We all communicate but sometimes we do not effectively communicate. Effective communication is when two or more people deliver their intended message that is heard and understood simultaneously.
Everything could go wrong with inappropriate communication styles, misunderstanding, and other errors of formal delivery in a workplace. Miscommunications and misunderstandings create a negative environment in the organizational space that disrupts the workflow and productivity of the employees.
What is Effective Communication?
Effective communication is when an exchange between the parties concerned (sender and receiver) assigns a meaningful message and listens to what is being said so that it is heard and understood. When you convert this into a business context, communication is effective when the information shared among the employees of the company contributes towards work efficiency, fostering a positive environment, and ensuring organizational success.
Effective communication is not limited to verbal speaking as it also covers several other skills such as non-verbal communication, empathy, sensitivity to the surroundings, active listening, assertiveness, clarity, etc.
For optimizing organizational success, establishing grounds of effective communication is highly necessary for your employees’ personal and professional development! It is important to establish a progressive process of exchanging information, thoughts, knowledge by brainstorming through ideas so that the purpose or intention of communication delivery is attainable.
Organizational Barriers to Effective Communication:
Organizational structure can prove to be a hindrance to the flow of information. This could eventually lead to a disruption in the communication climate and a potential failure of an organization.
1. Corporate Policies and Regulations: The corporate industry has rules for a formal medium of communication. This exchange is in respect to a formal message that is delivered in a selected mode of communication. Due to these strict rules, some of the employees might try to avoid it or escape it.
Those who are hesitant to carry out these formal messages might choose to avoid them. Many of these organizational policies define the relationship between the employees and the way they communicate with each other by maintaining their barriers. These can be learned through practice and over time with The Power of Habit Book.
These company policies limit the communication to be carried out in writing so that even smaller chunks of messages are written and delivered in a formal medium. Restricting the communication to formal mediums leads to delays in the transmission of messages in the organization.
2. Positions in the Corporate Hierarchy: Employees in every corporate culture are divided into several categories based on their levels of the organization. Those occupying the upper positions remain senior to those occupying lower levels, making the communication among them formal. The formal medium of communication then acts as a barrier to effective communication. The lower level employee could feel reluctant in sending a message to his superior due to the anxiety of sending a faulty wrong by chance.
3. Facilities of the Office: The facilities such as telephone, stationery, translator, etc., that the organization offers its employees to facilitate communication. Those companies that adequately offer these facilities to their employees ensure that the communication is timely, accurate, and delivered successfully as per the needs. However, if these facilities are absent, it will adversely affect the communication climate of the organization.
4. Unapproachable management: Communication gets affected adversely if there are too many management levels that create chaos in the process of clear communication. With unapproachable management, employees cannot foster a positive environment which hinders the flow of ideas and thoughts since they feel that their opinions are unwelcome and will not be heard. This negative communication climate will lead to procedural delays. The intended message might never reach due to an unhealthy communication climate.
Eliminating barriers through Seven C’s of Communication:
Clear: Any message that is meaningful and purposeful must be delivered clearly so that it is easily understandable to the recipient. The purpose of the communication must be stated clearly to ensure that the receiver has the clarity for understanding the intended meaning of the message. It helps the receiver understand the message quickly when it is concise by focusing on a single goal at a time rather than covering several ideas in a single sentence.
Correct: Your message must contain appropriate language by ensuring the correct language with no grammatical and spelling errors. You must ensure that the message is well-timed and delivers the exact intentions of the sender. This ensures that there are no miscommunications or ambiguity in your message.
Complete: Your message must include all the relevant information for the intended audience. Only complete information gives away the answers to all possible doubts of the receivers. Complete and clear messages help in making better and more informed decision-making.
Concrete: To ensure better processes of communication, it must be concrete and concise such that there is no room for misinterpretation left. Your message must contain all the relevant facts and appropriate context that is stated clearly to deliver the right message.
Concise: Your message must not beat around the bush, it should be direct, precise, assertive, and to the point. You must avoid lengthy sentences. Try to jump straight into conveying the purpose of sending the message in minimum words. The shorter and briefer your message is without compromising on its meaning, the more your message is comprehensive as it helps in retaining the attention of the receiver.
Consideration: Your message must relate to the target audience. You must take into consideration your target receiver’s opinions, mindset, background, etc. to deliver your message effectively and ensure better communication.
Courteous: The sender must take into consideration the viewpoints and sentiments of the receiver. It is important to know your audience so that you can tailor the message which is more positive and focused on the audience. Your message should not be biased and must use respectful terms that remain under professional boundaries.
