COMMUNICATION SKILLS: UNIT III Swarupa Kulkarni

WHAT IS SELF-AWARENESS?
Being aware of yourself, your surrounding, paying attention to the
reactions while communication is going on.
Knowing when you are talking too much is also self awareness
Understanding your goal/objective/result out of a particular
communication is self awareness
Another important realization or self awareness is knowing what
do you lack
Awareness would also be about how people perceive you, you
need to pay attention to the perceptions about you when you
initiate Communication with people.
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Being aware of your body language during communication
Achieving a balance between how much you talk and how much
you listen is also self awareness, they say half of communication is
listening
Awareness is ability to accept the good, the bad and the neutral
in a conversation. You would not always hear happy/fun things
while communicating
Defined as: conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings,
motives, and desires," according to Oxford Language
ACTIVE LISTENING
An important component of the communication process, the
feedback from the receiver is based on his/her listening
abilities.
As much as talking, its important to be listening for effective
communication to take place
Active listening ensures that productive exchange of ideas,
thoughts take place between 2 living beings
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It has to be followed by sharing opinion, feedback. Response,
summarizing the content spoken by the speaker to ensure you are on the
same page
LISTENING AND HEARING ARE 2 different things altogether!!
Adding certain non-verbals such as nodding and verbals such as ok, I
agree or even I don’t quite understand this are the ways of showing your
involvement in the conversation
Asking relevant questions
ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS
SIGNS OF A POOR LISTENER
Asking irrelevant questions
 Interrupting someone when he/she is talking
Thinking about other things till its your turn
LISTENING TO RESPOND and not to understand
Using too much “I ALREADY KNOW, I ALWAYS DO IT, basically dominating
the conversation with your own idea all the time rather than listening to
someone speak
Multi-tasking while you are listening, simple example watching television
when you are in a telephonic conversation, or watching mobile when you are in
a face to face conversation
LISTENING IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Physical barriers make listening difficult
Psychological barrier such as distractions (visual, mental) make listening
ineffective
When you do not share good/positive relation with the sender of the
message, this leads to difficulty in listening because of the psychological
barriers such as prejudices
When the sender is not good at communication (poor voice, language not
clear, he is not familiar with the topic), it becomes even more challenging to
listen and keep the concentration on the topic
This requires one to ask right question to clarify one’s doubts and at the same
time help the sender/speaker to be on track
Showing interest and respect in the conversation even if you don’t agree,
basically disagreeing respectfully
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Written communication is equally important useful form of communication.
You undertake written communication because:
It stays on record permanently
It serves as a proof of certain event, e.g. job application, offer letter,
resignation letter
Oral communication can be tweaked and manipulated but once written, the
sender of the message cannot deny sending of the message
Bills, invoices, admission receipts are such forms of written messages which
have legal importance
Any important decision though communicated orally first will always be
followed by a written confirmation
WHEN TO USE WRITTEN/ORAL COMMUNICATION
Complexity of the topic: if one requires certain clarifications on a
particular topic, its always better to engage in oral discussion and then
formulate it into a written format
Amount of discussion required: If no conclusion has been reached on a
particular topic its advisable to first clarify it through say a phone call,
face to face meeting rather than having lot of messages back n forth
If the matter is urgent then we prefer oral communication rather than
writing a message and waiting for a feedback
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Written communication suffers from unpredictable feedback time,
chance of receiver not reading the message, forgetting, ignoring etc
Audience: Whether your audience is capable of understanding/
receiving the written message i.e. if they have tools/language
capabilities etc
Instances of formal communication: appointment letter, resignation
letter, straightforward and simple business decisions, routine matters in
an organisation
HOW DO YOU ORGANISE A WRITTEN MESSAGE?
Brief introduction through subject line in case of an email
Communication the timeline of response when you are expecting reply from
the receiver
Avoiding long paragraphs
Clear communication to ensure smooth delivery of the message
Ensuring correct non-verbals in a written message (e.g. font, color, use of
capital letters, questions marks, punctuations at the right place)
Bullet points/numbered points
Know your audience: just the way communication style changes depending on
who the receiver is, your writing style would also change.
Expected action/conclusion should be clearly mentioned e.g. giving
instructions on a science experiment