Effective Communication In The Workplace

Effective communication involves the various methods of relaying a message across. Effective communication ultimately produces a successful exchange of information, accompanied by emotional understanding, empathy and ability to put oneself in others’ shoes.

In order for effective communication to take place in an organization, there are six techniques which must be followed.

We all know that when it comes to communication, there is a sending party (the information giver) and a receiving party (the information receiver). With this in mind it is quite obvious that for communication to be effective, the receiver has to possess good listening skill. Good listening skills involve paying close attention to the message being passed by the sender to be able to raise the right questions and understand the message that is being passed. If the receiver, goes against this by immersing himself in his opinion or other issues (personal or work related), this will reduce his ability to properly listen and understand the message that is being passed across.

Clarity, this is another technique that has effect of the quality of communication between two or more people. For example, if a team lead tells his team members, “we shall discuss this issue one of these days”, that message lacks clarity. The reason is, he does not state when and where the meeting will hold. This message could be interpreted in various ways by each team member and could lead to conflict. For the sake of effective communication, that message could have been better said as: We will meet tomorrow by 5pm at the conference room to this discuss this issue”. With this in mind, it is very important that the sending party, clearly outlines the message to the very last detail.

When it comes to effective communication, having an organized and logical approach is paramount. If the head of a department in an organization wants to talk to his team about an issue they have been having in recent time, starting the meeting with the problem they are currently facing before moving on to the solution is what is expected of him. Now imagine if he decides to start the meeting with the solutions before he goes ahead to mention the problem, he would leave his team members in confusion.

Imagine been in a meeting where the chief speaker had to talk continuously for over two hours without pausing, asking questions or requesting for feedback. Would you be able to recall up to half of all the points he mentioned? This brings us to the issue of brevity and feed backs. When it comes to effective communication the speaker should stick to short sentences and request for feed backs to ascertain if his message was effectively passed. One way to do that effectively is by pausing to ask questions from time to time. This will help ensure that the speaker is carrying everyone along.

Effective communication if not practiced in the workplace can bring about conflict and strife. Any organization that has strife among its employees cannot grow. Some of the most effective ways of ensuring the effective communication in the workplace is by carrying out effective communication trainings, setting up company hang outs, rotating teams and encouraging team related games and sports among employees.