What Does It Take to Become an Effective Communicator?

“What does it take to be an Effective Communicator?”

Communication is the foundation of a relationship. The ability to communicate can come easy for some and difficult for others. It can come in different forms and can be interpreted differently than expected. Regardless of the means of transmission, communication is a human endeavor. People communicate everyday in all sorts of situations. Those working in groups and teams need good communication skills in order to gain a competitive advantage for their organization. Poor communication leads to misunderstandings, which in turn fails to get a point across. Therefore the question is, what does it take to be an effective communicator?

Communication is a process, rather than a single action, and happens in phases. The transmission phase is the first step in which information is shared between two or more people. The sender decides on the information to be shared and then encodes the message. The message is then sent through a medium, which can be any means of delivering the message to the receiver for decoding. A common understanding is established in the feedback phase if the receiver successfully decoded the message. A message can be delivered verbally, nonverbally, or sometimes both. Nonverbal communication, such as facial expressions, can inadvertently take the place of verbal communication. People should be cautious when trying to withhold a verbal message. My mother always said, “I can see it in your face”, if I was lying about something. I admit I am usually guilty of expressing emotions nonverbally. Perception is influenced by people’s attitudes, personalities, moods, experiences, and knowledge and is the process in which people give meaning to sensory inputs. Therefore no matter how you are communicating and whether you intend to or not, different people will interpret your message in a different way. Perceptions can be skewed however and interfere with effective communication. To stray from ineffective communication, people, especially managers, should reduce biases and stereotypes Biases can lead to unfair treatment while stereotyping can affect encoding and decoding. I am also guilty of stereotyping at work. I tend to give more attention to customers who appear to be part of our target market than those who do not. I understand this is not being an effective manager and have gotten better over the years. Accurate perceptions lead to effective communication. Ineffective communication can affect the organization, causing it to lose any competitive advantage it may have had. Therefore it is important to select the proper medium to communicate.

There is no one medium that suits all situations the best. There are three factors that a manager should focus on when choosing. A manager should first consider the information richness, which is the amount of information a medium can carry and the extent to which it enables the