Effective Communication – Ways To Improve Your Communication Skills

Importance of effective communication in today’s competitive business environment

Question:

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Due to the growing competitiveness of the global businesses, effective business communication practices are essential to create an effective communication level between the parties involved within and outside of the organization by following the communication standards. The first task of this report will analyze the communication style by using the diagnostic models and relevant findings as well as the two communication issues and reflection on these issues. The literature review part will identify the key communication concepts, models, and behaviors for developing the adequate competences as well as improvement in my conceptual (theoretical) and behavioral (interpersonal) skills (Root, 2015). Finally, the action plan will be developed for taking action over the time period of 6 months in order to improve the communication skills, knowledge, and competences as well as bringing change in the communication style.

There are many diagnostic models that help an individual become a better communicator and also improve communication in an organization. The following are these models:

Johari window is a diagnostic model relating to communication (Self-Awareness, 2017). There are two factors working in this window. The first factor is what you know about yourself. The second factor is what the other people know about you. The model has four quadrants. The open area is what you know about yourself and are willing to share with others. The blind area consists of what you do not know about yourself but others know. The hidden area is what you know about yourself but do not want others to know. The area that is unknown to you and others is unknown area (Berland and Berland, 2017). This model works on the basis that one can apply self-awareness diagnosis. In other words one can introspect what are one’s strength and weaknesses and what you are willing to share with others. Another aspect is to get feedback about yourself from others.

Communication style questionnaire is made to find out the communication style of a person, how good a communicator a person is. There are several kinds of communicators with analytic, intuitive, functional and personal communication style (Forbes, 2017). Analytic communicators believe in presenting data. They believe in definite information. Intuitive communicators take a broader view and come to the main point very fast and discuss the main issue. Functional communicators are process driven people. They are methodical and proceed step by step.

Analysis of various diagnostic models that help in becoming a better communicator

Assertive questionnaire seeks to find out how assertive an individual is. In other words, a person can express his/her inner thoughts with some force without being fearful of anything. These thoughts could be regardingbusiness-law and desires of the person. Multiple questions are put to the person to assess the degree of assertiveness in the person. It is also tested how the person responds under pressure, whether the individual is assertive.

Interpersonal communication technique involves face to face communication between two or more people. In this case information is exchanged verbally and also non verbally. There might be some exchange of written data between the people. In this case the facial expression and the movement of body parts also matter. It is also gauged whether the participants are willing to listen to one another.

Under 360 degree technique the competence of a person is judged on the basis of feedback from the manager, colleagues, customers, friends and relatives of the individual (National college for teaching and leadership, 2017). From some people the feedback would be positive and some might give a negative feedback and a complete picture emerges which is assessed. The process is different from a performance appraisal as more people are consulted, not just the seniors of the person under assessment.

Most of the employers today look for better communication skills in a person. In order to become a good manager, one must know how to communicate with the individual’s subordinates and customers also along with seniors (Duke, Frankel and Reis, 2013). People who can communicate well have the better chances of getting ahead in life. It has to be a two way communication as envisaged in the Johari window diagnostic tool.  I have a problem is revealing things about myself. I also hesitate to get feedback from others regarding what they think of me. This situation means that I do not know much what the people think about me. As given in the Johari window, any of the quadrants can change with the efforts of people. The open area can become wide with me willing to reveal more about myself. The hidden area can become less with me revealing more about my strengths and also weaknesses to people (Self-Awareness, 2017). I need to trust people more.

My communication style is analytic. I believe in presenting numbers to people I work with. I believe in analyzing numbers and coming to a conclusion and communicating the end result to people. Some people think I am a very cold person as I am always talking about numerical data and less about feelings and emotions. I need to change my communication style to a certain extent and strike a personal rapport with the person I am communicating with. I need to put emotions in my voice.

Key communication concepts, models, and behaviors for developing adequate competencies

I need to improve my interpersonal communication. I have to let go of hesitations and talk freely with people. I should be ready to reveal my thoughts, ideas, perceptions and opinions to others. In this way people would find me to be a more interesting person to talk to. I have to get things done from others. For this purpose proper communication is required from my side (Robles, 2012). I have to be a good listener also. I should give others the chance to say things to me. I should be supportive of their thoughts also so that they open up to me. There is need for me to take the initiative and ask them to express themselves. 

I need to change my communication style from all analytic to being personal and intuitive also while I am engaged in public speaking. I need to get the attention of different kinds of people while talking to them. I need to add more variety to my thoughts. There is need for introspection regarding my communication style

There have been two recent professional interactions involving me which brought to light my inadequate communication skills. In one case some big customers of the company came to office. I was asked to address them regarding products of the company. Management off well but then started hesitating. It seemed I was not properly prepared. I should have memorized some important things. Everything was not put by me in slides properly. My written communication was not that good. I could not answer queries of customers properly and I lost their attention. I failed at interpersonal communication with the customers.

In another instance, a group discussion was organized by my manager to discuss team performance. I could come up with some numerical data regarding sales made by the team. But I could not point out which of my colleagues had not done well. I was not intuitive and personal in communication. I could not discuss what was ailing the company. My communication style was not effective.

Both issues are related to change in my communication style as well as improvement in my interpersonal skills, representation skills, writing skills, and communication competences for interacting/communicating the clients/organizational individuals (peers/colleagues/subordinates) effectively (Robles, 2012).

Effective business communication involves two or more parties for sharing the knowledge and experiences through talking and interacting between the parties involved (Paul, 2011). It defines two-way relationship between sender and receiver by communicating the message clearly through simple speech and hearing, word choice, clear message, body language, and communication style for ensuring the effectiveness of the communication between the parties. The effective business communication may involve the dimensions, such as personal or impersonal, intentional or unintentional, verbal or nonverbal, and internal or external. The effective communication should be in the form of face-to-face interactions by using words, or in written for giving the written presentation by using the texts, emails, social media sites, slides, intranets, blogs, videos, conferencing, displays, or other forms (Richards and Studio, 2015).

Action plan to improve communication skills and knowledge

The communication concepts or tools, such as emails, employee publication papers, employee intranet, memos and letters, power point slides, word text files, displays, videos, and social media could be used to interact and communicate the organizational individuals and professional clients effectively.  The effective communication could be held through the intranets, business meetings, seminars, dealings with clients, group presentation, bulletin boards, social networking sites or professional events.

By using the communication concepts, I would be able to interact and communicate with the organizational individuals and clients effectively by making change in the communication style. The communication style could be changed by focusing on the communication concepts, such as using the effective communication method, right tone of language, clear and simple words choice, English language, short communication, impressive body language, dialogue communication, good eye contract, active listening and effective speaking, gestures, and brief comments (Management Study Guide, 2015). For achieving effective communication, I will make constant change in the communication style by using the concepts, such as concise and straightforward language, clear goals and objective, conversational tone, complete knowledge and information (about the topic or product on which communication to be held),  and professional manner instead of emotional.

It will be effective for me to have full confidence and credibility to my current knowledge and information for answering the questions asked by the clients confidently in an open way. It is also necessary to check the data and facts before giving any kind of business presentation. It will also be effective to develop the communication message that is easily identifiable and understandable to the targeted person. I also need to be personal, initiative and intuitive before start the communicating. I am also required to make improvement in my interpersonal skills by ensuring listening others actively, effectively speaking to others, negotiation with clients or organization staffs, developing habits of good communicator, and effective decision-making and problem solving skills (Online Trainees, 2013). All these communication concepts will be effective in developing my communication competences, improvement in my current skills, and acquiring new knowledge for creating effective communication with the clients or staff members.

The communication model, such as Shannon and Weaver model of communication will be effective for changing my communication style as well as improving my communication skills and competences to the great extent.

This is a model of communication that may be effective for interpreting, transmitting, and receiving the communication message of the sender to the receiver by using the communication channels. This is a mathematical communication model that represents the data and facts with the accurate and proper presentation by reducing the possibility of the communication barriers or errors. This model is used in the business communications in the written or oral presentations, and text messaging for improving the style and way of communication and maximizing the conversation with the minimum noise (Communication Theory, 2015). This model has concepts, such as sender (information source), encoder (transmitter), decoder (receiver), receiver (destination), and communication channel. In this model, the following concepts are used:-

Sender- it sends the communication message by choosing a suitable communication channel.

Encoder- coverts the message into signals or binary data directly by using the encoding or converting machines.

Channel- It is used to convert the message of the sender and sent this to the receiver.

Decoder (receiver) – the machine used to convert the binary data or signals into the message or translate the messages from the signals

Receiver (destination) – the person who receives or gets the message from the sender and provides appropriate feedbacks to the message (Durga, 2016)

Noise – also known as physical barriers or disturbances to the message, like location, environment, and timing that don’t allow the message let to the receiver as this actually is

In this model, the sender sends the communication message in the form of the texts, voice mail, video content or post to the receiver through an appropriate communication channel that is understandable to the machine. The receptor or encoding machine works as decoder for decoding the message before sending to the receiver. The noise, physical barriers, technical issues, or server problems might cause problem in the communication process and might not have capacity to decod the message. Air is the communication channel or medium to transmit, decode, and sending the message to the receiver. 

Another communication model, David Berlo’s SMCR model (1960) will be effective to create an effective communication between the parties involved in the communication. This model encodes and decodes the message before the sender sending the message and receiver receiving the message.  This model has four components including sender or source, message, channel, and receiver. This is following as:-

Sender- this is a person who originates the message and sends this to the receiver. This includes the factors, such as communication skills, attitudes, knowledge, social systems, and culture.

Message- the substance that is send by the sender to the receiver that may be in the form of video, text, audio, visuals, voice or other communication media. It might be influenced by the factors, such as content, elements, treatment, code, and structures.

Channel- this is the communication medium used to send the message. The communication tools, such as telephone, voice message, video calls, or written text or slides may be used to send the message. Hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting are such factors that may influence the effectiveness of the communication channel (Root, 2015).

Receiver- the personal who receives the message as the receiver should have active listening skills. The communication skills, social systems, culture, attitudes, and knowledge are such factors that affect the communication message.

Source: David Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication)

From the findings of the relevant communication issues, it is clear that I am weak at interpersonal skills and conceptual communication skills. So, I will be required to develop the communication competences through understanding and improvement of the conceptual (theoretical) skills and Behavioral skills (interpersonal skills). The conceptual or theoretical skills are essential to understanding the tasks, duties, and responsibilities at the workplace, develop interpersonal relationship with the staff members, and act on the meaningful goals and coherent strategy. These are required to develop the meaningful conclusions, create new ideas and acquire new knowledge for effective working in the organization (Williams, 2017). The conceptual skills include managerial skills, compelling skills, analytical skills, and writing skills. These skills are required in copying, compelling, comparing, analyzing, synthesizing, and Innovating/coordinating.

The interpersonal skills are those that are used to interact and communicate with the organizational individuals and clients at the workplace. The interpersonal skills include verbal communication, non-verbal communication, negotiation, listening, problem solving and decision-making skills. The verbal communication includes face-to-face interaction by using words, while non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, hand gestures, and body expressions. The negotiation skills are required to negotiate with the clients effectively.  The listening skills are required to listen the organizational individuals or staff members effectively. The decision-making skills are required to take decisions effectively in the contingent situations or emergencies (Teicher, 2014). Finally, the problem solving skills are required to find an appropriate solution to the problems.

The action plan will be developed for developing my communication competences, bringing improvement in my skills and workplace communicational behavior and acquiring knowledge that will be undertaken over the time period of 6 months through the sequence of the key events and activities. The action plan will include undertaking specific short courses, such as training and skill development programs, undertaking advanced post graduate degree or diploma courses at CQU or other reputed institutions, reading planning for acquiring the conceptual/theoretical knowledge, specific communication sources (such as learning courses, books, magazines, articles, journals, blogs, texts), and coaching and mentoring (CEGR, 2016). All these communication sources will assist to improve my skills, knowledge, and communication competences to the great extent.

The training and skills development programs will be effective for developing my communication competences, such as improvement in my workplace communication and interpersonal skills. By attending/joining the training and skills development programs, I will be able to communicate/ interact with others effectively, listen others with active listening as well as giving strong representation in meetings, seminars or group presentation, and good English writing skills for good written presentation with accurate data, facts, findings, and slides on the relevant topic/case (Dutta, 2013). The following table will identify the events and activities of the action plan for showing the improvement in the skills, knowledge, and communication competences through the communication courses to be undertaken during the time period of 6 months.

Development/ improvement of skills	Action Plan	Sources for development/improvement	Timeliness
Change in communication Style	Manage the workforce through good communication with them Acquire knowledge and develop communication competences	By enrolling in the specific master degree communication courses Reading textbooks, journals, articles or learning materials	2 months
Improvement in the interpersonal skills and problem solving skills	Communicate and interact the clients, colleagues, and subordinates effectively Solve the problems or complexities effectively	Through group discussions or attending seminars and  event (Kaul, 2014)	1 month
Improvement in Writing skills	To give strong written presentation through the active English language, representation slides, facts and findings, and data presentation	By attending coaching, training and case study analysis Registering with the certification MBA programs or diploma courses from a reputed university	1 months
Improvement in communication skills and representation skills	To give strong representation in the meetings or group discussions Take effective decisions, moral judgment, and perform tasks and actions effectively (Guffey and Loewy, 2014)	Specific training and learning courses Reading books, journals, articles, blogs	2 months

Events/Activities

1 Oct- 15 Oct

16 Oct- 31 Oct

1 Nov – 15 Nov

16 Nov – 30 Nov.

1 Dec- 15 Dec

16 Dec- 31 Dec

1 Jan- 15 Jan

16 Jan – 31 Jan

1 Feb- 15 Feb

16 Feb – 28 Feb

1 Mar- 15 Mar

16 Mar- 31 Mar

1.Attending seminars and meeting to improve oral representation

2.Giving Presentation in meetings

3.Participate in the events and public speaking programs

4.Reading books and magazines to improve conceptual skills

5.E-learning through articles, blogs

6.Master degree diploma or MBA for communication development

7.Maintaining personal Journal

8. Feedback Reporting for further improvement in skills

9.Learning through coaching or mentoring

10.Reading plan to acquire new knowledge (Dignen and McMaster, 2013).

11.Specific Communication Texts

12.Reflection on Communication Interactions

References

Berland, A., and Berland, A. (2017). Using the Johari Window to explore patient and provider perspectives. International Journal of Healthcare Governance, Vol. 22(1), 47-51.

CEGR (2016). Effective Business Communication. Australia: Center for Education Growth and Research.

Communication Theory (2015). Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication. Retrieved From: https://communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/.

Dignen, B. and McMaster, I. (2013). Effective International Business Communication. Australia: Collins.

Duke, P., Frankel, R. M., & Reis, S. (2013). How to integrate the electronic health record and patient-centered communication into the medical visit: a skills-based approach. Teaching and learning in medicine, 25(4), 358-365.

Durga, V. K. (2016). Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication. Retrieved From: https://www.slideshare.net/VishnuDurga/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication.

Dutta, S. (2013). BUSINESS COMMUNICATION. Australia: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Fielding, M. (2006). Effective Communication in operations. Juta& Company Ltd.

Forbes (2017). Which of these 4 communication styles are you? Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2015/08/06/which-of-these-4-communication-styles-are-you/#545f773f3adb.

Guffey, E. M. and Loewy, D. (2014). Business Communication: Process and Product. USA: Cengage Learning.

Kaul, A. (2014). EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION. Australia: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Management Study Guide (2015). Overcoming Communication Barriers. Retrieved From: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/overcoming-communication-barriers.http.

National college for teaching and leadership (2017). 360-degree feedback. Retrieved from: https://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/transfer/open/adsbm-phase-2-preparatory-module/adsbm-p2-s3/adsbm-p2-s3t5.html 

Online Trainees (2013). Guidelines For Effective Business Communication. Australia: Online Trainees.

Richards, L. and StudioD (2015). Effective Business Communication Methods. Retrieved From: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/communication_methods.htm.

Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s workplace. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453-465.

Root, N. G. (2015). 7C’s of Effective Business Communication. Retrieved From: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/7-cs-effective-business-communication-114.html.

SelfAwareness (2017). Understanding the Johari window model. Retrieved from: https://www.selfawareness.org.uk/news/understanding-the-johari-window-model

Teicher, B. (2014). It’s HOW You Say It: Effective Business Communication Skills. UK: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Williams, D. (2017). Fundamental Concepts of Effective Business Communication. London: Grin Verlag.