Communication is a dynamic process involving a series of actions and reactions with a view to achieving a goal. How does it work? Think that you are in conversation with your friend. You are a sender or communicator, formulate (encode) an idea or message as best as you can, and pass on the message to your friend, who to the best of his ability receives or acts on the message (decode). He responds by formulating his own message and communicates to you (feedback) . If you think your message is understood or well received by your friend, then you go ahead with the next idea that you have in mind and the conversation goes on and on. Communication is, therefore, a two way process, that is, the ability to receive is as important as the ability to send. For successful communication, feedback is crucial because it tells how your message Continue reading
Business Communication
As the term suggests, business communication includes all communication that occurs in a business context. A knowledge of business communication presupposes an understanding of both business and communication.
Importance of Communication
Communication in its simplest sense involve two or more persons who come together to share, to dialogue and to commune, or just to be together for a festival or family gathering. Dreaming, talking with someone, arguing in a discussion, speaking in public, reading a newspaper, watching TV etc. are all different kinds of communication that we are engaged in every day. Communication is thus not so much an act or even a process but rather social and cultural ‘togetherness’. Communication can be with oneself, god, and nature and with the people in our environment. Interaction, interchange, transaction, dialogue, sharing, communion, and commonness are ideas that crop up in any attempt to define the term communication. Communication is important both for an individual and also for the society. A person’s need for communication is as strong and as basic as the need to eat, sleep, and love. Communication is the requirement Continue reading
Planning and conducting interviews
Before meeting for an interview, both the interviewer and the interviewee have to make planning and preparation. Many job interviews are failures because either the applicants or the interviewer lack the skills of planning for them. The interviewer must have clear and detailed information about the post for which the candidates are to be interviewed. He should be in a position to tell the candidate the working conditions, details of job operations and other responsibilities. He has to make proper seating arrangement for the candidates in such a way that they may feel relaxed in the waiting room before facing the interviewer. He should know what type of candidate is required for the job. He must have the bio-data of all the candidates who might attend the interview. Similarly, the applicants too must prepare themselves for the interview situation. He has to know his own abilities in carrying out the Continue reading
Tips to Organize an Effective Meeting in a Business
What is a Meeting? A meeting is a gathering of people to present or exchange information, plan joint activities, make decisions, or carry out actions already agreed upon. Almost every group activity or project requires a meeting, or meetings, of some sort. In business organizations, different meetings of executives and employees are held to discuss and debate upon certain matters for taking collective decisions. At these business meetings different proposals are discussed in the light of their pros and cons, and consensus is reached through interaction and influence among various persons. In business, meeting is any focused conversation that has a specific purpose, like taking decision of share capital, issue of dividends, issue of bonus shares, etc. Purpose of Business Meetings Meetings play vital roles in business management. It is also dynamic tools for communication. In modern world, meetings are conducted in almost every organization. It may be held for Continue reading
Introduction to listening skills
What is listening? Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to the messages received from the communication sender. Effective listening is an art of communication, which is often taken for granted and ignored. Like any other art, listening require to be cultivated consciously and carefully. Unfortunately, our education systems beginning from kindergarten up to college level do not pay attention to the teaching of effective listening. Poor listening can be considered, as a mighty barrier to communication as listening is fundamental to all communication. It often results in losing messages due to improper functioning of communication. Listening require conscious efforts of interpreting the sounds, grasping the meanings of the words and reacting to the message. Interpreting the sound signals is a cognitive act, which depends on the listener’s knowledge of the code signals and on its attitude towards the communication sender. Active listening process begins when the listener Continue reading
Barriers to Effective Communication in Business
Planning, preparation and practice of communication will be incomplete and unsuccessful unless one identifies and understands the barriers to effective communication. These barriers are physical, sociological and psychological obstacles that interfere with the planning, organization, transmission and understanding of the message. There are a number of such obstacles that can occur in the process of communication. The natural result of such obstacles or interfering factors is the misunderstanding of the message. These factors interfere with the self-confidence, self-disclosure and self-consciousness of the communication senders and receivers. The barriers to effective communication are dangers to any organization if they are not removed on time. When the communicator transmits the idea in an unchanged and un-distorted form to the receiver and the receiver responds to it, then, the process of the communication is supposed to have been perfect. But this process of ‘perfect’ communication can never exist due to the number of Continue reading