Effective Communication Skills: Diagnostic Tools And Action Plan

Overview of Effective Communication in Business

Question:

Discuss about the Skills And Importance Of Effective Communication.

Effective communication is the fundamental element of business which includes all communication ways for example verbal and non-verbal communication, written that are required while communication takes place between two individuals (Grunig, 2013). Interpersonal communication skills are also important in business during employment interviews, client meetings or sales visits (Erozkan, 2013). Therefore, to build one’s career, effective communication skills are required and so, this paper involves the five diagnostic tools that are related to the communication process in addition to literature review, communication issues and required action plan for the understanding of behaviour, skills and importance of effective communication in business.  

This tool measures the public speaking anxiety of an individual and was developed as a part of research and investigation of systematic desensitization effects on the communication apprehension (Bartholomay & Houlihan, 2016). This tool is an excellent measure that is centred on the anxiety level during public speaking bounded in the communication process. PRPSA is a highly reliable scale that includes 34 statements indicating the anxiety level during public speaking that need to be scored by the individual (Coopman & Lull, 2014). After adding the scores for the 34 items applicable to the individual, PRPSA score is obtained through formula. The items scored are added and then subtracted from 72 revealing the score obtained in the PRPSA scale. The score should be between 34 and 170 and below 34 or above 170 shows a mistake in the computation of score.

After conducting the test, I analysed that I am anxious during public speaking. I scored 148 in PRPSA scale that is considered high as per the scale and above 131. When I joined at my new office, I was scared to introduce myself to my team dur to my anxiousness and nervousness. When I was asked to prepare a presentation on any topic, I felt nervous while preparing my speech and highly perspire before staring a speech. Effective communication skills are required that would be helpful in reducing my anxiety during public speaking.

This scale is a measure of compulsive communication and an individual’s desire to talk. It demonstrates the individuals as high talkers and their little desire to listen to others in the presence of other people (Worthington & Bodie, 2017). This scale is qualitative reference indicating that others evaluate more a person talks and consider them as incompetent communicator.  TAS is an advanced method that helps to identify the individuals who are well aware of over-communication and their tendencies of compulsive and consistent communication manner. The score beyond the two standard deviations and above the mean on scale are indicated as “talkaholics”. There are 16 questions or items given that correspond to what one would do in the most situations. The scoring should be between 10 and 50. Mostly people score below 30, however, I scored well between 30 and 39. I scored 35 that are considered to be borderline talkaholics and have the ability to control my talking in most of the situations. However, I find myself in situations where I find it difficult to be quiet that would be very much advantageous not to talk.

Diagnostic Tools for Effective Communication

This tool measures the communication apprehension while communicating in the interethnic context. There is fear or anxiety that is real or anticipated while communication with people belonging to different groups like ethnic, cultural or racial groups (). This tool is considered a part of communication apprehension and psychometrics suggests that it should be above 0.9 in case of English language, however, it is low in case of other language translations and considered imperfect and less significant (Blume, Baldwin & Ryan, 2013). There are 14 statements concerning the intercultural communication while interacting with people from different ethnic groups. The scores ranges from 14 to 70 and below 32 indicate low intercultural communication skills and score above 52 demonstrates high intercultural communication. I scored 48 that indicate moderate intercultural communication skills and this shows that I need to work more on my intercultural communication.

Non-verbal communication is also important for effective interaction where cues or behaviors that send positive feelings to another person (Ekron, 2015). This scale is the most up-to-date measure for the non-verbal immediacy. This measure has more validity as it contains diverse items than other instruments and has excellent predictive validity. In this instrument, the difference in self-reporting between males and females is socially and statistically significant as research indicates that females are more nonverbally immediate and socially desirable in nature as compared to males. The norms are different for both males and females as score above 112 and below 92 are considered to be high and low respectively. Similarly, a score above 104 and below 83 is considered to be high and low respectively for males. I scored 81 in this scale that indicate low nonverbal immediacy in the scale. The results show that I lack non-verbal communication skills and cues while interacting with other people.

This scale provides information regarding the competency of people in various communication contexts and types of receivers. Effective communication skills vary according to situations, as the same individual may be more competent in communicating in one situation as compared to another (Shahbaz et al., 2016). The scale comprises of twelve situations where a person need to communicate indicating communication competency. High SPCC scores indicate high self-perceived communication competency in basic communication contexts like public, group, meeting and dyad, and strangers, friend and acquaintances in context to receivers (Croucher, 2013). In this tool, I scored 48 that are below the standard SPCC score. This indicates lack of self-perceived competency while communicating in a public gathering. However, I scored well in the friend and acquaintance context, 102 and 95 respectively and scored moderate in small group gatherings. I got low score in meetings and public gatherings, 68 and 75 respectively indicating low self-perceived competency in these communication contexts. The results shows that I need to develop ability to communicate effectively in public, meetings and stranger contexts and be communicative and competent.

PRPSA: Public Speaking Anxiety Diagnostic Tool

The communication skills were evaluated  by the help of these diagnostic tools, I then analysed that the two main communications that I faced were public speaking anxiety and lack of effective non-verbal communication skills. I face fear that is accompanied by emotional and physical reactions that interfere while giving a presentation or speech in public. I also lack non-verbal communication skills as posture, facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice that are also important during public speaking and interacting with other people.

During the past 12 months, I had interacted with two professionals who had helped me in overcoming the communication issues of public anxiety speaking and lack of non-verbal communication skills. The first interaction was my presentation that helped me to overcome my anxiety or fear during public speaking. Firstly, during my presentation, I have to act calmly, then overlook the minor mistakes during presentation and consider it an opportunity to connect to the audience by staying in the moment.

Another professional interaction was with a client from a different cultural background. I had to interact with him regarding a business proposal and I was convinced that how I said was more important than what I said. Firstly, I have to project the accurate non-verbal behaviour or cues that make feel at ease by smiling, looking back at the client, and moving hands freely with open arms. Therefore, these indicate positive non-verbal communication that accommodates the client’s cultural differences and needs. It also helped me to gain effective non-verbal communication skills.

Communication is the backbone of the society as it helps to form connections between people, influence decisions and bring about motivational change. Effective communication skills are of utmost importance in business for its proper productivity and operation. There is an increase in morale and commitment in between the employees when they used to interact better with others by the means of effective interpersonal communication. The development in the skills of communication helps to foster professional attitude during the social meetings and gatherings in a clear and accurate manner (Ayob, 2017). Communication is a two-way process whether it is verbal, written or non-verbal. Poor communication skills can lead to failure of communication that is a two-way process.

According to German et al., (2016) in the working business world, public speaking skills are vital as it affects the everyday interactions between bosses, co-workers and employees, clients and marketing professionals. It has an enormous impact on one’s career and success level in the business industry. While giving presentations in business, public relations are important which demonstrates the persuasion skills or ability of an individual to win over the people present in the gathering. It also helps to gain confidence to persuade the client or customer to know more about the business or product and make it more compelling and convincing.

TAS: Talkaholism Scale Diagnostic Tool

However, people face far or anxiety while speaking in public or social gatherings that creates a dysfunctional organizational climate lacking effective public speaking communication skills. This also makes the employees feel de-motivated to work affecting productivity and organizational performance. The success level of a business is greatly associated with effective publics speaking skills as compared to other attributes of communication (McCroskey, 2015). Many strategies help to build confidence and overcome public speaking anxiety in business communication and its success.

For the enhancement of effective communication skills, communication models are used to understand and identify the action areas. This model comprises of three essential elements in the communication process. Speaker, listener and content of speech given by the speaker including encoder (speech source), receiver or decoder and message conveyed to the listener. Similarly, interpersonal communication also comprises of three elements. Speaker or encoder communicates through his or her thoughts, intentions, information and objectives.  Through the text messages, the decoder or receiver encodes the information (Wirtz et al., 2016). Similarly, my communication skills are determined where I have the potential to reflect on my understanding as well as monitor while interacting with others. Another aspect that has an impact on the communication process is the needs to be potentially understood by the decoder or listener in understanding the messages that are expressed by the speaker (Tuna, Gulez & Gungor, 2013).

Another communication issue is the lack of effective non-verbal communication skills that has a great influence on the operation and success of the business. Non-verbal communication takes place in the organizations and it is essential to maintain right posture, body language, mannerism and facial expressions that are interpreted as unconscious communication conveying one’s psychological state and feelings during the conversation (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Therefore, it is also important to uphold non-verbal communication for the effective and efficient organizational working and success. It is essential to maintain the right body posture in the seminars, meetings, business presentations and conferences that help to accomplish tasks effectively. During a business meeting, lack of physical coordination that lead to bad impression and affect public relations in business. Effective non-verbal communication skills help in the professional development and aid in creating a positive image of the temperament, disposition or behavioural tendency of an individual through non-verbal communication (Ferraro & Briody, 2017).

Therefore, there is a need to practice effective communication skills that help to overcome public speaking anxiety and demonstrate positive body language while interacting with others. The above mentioned communication issues need to be overcome as it can help me to interact with others by exploring confidence and positive non-verbal communication skills. It is essential to develop action plan to overcome anxiety during public speaking and demonstrate positive body language or gestures that will be illustrated in the following section of the discussion. This would definitely help me perform well at the organization and perform better so that I can contribute better to the productivity and success of the organization.

ICCS: Intercultural Communication Competence Scale Diagnostic Tool

As a part of my action plan, SMART goals have been designed that would help to become successful in achieving effective communication skills. Goals should be SMART that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based.

S stands for specific that should be well-defined and clearly demonstrates the basic knowledge of the goals. The activities that would be beneficial for gaining effective communication skills are undertaking of short courses, communication courses, planning for conceptual knowledge, self-help books, maintaining of personal journals and identification of mentor. Undertaking of public speaking training or courses for a month would be helpful in overcoming anxiety or fear. Although some courses are of long duration, yet they are advantageous and offer proper education and training while working in organization and help in improving communication skills. Understanding of basic concepts help to overcome communication issues as the characteristics, needs and objectives of communication are understood through theoretical knowledge. By attending workshops, getting involved in professional gathering, meetings can be helpful in overcoming public speaking anxiety. Maintaining journals, diaries and reading books is also helpful for future reference and self-help. In such situations, mentors can also be a boon as they are experienced and have profound knowledge in a particular subject or skills in effective communication. Mentor helps to build one’s career and enhance professional development through guidance and support.

The above mentioned goals are measurable as the courses are of short duration and are less expensive that are affordable. They can be measured and obtainable and its completion can be tracked. These goals are achievable as the courses are conducted in the evening and available at affordable prices. Moreover, the specific goals are realistic in nature as the courses are within the availability of knowledge, resources and time. These courses are flexible and within reach as they are affordable and act as crash courses that given realistic results. These goals are also time-based that is six months which is enough to achieve these goals and does not take too much time that can affect the action plan performance.

Effective communication is required in staff meetings, project discussions, informal chats, reviews, employee performance and meetings that take place in the business world However, there are issues witnessed in the communication and misunderstandings occur due to lack of effective communication skills between the sender and receiver. To explore the communication skills, effective communication diagnostic tools are required that evaluate my communication skills. The paper also demonstrated the key communication issues witnessed like public speaking anxiety and lack of non-verbal communication skills. The literature review and reflection helps in understanding the needs, objectives along with the concept of communication and models.  Finally, the action plan is also helpful in developing effective communication skills.

Activity	1 month	2 month	3 month	4 month	5 month	6 month
short courses
courses in communication
conceptual knowledge
Maintenance of journals, books, diaries
Identification of mentor

Table- Gantt chart

References

Ayob, A. (2017). Effective Communication in Business. Journal of Modern Languages, 9(1), 105-109.

Bartholomay, E. M., & Houlihan, D. D. (2016). Public Speaking Anxiety Scale: Preliminary psychometric data and scale validation. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 211-215.

Blume, B. D., Baldwin, T. T., & Ryan, K. C. (2013). Communication apprehension: A barrier to students’ leadership, adaptability, and multicultural appreciation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(2), 158-172.

Burgoon, J. K., Guerrero, L. K., & Floyd, K. (2016). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.

Coopman, S. J., & Lull, J. (2014). Public speaking: The evolving art. Cengage Learning.

Croucher, S. M. (2013). Communication apprehension, self-perceived communication competence, and willingness to communicate: A French analysis. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 6(4), 298-316.

Ekron, C. (2015). Learning to teach: communication skills in teacher education (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).

Erozkan, A. (2013). The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills on Social Self-Efficacy. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 13(2), 739-745.

Ferraro, G. P., & Briody, E. K. (2017). The cultural dimension of global business. Taylor & Francis.

German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2016). Principles of public speaking. Routledge.

Grunig, J. E. (Ed.). (2013). Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.

McCroskey, J. C. (2015). Introduction to rhetorical communication. Routledge.

Shahbaz, M., Khan, M. S., Khan, R. M. I., & Mustafa, G. (2016). Role of self-perceived communication competence and communication apprehension for willingness to communicate in L1 and L2. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 6(1), 158.

Tuna, G., Gulez, K., & Gungor, V. C. (2013). The effects of exploration strategies and communication models on the performance of cooperative exploration. Ad Hoc Networks, 11(7), 1931-1941.

Wirtz, B. W., Pistoia, A., Ullrich, S., & Göttel, V. (2016). Business models: Origin, development and future research perspectives. Long Range Planning, 49(1), 36-54.

Worthington, D. L., & Bodie, G. D. (2017). The sourcebook of listening research: Methodology and measures. John Wiley & Sons.