Elements of Communication

Communication is vital to maintaining successful business relations. For this reason, it is imperative that professionals working in business environments have first-class communication skills. There are three basic types of communication: verbal, non-verbal, and written. If you want to succeed in business, you need to master each of these types of communication.

Verbal Communication

Verbal or oral communication uses spoken words to communicate a message. Effective verbal or spoken communication is dependent on a number of factors and cannot be fully removed from other important interpersonal skills such as non-verbal communication, listening skills and clarification.  Most people assume verbal communication consists of speaking, but listening is just as equally important skill for this type of communication to be successful. Verbal communication is suitable to a wide range of situations, ranging from informal office discussions to public speeches made to thousands of people. Improving your verbal communication skills can help you to develop better relationships with your coworkers and support a large network of contacts that you can call on when necessary.

Verbal communication (vocal included) contributes to 45% of our communication. The role of jargons is also vital in determining the efficiency of communication. While jargons help to communicate easily in a homogeneous group, excessive use of there can hamper communication. Use of jargons should be used sparingly while communicating to someone who is not familiar with the terms. Verbal communication becomes effective through the choice of right words & emphasis of the same. There should be an optimum use of pauses, non-words and phrases because excessive use of these leads to distraction of the receiver.

Non-Verbal Communication

Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Non-verbal communication includes body language, gestures, facial expressions, and even posture. Non-verbal communication sets the tone of a conversation, and can seriously affect the message contained in your words if you are not cautious to control it. For example, slouching and shrinking back in your chair during a business meeting can make you seem under-confident, which may lead people to doubt the strength of your verbal contributions. On the contrary, leaning over an employee’s desk and invading his or her personal space can turn a friendly chat into an aggressive confrontation that leaves the employee feeling victimized and undervalued.

A good communicator should have the right posture, facial expression and body language that are in tune with the words spoken. Lack of co-ordination between verbal and nonverbal contents of communication would only confuse the receiver. So while communicating, care should be taken to ensure a proper blend between words and actions.

Written Communication

Written communication is vital l for communicating complicated information, such as statistics or other data, which could not be easily communicated through speech alone. Written communication also permits information to be recorded so that it can be referred to at a later date. When producing a piece of written communication, particularly one that is likely to be referred to over and over again, you need to plan what you want to say carefully to ensure that all the relevant information is correctly and clearly communicated. Written communication must be clear and concise in order to communicate information effectively. A good written report conveys the necessary information using precise, grammatically correct language, without using more words than are needed.

By improving your verbal, non-verbal, and written communication skills, you can become more efficient in all areas of business. Whether you are managing others or working as part of a team, the ability to communicate effectively can develop relations with your colleagues and help you all to work more efficiently together.

Listening & Feedback

Listening which comprises of hearing, attending, understanding and remembering can improve the effectiveness of communication. Listening can be pleasurable, discriminative or critical depending on the level of application of mind. Listener has to employ the suitable type of listening depending on the situation and nature of the message. Proper listening requires a reasonable background familiarity, right attitudes, interest, objectivity, patience and rapport with the sender. Absence of rapport with the sender often leads to ambush listening where the receiver listens only till he gets a point for argument after which his main desire would be to obstruct the communication. Lack of interest in the topic spoken by a person with whom we have a rapport would sometimes make us employ pseudo listening. Appropriate listener response serves as a means by which feedback is judged. The feedback should be given at the right time and should be helpful.