Ashish Jhingran
Contributor

Having understood the importance of effective communication in our lives, in this concluding part, let's look at some important skills that we need to develop/hone in order to become skilful, effective communicators.

There are several things that should be kept in mind for effective communication, should either of these components fail, the communication is bound give rise to confusion. (see box)

However, all components are largely prone to be affected by various external factors with the sender and the receiver being the most vulnerable. These are individuals who have minds of their own which work according to their learning driven by various demographic, socio-economic and psychographic factors.

It is imperative for us to be extremely careful while playing the roles (sender and receiver) in order to be successful and effective communicators.

Clarity and tone
We often end up send a message that is either vague or incomplete. For instance, while travelling to visit a friend in Miami, we may send a message to him/her - "reaching Miami by (Airlines) on 20th November" and expect the friend to pick us at the airport. What is the catch here? There might be five flights being operated by the airline, how is your friend going to find out, which flight you are going to take.

A clearly spelt out message like "reaching Miami by (Airlines) Flt No. 123 on 20th November. Please pick me up from the airport" is clear.

Ensure that you use the right words - as you are requesting a favour use 'please'. This sets the right tone for the message.

Right channel
How should you send the message? Whether by electronic mail, snail mail, over the phone or in a face-to-face meeting with the receiver - is an important decision.

This decision needs to be taken by the sender considering the importance, volume, complexity of the message in conjunction with the strengths and weaknesses of each channel.

A business proposal, for instance, cannot be effectively discussed over the phone.

A written proposal sent through email, followed by a phone call to fix up a possible face-to-face meeting would be a better option.

A good listener
To be a good communicator, you have to be a good receiver. Communication is not about sending messages from your end to all and sundry, it is also about receiving messages correctly.

If you are in a face-to-face meeting with someone, make sure that you play the roles of sender and receiver equally well. Often we say what we want to say and do not pay much attention to what other/s are saying.

Be a good listener; hear out patiently and with interest what someone is conveying to you. Do not jump to conclusions without knowing the full content. If you are not clear, ask till you understand perfectly well what is being conveyed to you. Once you have understood, react as you are supposed to and bring the session to its logical conclusion.

The author is a seasoned professional with more than 18 years' experience in handling varied functions. A business management graduate from India, he is currently director of sales, marketing & operations with a Montego Bay-based software solutions company.He can be contacted at ajhingran@yahoo.com


Ingredients for Successful Communication
For any communication to be successful:

a) The sender should be clear of the goals to be achieved and construct the message without leaving room for misinterpretation/distortion/ambiguity;
b) Right channel needs to be used to transmit the entire message without changing its form and meaning and within the right time frame; and
c) The receiver should be able to receive the message as it was supposed to and understand it as was meant by the sender.