Communication

Communication models are systematic representations of the process which helps in understanding
how communication works can be done. Models show the process metaphorically and in symbols. They
form general perspectives on communication by breaking communication from complex to simple and
keeps the components in order. Communication models can sometimes encourage traditional thinking
and stereotyping but can also omit some major aspects of human communication.

The mathematicians Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver structured this model on the basis of the
following elements:

An information source, which produces a message.

A transmitter, which encodes the message into signals.

A channel, for which signals are adapted for transmission.

A receiver, which reconstructs the encoded message from a sequence of received signals and decodes it.

An information destination, which processes the message.

What are communication barriers?
Communication barriers are something that prevents us from correctly getting and accepting the
messages others use to communicate their information, thoughts and ideas. Some of the examples of
communication barriers are information overload, choosy perceptions, workplace gossips, semantics,
gender differences, etc.

Types of Communication Barriers

Psychological Barriers:

The psychological condition of the receiver will power how the message is received. Stress management
is a significant personal skill that affects our interpersonal relationships. For example, Anger is a
psychological barrier to communication. When we are angry, it is simple to say things that we may
afterwards regret and also to misunderstand what others are saying. Also, people with low self-esteem
may be less self-assured and therefore may not feel comfortable communicating.

Physical Communication Barriers:

Communication is usually easier over shorter distances as more communication channels are obtainable,
and less technology is obligatory. Although modern technology often serves to decrease the crash of
physical barriers, the advantages and disadvantages of each communication channel should be
unspoken so that a suitable channel can be used to overcome the physical barriers.

Physiological Barriers:

Physiological barriers may affect the receiver’s physical condition. For example, a receiver with
condensed hearing may not grab the sum of a spoken conversation, especially if there is significant
surroundings noise.

Language Barriers:

Language and linguistic aptitude may act as a barrier to communication. However, even when
communicating in a similar language, the terms used in a message may act as a barrier if it is not easy to
understand by the receiver.
Attitudinal Barriers:

Attitudinal barriers are perceptions that stop people from communicating well. Attitudinal barriers to
communication may effect from poor management, personality conflicts, and battle to change, or a lack
of motivation. Active receivers of messages should challenge to overcome their attitudinal barriers to
assist effective communication.

How to overcome communication barriers

Be aware of language, message and tone:

The sender should ensure that the message should be structured in clear and simple language. The tone
of the message should not harm the feelings of the receiver. As far as possible, the contents of the
message should be a concise and unnecessary use of technical words should be avoided.

Consult others before communication:

When you’re planning the communication, suggestions should be invited from all the individuals
concerned. Its main benefit will be that all those people who are consulted at the time of preparing the
communication preparation will add to the success of the communication system.

Communicate according to the need of receiver:

The sender of the communication should organize the formation of the message not according to his or
her level, but he or she should keep in mind the point of understanding or the surroundings of the
receiver.

Consistency of Message:

The message sent to the receiver should not be self- opposing. It should be in unity with the objectives,
programmes, policies and techniques of the organization. When new information has to be sent inlay of
the old one, it should always make a declaration of the change; otherwise, it can raise some doubts and
queries for the same.

Follow up Communication:
In order to make communication successful, the management should frequently try to know the
weaknesses of the communication structure. In this situation effort can be made to know whether to lay
more hassle upon the formal or the informal communication would be suitable.

Make sure to receive proper feedback:

The reason for feedback is to find out whether the receiver has appropriately understood the meaning
of the information received. In face-to-face communication, the reply of the receiver can be understood.
But in the case of written communication or other forms of communications, some correct process of
feedback should be adopted by the sender.

Conclusion:

Communication is way essential, that makes the moving parts of human relations function smoothly.
Therefore, the meaning of communication cannot and should not be underestimated.
MOTIVATION
We all have different reasons for getting up every morning and doing what we do every day.

So why is it that, on some days, it can feel harder than others to get up when your alarm goes off, do
your workout, crush a work or school assignment, or make dinner for your family?

Motivation (or a lack thereof) is usually behind why we do the things that we do.

There are different types of motivation, and as it turns out, understanding why you are motivated to do
the things that you do can help you keep yourself motivated -- and can help you motivate others.

Definitions of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation involves doing something because it's personally rewarding to you. Extrinsic
motivation involves doing something because you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

What Is Intrinsic Motivation?

When you're intrinsically motivated, your behavior is motivated by your internal desire to do something
for its own sake -- for example, your personal enjoyment of an activity, or your desire to learn a skill
because you're eager to learn.

Examples of intrinsic motivation could include:

Reading a book because you enjoy the storytelling

Exercising because you want to relieve stress

Cleaning your home because it helps you feel organized

What Is Extrinsic Motivation?

When you're extrinsically motivated, your behavior is motivated by an external factor pushing you to do
something in hopes of earning a reward -- or avoiding a less-than-positive outcome.

Examples of extrinsic motivation could include:

Reading a book to prepare for a test

Exercising to lose weight

Cleaning your home to prepare for visitors coming over

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: What's the Difference?

At first glance, it might seem like it's better to be intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated.
After all, doesn't it sound like it would be ideal if you didn't need anyone -- or anything -- motivating you
to accomplish tasks?

But, alas, we don't live in such a motivation-Utopia, and being extrinsically motivated doesn't mean
anything bad -- extrinsic motivation is just the nature of being a human being sometimes.

If you have a job, and you have to complete a project, you're probably extrinsically motivated -- by your
manager's praise or a potential raise or commission -- even if you enjoy the project while you're doing it.
If you're in school, you're extrinsically motivated to learn a foreign language because you're being
graded on it -- even if you enjoy practicing and studying it.

So, intrinsic motivation is good, and extrinsic motivation is good. The key is to figure out why you -- and
your team -- are motivated to do things, and encouraging both types of motivation.

When Intrinsic Motivation Is Best

Research has shown that praise can help increase intrinsic motivation. Positive feedback that is
"sincere," "promotes autonomy," and "conveys attainable standards" was found to promote intrinsic
motivation in children.
But on the other side of that coin, external rewards can decrease intrinsic motivation if they're given too
willy-nilly. When children received too much praise for completing minimal work or single tasks, their
intrinsic motivation decreased.

The odds are, if you're reading this blog post, you're not a child -- although children are welcome
subscribers here on the HubSpot Marketing Blog. But the principles of this study are still sound for
adults.

If you're a people manager, be intentional with your praise and positive feedback. Make sure that it's
specific, empowering, and helps your direct reports understand your expectations and standards. But
make sure you aren't giving too much praise for work that's less meaningful for your team, or they might
lose intrinsic motivation.

If you're an individual contributor, tell your manager when their feedback is motivating -- give them
positive feedback, too. By providing positive feedback to your manager when they give you praise that
keeps you motivated, you, in turn, will extrinsically motivate them to keep managing you successfully.

When Extrinsic Motivation Is Best

Extrinsic rewards don't just involve bribery (although bribery can work). In some cases, people may
never be internally motivated to complete a task, and extrinsic motivation can be used to get the job
done.

In fact, extrinsic rewards can promote interest in a task or skill a person didn't previously have any
interest in. Rewards like praise, commissions, bonuses, or prizes and awards can also motivate people to
learn new skills or provide tangible feedback beyond just verbal praise or admonishment.

But tread carefully with extrinsic rewards: Studies have shown that offering too many rewards for
behaviors and activities that people are already intrinsically motivated to do can actually decrease that
person's intrinsic motivation -- by way of the over justification effect.

In these cases, offering rewards for activities the person already finds rewarding can make a personally
enjoyable activity seem like work -- which could kill their motivation to keep doing it.
If you're a people manager, use extrinsic rewards sparingly to motivate your team to take on new
responsibilities or achieve lofty goals. Bonuses, commissions, recognition prizes, and promotions can be
an effective way to motivate or reward your team for learning new skills, taking on new challenges, or
hitting a quarterly goal. But make sure you're giving your team members the time and resources to
explore skills and projects they're already excited about independently -- without making them a part of
their regular responsibilities, which could demotivate them.

If you're an individual contributor, work for the rewards you want, but don't over-exhaust yourself in the
pursuit of extrinsic prizes. Make sure you're taking time, in your job or in your personal life, to explore
activities that you enjoy just for the sake of doing them, to keep yourself balanced.
SELF CONFIDENCE
WHAT IS SELF-CONFIDENCE?
Self-confidence is an attitude about your skills and abilities. It means you accept and trust yourself and
have a sense of control in your life. You know your strengths and weakness well, and have a positive
view of yourself. You set realistic expectations and goals, communicate assertively, and can handle
criticism.

On the other hand, low self-confidence might make you feel full of self-doubt, be passive or submissive,
or have difficulty trusting others. You may feel inferior, unloved, or be sensitive to criticism. Feeling
confident in yourself might depend on the situation. For instance, you can feel very confident in some
areas, such as academics, but lack confidence in others, like relationships.

Having high or low self-confidence is rarely related to your actual abilities, and mostly based on your
perceptions. Perceptions are the way your think about yourself and these thoughts can be flawed.

Low self-confidence might stem from different experiences, such as growing up in an unsupportive and
critical environment, being separated from your friends or family for the first time, judging yourself too
harshly, or being afraid of failure. People with low self-confidence often have errors in their thinking.

How To Increase Your Self-Confidence

 Recognize and emphasize your strengths. Reward and praise yourself for your efforts and
progress.
 When you stumble on an obstacle, treat yourself with kindness and compassion. Don't dwell on
failure.
 Set realistic and achievable goals. Do not expect perfection; it is impossible to be perfect in
every aspect of life.
 Slow down when you are feeling intense emotions and think logically about the situation.
 Challenge making assumptions about yourself, people and situations.
 Recognize that past negative life experiences do not dictate your future.
 Express your feelings, beliefs and needs directly and respectfully
 Learn to say no to unreasonable requests.
What is self-esteem?

Self-esteem is how we value and perceive ourselves. It's based on our opinions and beliefs about
ourselves, which can feel difficult to change. We might also think of this as self-confidence.

What can cause low self-esteem?

The things that affect our self-esteem are different for everyone. Your self-esteem might change
suddenly. Or you might have had low self-esteem for a while.

There are lots of things in life that may contribute to low self-esteem. For example:

 Being bullied or abused

 Experiencing prejudice, discrimination or stigma, including racism
 Losing your job or difficulty finding employment
 Problems at work or while studying
 Physical health problems
 Mental health problems
 Relationship problems, separation or divorce
 Problems with money or housing
 Worries about your appearance and body image
 Feeling pressure to meet unrealistic expectations, for example through social media

QUESTIONS:-

A. A person's confidence level is impacted by:

1. Their genes
2. The social pressures in their environment
3. Their responses to challenges and setbacks
4. All of the above

B. Which of the following does NOT define self-esteem?

 1. positive or negative evaluation of your self-concept
2. an understanding of what others think of you
3. sometimes dependent on the ideas, morals, and values of the family, group, and culture that
the individual belongs
4. evaluation of our personal worthiness

A. Which of the following statements is true of self-concept?

1. We base it on the ways others react and respond to us.

2. Our experiences are critical to our self-concept.
3. First experiences have great emphasis on our self-concept.
4. All of the above.

D. The ideas we hold about our competencies and attributes is also called _______.
a) self_concept
b) social self
c) self-esteem
d) self-efficacy

E.

Personality is thought to be ________.

1. short term and easily changed

2. a pattern of short-term characteristics
3. unstable and short term
4. long term, stable and not easily changed

F. The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave
in specific ways are known as ________.

1. psychodynamic
2. temperament
3. humors
4. personality

G. Your level of confidence in your own abilities is known as ________.

1. self-efficacy
2. self-concept
3. self-control
4. self-esteem

H. Self-concept refers to ________.

1. our level of confidence in our own abilities
2. all of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves
3. the belief that we control our own outcomes
4. the belief that our outcomes are outside of our control
Why is Self-confidence Important?
Self-confidence impacts the whole personality and life of a person. This is why the importance of self-
confidence cannot be denied or neglected. Self-confidence not only has a huge impact on different areas
of a person’s life but also impacts every smaller function of our daily lives. The following points highlight
the importance of self-confidence.

1.Leads to Better Self-esteem

Self-esteem is a combination of believing in oneself and believing in one’s self-worth. In psychology, self-
esteem is considered an important ability to have a successful life in terms of having a healthy life – both
physically and mentally. Having confidence in oneself is a gateway to developing better self-esteem and
vice versa. Many theories of psychology state that self-esteem is made up of two components that are
self-efficacy and self-confidence. It helps people to better cope with life’s difficulties and challenges,
inculcate happiness and love in life, and have mental peace.

2.Decreases Anxiety

Having self-confidence is a way to decrease anxiety and fears in a person’s life. Almost all of the issues
related to social anxiety, self-esteem, and some other forms of anxiety have a root cause of low self-
confidence in a person. If you compare two people – one having self-confidence and the other having
low confidence – there is a visible difference in their anxiety level and fears. Moreover, a person with
low self-confidence tries to avoid every possible situation where they have to be in the limelight that
reinforces the anxious behavior. So the cycles continue unless it is broken by increasing confidence.

3. Positive Self-worth

The importance of self-confidence is positively related to making people comfortable in their skin.
Confident people accept their flaws and know that this does not decrease their self-worth. It becomes
easier to accept one’s weaknesses because you are confident in your abilities that you will get over
them one day. By having self-confidence, one also has a purpose in life to achieve the goals that have
been set. On the other hand, low-confident people give up without trying. Consequently, it decreases
self-worth.

4. Makes a Better Leader

Leadership is all about having confidence in one’s abilities. One can have necessary skills and talent but
without self-confidence, the trust in having to utilize these skills is lacking. This is why there are people
with excellent skillset but they are not good leadership. One of the qualities of a great leader is to have
self-confidence. A leader is also an eloquent and confident speaker and a charismatic personality. All
these qualities are tied with having the self-confidence to impress people and convince them to follow
the leader.

5. Increase Motivation

Confidence is an ability that affects everyday life activities whether big or small. When you have
confidence, you will automatically gain more motivation to perform those tasks as compared to
someone who has low confidence. People with low confidence are preoccupied with the fear of failure.
This preoccupation often loses their motivation to perform the tasks and try harder.

6. Brings Happiness

A confident person does not hesitate from doing anything in life. This brings variety into life and gathers
various skillsets. There are no regrets of missed opportunities and no self-accusatory and ruminating
thoughts. When there is no regret in life, life automatically becomes happier than it normally is.

7. Ensures Security

A person with low confidence has low self-esteem. What happens with low self-esteem is that there is a
lot of self-doubt and fear regarding oneself. there is insecurity about one’s abilities. However,
confidence ensures the security of the person. Even the person messed up a situation, there is a
knowledge that it was just one situation and other experiences will be better. Instead of falling into self-
doubt and feeling insecure about one’s abilities, confident people are secure.

8. Improved Relationships

Self-confidence also means to be true to yourself and confidently show the real side of yourself. Instead
of worrying over the image one radiates in a relationship, genuine interactions give a better impression.
Confident people are known to be more open and genuine in their interactions because they are not
constantly thinking about their impression in any social interaction. As genuineness is a character that
improves relationships, confident people are known to have a better relationship than non-confident
people.
Self-confidence in a Student’s Life

Confidence is directly linked with healthy coping mechanisms a person adopts in difficult times, failures,
and setbacks. A student’s life is full of struggles and hardships. Self-confidence means to continue to
trust in abilities and motivation to work harder to change those difficult situations instead of giving up
that even when the situations are hard. It develops resilience in students to carry on their struggling
period, bravely.

How can one improve self-confidence?

There is no doubt over the importance of self-confidence and how it brings a positive change in
everyone’s life. However, everyone wants to improve their confidence so that they can do better. What
are the ways through which one can achieve that?

Acceptance: the first step of every change and effort is to accept the lacking and errors. Accept that
there is a lack of self-confidence in your personality.

Identification: Enlist all the weaknesses and strengths of your personality, unbiasedly. Also, enlist your
skills and talents that are useful.

Conscious efforts: It is necessary to put conscious efforts into the journey of acquiring self-confidence.
This is a sign of awareness that can go a long way in every stage of life.

Remove the negativities: Remove all the negative perceptions about oneself from your mind. These
negativities are the major hurdle in your journey towards acquiring self-confidence.

Participate: Participate in different activities in school, college, or office that require social interaction.
Participate in competitions. These competitions and interactions positively highlight our weaknesses and
this helps us in overcoming them. Moreover, the appreciation we receive from others during these
participations automatically motivates us towards self-confidence.

Be assertive: In some situations, people with more confidence win even without having a proper skill.
The reason is that their confidence lets them be assertive and convince people in their favor. Therefore,
we need to learn to be assertive without being disrespectful.

Conclusion

In conclusion from the above discussion, it can be assumed that people who succeed have unlocked and
understood the importance of self-confidence and have used it for their benefit. It does not matter if the
task is small or big, it requires confidence in a person to achieve the task successfully and beautifully. As
good as self-confidence is, it is important to learn and practice to be self-confident in our life and
improve as a person.
1. Time Management
Time management is the coordination of tasks and activities to maximize the effectiveness of an
individual's efforts. Essentially, the purpose of time management is enabling people to get more and
better work done in less time.

Elements include organization, planning and scheduling to best take advantage of the time available to
the individual, while also taking into account that individual's particular situation and relevant
characteristics.

The benefits of effective time management apply equally to both the business and its employees. When
employees' working hours are managed to best effect, they tend to be happier, more creative and less
prone to burnout. For the business, that translates to lower absenteeism and turnover rates and more
productivity, innovation and employee advocacy -- which in turn provide more benefits, such as an
enhanced corporate reputation and employee recruitment.

A few tips on time management:

Keep a journal of activities for a week to identify the times of day when you are likely to be most
productive. Use that information to guide scheduling tasks.

Take time at the start of each day to make a plan for what you want to achieve and how you intend to
do it.

Schedule tasks according to priority and include unscheduled time in your day.

Manage your communication availability. Open your email and instant messaging applications at
scheduled times rather than leaving them open all day.

Follow other email management best practices such as processing your email in batches and organizing
messages to be dealt with at a later time.

Assume that you will nevertheless be interrupted periodically and add time to tasks to allow for that
inevitability.

Manage your workload: Don't agree to more work than you can comfortably do and discuss
unreasonable demands with management.
Do’s and Don’ts in a Group Discussion

There are certain things which should be done and which shouldn’t be
done to make an effective contribution in the GD. Here’s a list of Do’s
and Don’ts of participating in the GD.

Do’s of participating in a GD:

 Listen to the subject carefully

 Put down your thoughts on a paper
 Initiate the discussion if you know the subject well
 Listen to others if you don’t know the subject
 Support you point with some facts and figures
 Make short contribution of 25-30 seconds 3-4 times
 Give others a chance to speak
 Speak politely and pleasantly. Respect contribution from other
members.
 Disagree politely and agree with what is right.
 Summarize the discussion if the group has not reached a
conclusion.

Don’ts of participating in a Group Discussion

 Initiate the discussion if you do not have sufficient knowledge

about the given topic.
 Over speak, intervene and snatch other’s chance to speak.
 Argue and shout during the GD
 Look at the evaluators or a particular group member
 Talk irrelevant things and distract the discussion
 Pose negative body gestures like touching the nose, leaning back
on the chair, knocking the table with a pen etc.
 Mention erratic statistics.
 Display low self-confidence with shaky voice and trembling
hands.
 Try to dominate the discussion
 Put others in an embarrassing situation by asking them to speak
if they don’t want.