The Role Of Communication In Professional And Personal Relationships

Listening and Talking Styles and their Impact

Discuss about the Interpersonal Communication for Facial Expressions and Gestures.

Interpersonal communication is a face to face communication between two or more people. It is the process in which people exchange information and feelings through verbal and non-verbal communication. The interpersonal communication is not all about the language used but the non-verbal messages communicated through voice tone, facial expressions, gestures and body language.

In this report, I would reflect upon the role of communication in both professional and personal relationships. The listening and talking styles are discussed along with it’s impact on others. I would also discuss the barriers to communication and it’s causing challenges. Finally, the suggestions to overcome barriers are debated in order to improve communication.

According to my opinion, the communication is an essential aspect of the routine life for both professional and personal relationships. It is involved in the all day long. The communication skills made my understanding better. It can spoil any kind of formal and informal relationship if we are not careful at the time of communication. The communication has helped me to improve the personal relationships by bridging the gap between people (Berger, 2014). It played important role in the development of personal relationships by setting a mutual sense of commitment. There are various mediums of communication which are helpful in relationship formation such as email, chat room and more. The communication strengthens the level of trust, honesty, and respect (Yuriev, Boiral, Francoeur & Paillé, 2018). The examples of communication in personal relationships can be taken from the daily life such as speaking on the phone and expressing emotions through facial expressions.

I believe that communication is important for any kind of profession and is an essential part of a career. For instance, giving a presentation at work and writing an email are both examples of communication in professional relationships. The communication made possible sharing of information in a formal way by using various technologies such as slideshows. The exchanges of ideas are required in the professional world. The communication has an important role in the completion of tasks. The communication skills at a workplace helped me to collaborate efficiently and also helped in the accomplishment of tasks efficiently (Cappella, 2017). The communication made the relationship better at the workplace and enables to provide more productivity. It leads to more involvement of employees at every important decision of company which helps to an improved relationship. It clarifies the goals and ideas and which helped me in implementation.

Barriers to Communication and Their Impact

Listening is one of the important skills to have and it has a major impact on the job effectiveness and personal relationships. A person listens to obtain information and to understand. The listening styles are:

Pseudolistening: In the pseudo listening, a person pretends to listen but really do not absorb anything from the conversation. A person just does not want to hear, it may be due to lack of interest.

Appreciative listening: In the appreciative listening, the listener seeks the information which he will appreciate. Such information helps the listener to achieve his goals. A person is highly focused in such kind of listening.

Empathetic listening: A person is involved in the empathetic listening only when he is emotionally connected to another person. The empathetic listening is all about understanding other person and listening with empathy (Norouzinia, et. al. 2016).

Comprehensive listening: The comprehensive listening is a basic understanding of words and ideas. It includes understanding opinions, ideas, and messages. It builds on discriminative learning.

Critical listening: The critical listening is focussed on evaluating and analyzing information. It is an active practice of listening which includes assessment and making judgments (Tsoh, et. al. 2016).

The talking styles are:

Mussitation: In the mussitation style, a person talks softly with an indoor voicing. A person mumbles but not much comes out. It is difficult for another person to understand.

Discursive: In this type of talking style, a person changes the topic in the middle of a conversation. The person talks about the topic which is slightly connected to the main subject.

Ponderous: A person lacks enthusiasm in this kind of style. It is just a fancy conversation and boring.

Flowery: The sentences are overcomplicated in order to sound smarter and interesting. The ideas define the whole topic.

Prolix: In the prolix style of speaking, a person uses an excess of words which becomes boring. (Walther & Valkenburg, 2017)

Sesquipedalian: In the Sesquipedalian talking style, a person uses long words. Using lots of lots of words can make people confused.

Loquacious: Usually a person speaks a lot in this kind of talking style, often in a negative way. The person hums about anything and everything.

I consider that listening styles are viable in keeping information open and unproductive. It helped me to convince other persons to listen to the words that are being said. The persuasive speaking techniques can be used to convince the audience by the words which are usually worth understanding (Gut, Wilczewski & Gorbaniuk, 2017). The listening and speaking skills reduce conflict and motivate which as a result improves morale and productivity.

Suggestions to Overcome Barriers and Improve Communication

As per my opinion, there are various reasons for failing interpersonal communications. The message has not received the way the sender intended is one of the barriers to communication. The common barriers to the communication which I faced are the use of jargon, lack of attention, interest, and distractions. The language differences and difficulty in understanding accents also creates barriers to the communication. The communication varies in different cultures. The variations of social interaction in the cultures create communication barriers. The prospects and prejudices lead to the false assumptions. People tend to hear what they want to hear rather than what is actually said (Chen & Agrawal, 2017). The physical disabilities such as hearing problems and speech difficulties create communication barriers. The differences in perception and viewpoint are also the common barrier of communication.  The inadequate attention makes communication ineffective and the message is likely to be understood less.

According to me, the communication barriers create conflict in groups. It results in a lack of clear goals and misunderstandings. The lack of clear goals caused me to develop my own ideas on the basis of group objectives (Caughlin & Basinger, 2015). The communication barriers create a challenge to maintain standards. The communication problems can lower standards due to lack of consistency. It resulted in inadequate attention and premature evaluation. I face no resistance to change in the organization when there is a lack of communication. The communication barriers due to inappropriate words prevented me from understanding the message and focus on the goals. The communication barriers also lead to misinterpretations and assumptions.

The barriers can be overcome with the help of a skilled communicator. There are some suggestions which can be used to overcome barriers in order to improve communication:

Active listening: The active listening is an effective skill which can be attained and developed with practice. It takes time and patience to master this skill. The term ‘active listening’ means actively listening. It leads to focus on what is being said than hearing the message of the communicator. It comprises listening with all senses. I believe that communicator can communicate with more ease if feedback is provided on regular basis. The active listening is the result of both verbal and non-verbal indications. The non-verbal signs are smiling, making eye contact, avoiding distractions and more. It represents the interest towards the discussion made by the communicator (Gilkerson & Southwell, 2015). The verbal signs help to improve communication such as asking questions on the discussion made by the communicator. It also involves paraphrasing to repeat the idea of the communicator is also a way to show active listening.

Use simple language: I think it is important to use simple language in order to avoid communication barriers. The medical terminology and jargon should be avoided while speaking to another party. It is seen that people are often intimidated by the use of such language. People do not understand the message which is being delivered to them. It is important to ask questions within the discussions as it ensures that the message is being understood as anticipated. The audience should be permitted to ask questions in order to clarify the points (Parks, & Faw, 2014).

Constructive feedback: The feedback is an important part of communication. I believe that feedback can be occasionally negative but important to be beneficial in nature. The feedback should add to the abilities of the communicator (Jenifer & Raman, 2015). It supports the interpersonal relationship and enhances communication in the future.

Conclusion

The communication dictates morale in relationships whether it’s personal or professional. The effective listening and talking styles have an influential role in the communication and have an impact on others. These styles have a major impact on the job effectiveness and personal relationships. There are some barriers to the communication which makes communication challenging such as the use of jargon, scientific language and more.  Finally, the suggestions are given to overcome communication barriers in order to overcome communication challenges. Active listening, using simple language and constructive feedback are the important methods to improve communication.

References

Berger, J. (2014). Word of mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and directions for future research. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(4), 586-607.

Cappella, J. N. (2017). Vectors into the future of mass and interpersonal communication research: Big data, social media, and computational social science. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 545-558.

Caughlin, J. P., & Basinger, E. (2015). Measuring interpersonal communication. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, 1-14.

Chen, M. H., & Agrawal, S. (2017). Do communication barriers in student teams impede creative behavior in the long run?—A time-lagged perspective. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 26, 154-167.

Gilkerson, N. D., & Southwell, B. G. (2015). Interpersonal Communication and Political Campaigns. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, 1-9.

Gut, A., Wilczewski, M., & Gorbaniuk, O. (2017). Cultural differences, stereotypes and communication needs in intercultural communication in a global multicultural environment. The Employees’ perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 43.

Jenifer, R. D., & Raman, G. P. (2015). Cross-cultural communication barriers in the workplace. Internafional Journal of Management, 6(1), 348-351.

Norouzinia, R., Aghabarari, M., Shiri, M., Karimi, M., & Samami, E. (2016). Communication barriers perceived by nurses and patients. Global journal of health science, 8(6), 65.

Parks, M. R., & Faw, M. H. (2014). Relationships among relationships: Interpersonal communication and social networks. Interpersonal Communication, 6, 395.

Tsoh, J. Y., Sentell, T., Gildengorin, G., Le, G. M., Chan, E., Fung, L. C.,& Burke, A. (2016). Healthcare communication barriers and self-rated health in older Chinese American immigrants. Journal of community health, 41(4), 741-752.

Walther, J. B., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2017). Merging mass and interpersonal communication via interactive communication technology: A symposium. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 415-423.

Yuriev, A., Boiral, O., Francoeur, V., & Paillé, P. (2018). Overcoming the barriers to pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace: A systematic review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 182, 379-394.