Interpersonal Communication Assignment: Importance Of Effective Communication On Personal & Professional Life

Question

Task:
Reflect upon your own communication skills and experiences using examples from your personal and/or work life.

In your interpersonal communication assignment, you should reflect on:

• the role of communication in professional and personal relationships,
• listening and talking styles and the impact on others, and
• barriers to communication and how these make communication challenging,

You should also include:

• Suggestions for overcoming barriers to improve communication.

Answer

Introduction

The role of communication explored within this interpersonal communication assignment entails transmitting information from one location to another, from one person to another, or between individuals. Communication has an important part in helping people establish interpersonal relationships, thus creating a successful atmosphere in both professional and personal life (Das, 2014, p-75). In essence, communication allows individuals to persuade others to do particular activities and to build trust. Effective and effective communication is based on an individual's communication abilities. In this study my aim is to understand communication as an important interpersonal skill and the different barriers that one may face during effective communication.

It is also worth noting that communication includes two people: the sender and the receiver. To transfer information from one location to another, it must travel through the processes of the message, decoding and feedback (Jesus & Silva, 2015, p-320). The sender starts the communication process, and the receiver interprets the information and provides feedback. When the sender and receiver understand one another, the communication makes sense.

As a result, to capture the recipient's attention, the sender must possess particular talents such as excellent public speaking, rapport building, and relevant nonverbal skills. To give proper feedback, the receiver, on the other side, must have excellent listening and assertive skills (Thompson, 2015, p-89). There are many obstacles to successful communication in every workplace, and it is critical to recognize these obstacles and develop solutions. The majority of these obstacles may be addressed with good communication skills.

Communication's importance in professional and personal relationships

Individuals in professional and personal relationships who communicate effectively may establish trust with family, friends, and coworkers. When a person speaks clearly and listens well, they can instill confidence in other people and the environment. The group's viewpoint is respected and considered in the decision-making process (Stans et al., 2016, p-259). People gain trust and confidence from others via communication, which is a notion that leaders and role models in society often use. 

Working in a culturally diverse workplace needs a person to have clear and good communication skills to resolve disputes and issues that are likely to occur. I believe that to solve societal issues, one must speak effectively, listen carefully, and provide trustworthy suggestions (Bucata, 2017, p-23). Each person can voice their viewpoint and problems impacting them via communication and evaluate the input to make educated choices while tackling daily difficulties. Because not all views and recommendations apply to the current issue, critical analysis is essential in problem resolution. As a result, critical analysis entails evaluating, comprehending, explaining, and offering a solution.

I believe that a team leader must have strong communication skills to offer clarity and guidance to team members and coworkers. They should effectively explain the goals and provide advice on the duties delegated by superiors (Mulyadi, Rukmini & Yuliasri, 2017, p-1200). The topic of the work given to the group and the anticipated results should be understood by all team members. Since a result, a leader needs to establish a network and foster excellent relations within the team, as this allows for the exchange of ideas and motivates the group to complete given tasks. While allocating tasks among group members, the team leader should identify each member's strengths and weaknesses via a communication to enable transparent allocation and reduce disputes throughout the process. As the team leader, team members should openly listen and communicate with one another to establish positive relationships. It is important to perform the tasks successfully (Keaton, Bodie & Keteyian, 2015, p-490). Management must have effective and efficient communication for managerial activities to run smoothly and efficiently. It has been found that a good communication system in the company contributes to managerial efficiency.

Finally, communication has an important part in making better decisions, which improves the success of company operations. As a professional, one must have access to and gather timely information to help one make decisions (Heintz & Ruch, 2019, p-9). I discovered that efficient transmission of information, data, and other variables aids decision makers in better understanding the issue and making educated decisions. Once a decision has been taken, it is critical to convey it to other departments to enable rapid implementation effectively.

Talking and listening styles and the impact on the society

People-oriented, content-oriented, and time-oriented are the four listening and speaking styles.

People-oriented style

This listening and speaking approach directed the listener's attention to the speaker. This implies that they would pay close attention to the speaker's message to infer and understand what they are thinking and how they feel about their message. For example, a person adopting this approach and listening to a role model being interviewed would be focused on the person rather than the message being conveyed (Mulyadi, Rukmini & Yuliasri, 2017, p-1200). These people often have queries that they hope the speaker will answer. As a result, people-oriented people will concentrate on the speaker rather than the content. Consequently, since they concentrate on educational background and how the speaker speaks, these people tend to form incorrect conclusions about the speaker. As a result of the speaker's success, the audience fails to comprehend the speaker's message and loses sight of the significance.

Action-oriented style

Individuals who use an action-oriented approach tend to focus on what the speaker hopes to accomplish with the message they are delivering. They often have questions in their minds while listening to a speaker, such as what the speaker wants to get? Is it a vote, a contribution, a group of volunteers, or something else? ?(Muhoja & Mkulu, 2020, p-485). As they concentrate on these issues, action-oriented people may find it difficult to move through the details, facts, and explanations with which a speaker develops their case. 

Task-oriented style

Task-oriented listening is another name for action-oriented listening. Suppose the rationale for the job is complex. In that case, a task-oriented person may fail to comprehend since they are focused on determining what the speaker wants to accomplish (Hemsley, Balandin & Worrall, 2011, p-120). These listeners are interested in the activity or job at hand but not in the compelling rationale for that action. As a result, they will tell others to do particular actions or duties without explaining why.

Content-oriented style

Individuals who use this style focus on the speaker's message rather than the speaker's personality (Lee, 2020, p-60). Individuals that are content-oriented are concerned with understanding and making sense of the message and determining the accuracy and significance of the message. This approach is most often used in the learning setting since learners are eager to learn (Galli, 2019, p-45). This implies that content-oriented presenters must communicate the truth in a clear, straightforward, and concise manner. According to research, content-oriented presenters have a greater impact than other types of speakers. This action-oriented communication style is followed by me. As I always focus on listening to the main points rather than focusing on the personality of the speaker. Also, my main aspect of communication is my eagerness to learn more. Hence, in most of the projects and group work, I am chosen to be the leader.

Time oriented style

This style focuses on time, and those who use it are interested in a message that is delivered to the point fast. It has been found that time-conscious listeners focus for a short period before becoming restless if the speaker takes a longer period to convey the topic (Hemsley, Balandin & Worrall, 2011, p-120). These are the people who become disruptive when their focus period runs out. They engage in improper behaviour such as pacing, checking their phones, or yawning loudly.

Communication barriers and how they make communication difficult

Cultural differences, expectations and prejudice, a lack or difficulty in comprehending new topics, language differences, differences in perspective and perceptions, a lack of attention and interest, diversions, emotions, taboos, and the use of jargon are all communication barriers. It has been found that these communication obstacles have a detrimental effect on the flow of communication and comprehension of the information being conveyed (Galli, 2019, p-45). For example, if one of the parties is not emotionally prepared to address a particular subject or believes that discussing certain topics, such as sexuality or disability, is taboo, this will negatively affect interpersonal communication.

One example of a communication barrier that I have faced is the use of unfamiliar or difficult-to-understand nonverbal communication signals. In a team work where we were preparing projects, the speaker was employing these nonverbal communication signals, the listeners were getting perplexed and fail to understand the information as intended, resulting in a breakdown in the communication channel (Hemsley, Balandin, & Worrall, 2011, p-120). Hence I understood that nonverbal communication, for example, differs from culture to culture, and its usage may be perceived differently. This implies that a command provided to a listener may be misinterpreted, and execution results in the incorrect action.

Suggestions for overcoming communication obstacles

It has been noted that preparing parties to be comfortable with what they will be talking about is one method of overcoming obstacles. These instill bravery and confidence in those who express themselves on a particular subject. It is also necessary to comprehend the cultural difference to convey a message without influencing the other side (Galli, 2019, p-45). These may be reduced by studying and assessing cultural differences and knowing how certain cultures participate in particular subjects. When a language barrier prevents communication, the speaker should employ interpreters or translate the material into the listener's language.

Conclusion

Hence, it can be concluded that communication skills are useful in many aspects of life, from jobs to personal relationships to everything in between. When seen from a business standpoint, all commercial transactions are the result of communication. It is important to communicate effectively for others and oneself to absorb new information more quickly and accurately. Hence understanding the different modes of communication and the approach of different styles of communication is necessary to maintain effective communication is personal as well as professional life.

References

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Lee, H.-W. (2020). Motivational Effect of Performance Management: Does Leadership Matter? Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 59 E, 59–76. https://doi.org/10.24193/tras.59e.4

?Muhoja, N. T., & Mkulu, D. G. (2020). Challenges Facing Heads of Schools in Performing Procurement Activities: A Case of Public Secondary Schools in Monduli District Arusha, Tanzania. Journal of Humanities and Education Development, 2(6), 481–492. https://doi.org/10.22161/jhed.2.6.13

?Mulyadi, D., Rukmini, D., & Yuliasri, I. (2017). The Analysis of Students’ Listening Proficiency Viewed from Their Different Learning Styles after Getting the Strategy Instructions. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 7(12), 1200. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0712.06?

Stans, S. E. A., Dalemans, R. J. P., de Witte, L. P., Smeets, H. W. H., & Beurskens, A. J. (2016). The role of the physical environment in conversations between people who are communication vulnerable and health-care professionals: a scoping review. Disability and Rehabilitation, 39(25), 2594–2605. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1239769

Thompson, T. (2015). If you have something to say, you can say it Science & Justice, 55(2), 89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2015.01.004