners by contacting other people. They are educators as well as facilitators of discussions by ensuring other people are comfortable and engaged in the communication. Finally, the mediators are translators, questioners, clarifiers, process advisers, as well as angels who provide realities.
Analyzing is another style which can be adopted for effective communication. The analyzers are seen as task-oriented and perfectionists since they are cautious when dealing with other people. In most cases, the analyzers examine matters critically aiming to recognize elements to provide their stance (Patterson & Radtke, 2009). When communicating with analyzers and individuals need to use wise words and avoid those which are often used. Points must be well outlined as well as understood before transiting to another point. Analyzing can be employed in a communication style such as active listening and the verbal communications. Analyzers facilitate effective communication and help in solving conflicts among people.
Another communication style to consider when discussing diagnostic tools used in effective communication is socializing. At some point, an individual may realize that the communication setting is livelier than expected. In such a case, people involved in the communication are loud, and they tend to speak continuously. Besides, the socializers are friendly persons who engage in active listening. Therefore, for effective communication, the socializers should be allowed time to interact, write the details, use fast speed in speech, as well as avoiding and aggressive and rough tone.
Aggressor-asserter is a style mostly featured in the attitude of a CEO. In most cases such people are blunt and direct when communicating hence any person can understand easily (Hunt & Whitehead, 2014). However, for effective communication, an individual should be succinct, quick, straight, brief, and can avoid giving details. Moreover, eye contact should be used in the case of aggressor-asserter as well as short responses should be provided. Basically, effective communication can be applied in various environmental setting, and it is described as art since it requires a deep understanding of the surrounding hence peace is ordained, and contradictions are evaded.
Planning of the message is the initial step one should take before any a persona start talking. It requires an individual to take much time to think and figure out first what exactly you want to say and secondly why you want to say it (Calore, Marchi, Schifano & Tripiccione, 2015). The importance of it is that it helps in the conveying of information that is not needed and saving on a listener or readers mind too. The process of planning what you say involves some steps; understanding your goal, your audience, and making a strategy of what to say. Also, the plan should be kept in a simple and straightforward as good communication needs to be efficient as well as practical.
After having a compiled excellent idea of what you want to say and is in writing, formulate a cohesive and well-crafted message. Then, a decision is to make on how precisely you will align your words across as you take the responsibility of conveying a message that is clear and concise (McLaughlin & Mayhorn, 2014). The presenter is normally required to consider how your audience will interpret the information and not only what they say if they badly want to achieve this.
Also, one needs to ensure a correct choice of a communication channel for sending of the message to make use of it. Normally, emails can be used to send simple task but where there involves complex tasks to be transmitted (Edelson, Kim, Scott & Szendrey, 2015). It may require speaking in person. For instance, a message that includes emotional content may need you to communicate the issue face to face to the recipient.
To be an excellent communicator, you should provide time to listen and allow the other person speak or ask questions relevant to the topic of discussion. Therefore, to understand the information to be discussed, understand the emotions of the speaker is expressing.
The most common way to know that the audience has understood your point is the feedback from them. The commonly used form of feedback is body language which gives the effectiveness of your communication. it can be by watching out for the gesture, facial expression and even posture of the audience.
A good speaker needs to have qualified skills to express themselves clearly, the relay of the information using a proper channel of communication, as well as being a good listener to others. I should be able to understand what I want to say, read my audience, anticipate for the other person to read and reply my message. Also, chose a body language or gesture that will enable my audience to hear and understand me, check my voice alteration and other subtleties, pay attention, avoid distractions and understand ding time constraints.
Also, you should cite two major communications issues that requires development based on the analysis of findings. This involves; ability to formulate clear and well-crafted message based on my audience, ways of becoming a good listener and how well I can receive and decode the message.
During the past couple of months ago, I have had professional interactions where my communication skill is highly evaluated and tested. It includes the interaction between student to student and student and instructors. Being a student possessing the skills of communication to be able to listen to others and communicate back efficiently, it becomes a problem hence not conveying the correct information as required. It usually arises where I fail to translate the accurate information as given by the instructors as well as not being capable of responding back to them. Communication barrier will tend to occur with other students when there is need to express me, but the luck of the objective or a problem of choice of word to voice contribute to the issue. Hence, the importance to develop the two communication issues so as to eliminate the communication barrier that hinders a good and clear communication from one end to the receiver.
Listening is the act of receiving and translating information accurately in the process of communication. Listening skills are crucial to any communication. Lack of communications skills may result in misinterpretation and poor understanding of words (Bodie, Vickery, & Gearhart, 2013). Excellent skills assist us in having social groups, perform extemporary in academics, and have good health and general welfare. Listening entails paying attentiveness to the story, the way it is being expressed, language usage, and the non-verbal cues used.
The first model is to position the body in a way that makes it pleasant and inviting for others to engage in a conversation. This may entail facing the person with whom you are engaging in the conversation with. If not sited, adopt an open posture by placing the arms on the side. Failure to maintain eye contact or continuous yawning gives the impression that you are not interested in the conversation. As an indication of attentiveness, your elbows should be raised once in a while (Carlile, 2014). Move closer to the person you are having the conversation with, laugh and smile if the need arises. Nodding the head may be used to show agreement. Eye contact is maintained as an indication of being attentive and showing the speaker respect. This provides the other person with the go-ahead and the opportunity of passing on the message that they have.
Second, it is important not to pay attention to the background noise, thoughts, and other talks. Rather, paying attention to the main discussion is crucial (Training, 2010). Being carried away by background noise and events hinders a person from paying attention. Turning off communication devices is an indication of politeness and gets rid of distractions.
Third, it is essential to observe the speaker’s body language. This is because a person’s body language can communicate to a large extent than the actual word of mouth (Leathers & Eaves, 2015). Verbal communication is a small fraction of the entire communication. Thus, watching out for the non-verbal cues enables a person to understand a message further.
Fourth, it is primary for an individual to be open-minded. A person should judge the information passed after keenly evaluating it (Lemonnier, 2012). An individual should restrict himself from forming opinions immediately. For example, building quick opinions shuts the speaker such that a person fails to listen to what is said. A person should have an open mind. This encourages an individual to appreciate other people’s scope of visualizing things.
Fifth, it is necessary to ask questions during an appropriate pause. However, it is wrong to interrupt the speaker to ask a question (Bodie, St. Cyr, Pence, Rold, & Honeycutt, 2012). It is advisable to wait until the speaker pauses, then pose the question. By doing so, the speaker gets the impression that the listener is interested in getting clarification. This helps in creating a speaker-listener conversation.
Seventh, a person should listen with the intention to learn. Information passed by the speaker should be absorbed by the listener, making every conversation a learning opportunity (Islam, 2012). Usually, a person should not pay much attention to the manner which they are going to respond to a question but instead trying to gain an understanding of the information they intend to communicate.
Lastly, try to picture what is being said after listening to the communication (Evans, Hearn, Uhlemann& Ivey, 2017). Creating a mental model of the conversation helps in understanding what is being communicated. The reason is that all the senses are completely alert. Keywords and phrases used by the speaker should always be remembered. The focus should only be on the speaker’s words.
Communication skill is the ability to communicate to people efficiently. Managers who are excellent in verbal communication facilitate the process of sharing information within an organization.
A person should have the courage of speaking what is in their mind. Thus, an individual should be confident to know that they can make a worthy contribution to a conversation (Kounev, Lévesque, Tipper & Gomes, 2015). Knowing personal opinions and feelings assist in expressing them to others.
Practices should be undertaken whereby a person engages in simple interactions. The interactions can range from social to professional skills (Buchanan & Seligman, 2013). However, it may take some time before the skills can be put into practice. Nonetheless, putting the communication skills into practice opens an opportunity for future partnerships.
Engaging the listeners in a communication boosts their interest to participate in the conversation (Knapp, Vangelisti&Caughlin, 2014). It is wise to look into the listeners’ eyes. Back and forth movement of the eye between the listener and the speaker makes the eyes sparkle encouraging communication.
Leaning forward helps in communicating clearly and audibly. Communicating audibly and eliminates the possibility of the listeners to keep asking the speaker to repeat what they say (Holloway, Mitobe& Atherton, 2015). Additionally, proper articulation and pronunciation of words are essential for effective communication. Reading new words on a daily basis helps in new phrase mastery and understanding their pronunciation. Also, telling stories helps cultivate our minds and makes the communication better. From it, an individual can be more persuasive in communication. They also help a person face interviews.
It is also essential to learn to tailor the conversation according to the audience. For instance, the style used to address the co-workers is different from the method of addressing your significant other and the elders (Thomas & Stephens, 2015). It is good to learn to use simple, clear, and distinct words. A person should practice to put across points using few words. In addition to this, the speaker should be concrete, correct, and courteous.
Pausing in the middle of the conversation gives the speaker the opportunity to think. Mostly, people believe that pausing makes the listeners impatient, thinking the listeners want the information delivered quickly. However, this is not the case. Thus, it is advisable to be composed and relaxed (Keyton, Caputo, Ford, Leibowitz, Liu & Wu, 2013). Another technique of approaching this is being equipped with fixed words that can be used while you remain silent. The use of the phrases gives the opportunity to reflect through repetition of the posed questions and adding an extra statement to it.
An action plan entails information on how to achieve an objective. The actions to be undertaken, the person to conduct the action plan, the period to be taken, and the resources needed are recorded (Alessi, 2014). The tasks that I would be involved in within six months to better my communication skills are:
First, I would develop a reading plan. This consists of coming up with a timetable to guide me in reading self-help books. The books may include How to Talk to Anyone and Verbal Judo. Vocabularies would be gathered from these books (Goodwin, Davis & Telg, 2014). They would also assist in developing skills such as how to understand the audience, sentence framing, responding to questions effectively, and varying the tone during communication.
The second plan is to watch the news and other TV shows regularly. This is important in understanding the correct pronunciation. Also, it helps in learning how to make use of body language (Alessi, 2014). This depends on the setting of the conversation and topic being discussed as well as understanding how the speaker makes use of body languages. The plan gives an interactive section to visualize the speaker’s and audiences’ response and behaviour. From the interactive process, I would learn to incorporate the listeners into the conversation.
The next plan that I would use is studying communication skills course at the University of Sydney. Applying for the short program avails the chance of interacting with students and lecturers. This is beneficial since it gives the chance of trying out and practicing skills taught at the institution. Direct participation accelerates understanding of the communication skills.
|
ACTION |
OBJECTIVE |
PLAN |
|
Developing a reading plan |
To enable me to gather vocabularies, understand the audience, framing sentences, responding to questions, and know to vary the tone. |
1-2 months |
|
Regular watching of news and other TV shows |
To learn words pronunciation and involve the audience in conversation. |
3 months |
|
Studying a short course on communication skills at the University of Sydney |
To interact with students and lecturers, practice and apply communication skills taught in class, learn how to engage with others, and to develop courage when in speaking to an audience. |
1-3 months |
After completing the events in the action plan, it is relevant to evaluate the tasks completed. This is done after the tasks in the action plan have been completed. The purpose of measuring and evaluating myself is to ensure that my communication skills have improved (Fearn-Banks, 2016). The questions that I need to ask myself are: what was the level of communication skills before put the action plan into practice? How well did my skills improve? What is the competent level should I attain in my skills? Answering the above questions would help identify improvement in my communication skills.
Conclusion
To summarize, this paper provides an analysis of diagnosis and reflection which outlines various diagnosis tools which facilitate effective communication. Communication style is as well discussed in this paper since involves combining the language and the nonverbal signs and also, it is a meta-message used to define the way in which a listener interprets the verbal messages after receiving them. Besides, a literature review is provided which explores two issues discussed. From the literature review, the ability to listen which is the act of receiving and translating information accurately in the process of communication is well discussed as a major issue. An action plan is well developed which outlines the action to be taken to ensure effective communication is achieved.
References
Alessi, A. L. (2014). Communication Action Plan.
Bodie, G. D., St. Cyr, K., Pence, M., Rold, M., & Honeycutt, J. (2012). Listening competence in initial interactions I: Distinguishing between what listening is and what listeners do. International Journal of Listening, 26(1), 1-28.
Bodie, G. D., Vickery, A. J., & Gearhart, C. C. (2013). The nature of supportive listening, I: Exploring the relation between supportive listeners and supportive people. International Journal of Listening, 27(1), 39-49.
Buchanan, G. M., & Seligman, M. (Eds.). (2013). Explanatory style. Routledge.
Calore, E., Marchi, D., Schifano, S. F., & Tripiccione, R. (2015, July). Optimizing communications in multi-GPU Lattice Boltzmann simulations. In High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 55-62). IEEE.
Carlile, S. (2014). ACTIVE LISTENING: SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY IN NOISY ENVIRONMENTS. Acoustics Australia, 42(2).
Edelson, S. A., Kim, P., Scott, R., & Szendrey, J. M. (2015). What did I just tweet?!: The need to address digital emotional literacy in corporate communications. In Digital business discourse (pp. 189-207). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Evans, D. R., Hearn, M. T., Uhlemann, M. R., & Ivey, A. E. (2017). Essential interviewing: A programmed approach to effective communication. Nelson Education.
Fearn-Banks, K. (2016). Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge.
Goodwin, J. N., Davis, A., & Telg, R. W. (2014). Communication audits: adding value and social impact to agricultural communications. Journal of Applied Communications, 98(1), 8-17.
Govindarajan, V., & Gupta, A. K. (2011). Building an effective global business team. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(4), 63.
Holloway, K., Mitobe, L., & Atherton, M. (2015, March). Teacher/Mentor Training-Active Listening. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1531-1538). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Hunt, R. G., & Whitehead, M. J. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,730,804. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Islam, M. N. (2012). An Investigation on How to Improve Tertiary Students’ Listening Skill of English. Journal of Studies in Education, 2(2), 205-214.
Kent, K., Goetzel, R. Z., Roemer, E. C., Prasad, A., & Freundlich, N. (2016). Promoting healthy workplaces by building cultures of health and applying strategic communications. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 58(2), 114-122.
Keyton, J., Caputo, J. M., Ford, E. A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S. A., Liu, T., …& Wu, C. (2013). Investigating verbal workplace communication behaviors. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 50(2), 152-169
Knapp, M. L., Vangelisti, A. L., &Caughlin, J. P. (2014). Interpersonal communication and human relationships. Pearson Higher Ed.
Kounev, V., Lévesque, M., Tipper, D., & Gomes, T. (2015, March). On smart grid communications reliability. In Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN), 2015 11th International Conference on the (pp. 33-40). IEEE.
Leathers, D. G., & Eaves, M. (2015). Successful nonverbal communication: Principles and applications. Routledge.
Lemonnier, P. (2012). Mundane objects: Materiality and non-verbal communication (Vol. 10). Left Coast Press.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Communication: The process, barriers, and improving effectiveness. Schooling, 1(1), 1-11.
McLaughlin, A. C., & Mayhorn, C. B. (2014). Designing effective risk communications for older adults. Safety science, 61, 59-65.
Patterson, S. J., & Radtke, J. M. (2009). Strategic communications for nonprofit organization: Seven steps to creating a successful plan. John Wiley & Sons.
Siklos, P. L. (2014). Communications Challenges for Multi?Tasking Central Banks: Evidence, Implications. International Finance, 17(1), 77-98.
Thomas, G. F., & Stephens, K. J. (2015). An introduction to strategic communication.
Training, M. T. D. (2010). Effective communication skills. Bookboon.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download