How To Communicate in a Diverse Atmosphere, Essay Example

Effective communication is a process which is two way. It involves sending the right message, it also involves being well received and understood by other people. Communication is very important as it brings happiness, success and also a harmonious relationship between the people around. The benefits of effective communication enables one to get what one wants, one is also able to get more time with himself and also others, the success and satisfaction in life is also achieved, it also enables one to build a rewarding and a harmonious relationship with others. Finally, effective communication helps in building rapport with the clients, friends, new acquaintances and also customers (Joseph, 1983).

Failure to communicate effectively leads to personal disappointments, breakdown of important relationships, professional setbacks, time and energy wastage and not being able to reach the full potentials in ourselves.

There are several principles that are effective in effective communication. One, we should treat others with respect. Respect is very important in any area as any communication can never be effective without respecting each other. Respect to others makes our communication more effective and easy and all the difficulties are reduced. I like respecting  other people while we are communicating , this is because I believe that respect is paramount when communicating because if I don’t respect other people, then I cannot also be respected and my views cannot be listened to also. The second principle is that we should not interrupt one another and instead focus our attention on that they say. This makes conversation more useful, interesting, and joyful and interesting instead of tiring and boring conversation. I don’t like interrupting other people while we are communicating. I feel this is lack of respect to the other person views (Alan, 2008).

The third principle is that everybody has the right to pass information. This means that I can choose not to do something instead of the feeling I have to. The fourth principle is that we do not volunteer others. That means that I should recognize the importance of valuing others choosing rights and I should not also use my language to assume that I can choose for them to use. The fifth principle involves that I speak although not too often or not too long. This means that I acknowledge filling up the air time in any conversation (Alan, 2008).

The sixth principle is respecting the confidentiality. This means that we generate trust and safety feeling. I like being confident in whatever I communicate with someone always. This makes me on the other hand feel the importance of the other person keeping confidence that we have talked with him. The last principle in the effective communication is that we require to recognize that it is ok to make mistakes in any time. I usually make mistakes frequently although I try my best to avoid them. I feel that making mistakes is a part of communication and enables one to learn even more and be able to avoid the same mistakes next time. Making mistakes are opportunities for connection and learning and not an opportunity to condemn one another. I use these principles in all my work I do and how I interact and communicate with people. These helps me very much in the way I interact with people and the outcomes in whatever I is very much determined by my ways I communicate with others (Alan, 2008).

The misconceptions create barriers when engaging in the effective communication. One misconception is that when we say something, we assume that the other person will understand. I like ensuring that whatever I communicate with somebody is very well understood by that person. I like ensuring that my message is understood clearly as intended. Another misconception is that we think communicating more is better. Talking too loud and too much is a mistake and does not help. The last misconception is that the communication is a natural ability and some people have it while others don’t have. We need to know that skillful communication can be learned with practice. Myself I feel that have no natural ability in communication. But I always try my best to improve my communication skills (Joseph, 1983).

There are several effective communication barriers that occur. They include the choice of the language the sender uses as it influences the communication quality. The body language, the tone and forms of communication that are non-verbal always mislead. The ignorance of the body languages is also another barrier. Other barriers to communication is selective hearing, value judgment, power struggles, transmission that is unreliable due to noise or sending that is inconsistent, distorted perception that is, how the communication is perceived is affected by the experience, the difference in culture, the distortion from the past and the defensiveness being a typical barrier in the work situation and especially when criticism or negative information is involved. These barriers often hinder my communication to other people. They vary from one barrier to another with language barrier and expressions of tones being my major barriers in my place of work with my colleagues (Joseph, 1983).

Self concept is a process of gaining self awareness. Self concept consist individuals mental images on oneself. It is made up of health, the physical appearance, social talents, roles, the intellectual traits and the emotional states. My intellectual capacity to become aware of surrounding factors like social talents and roles are my major concepts that I put in place to ensure I realize awareness. The self concept development process begins at around the age of six to seven months. This is when a child begins to recognize him/herself as different from the surrounding. From the time I started my job, I have been able to develop self concept in myself by recognizing various concepts and things more deeply.

They stare at everything including their own body parts, feet, fingers and toes. Their sense of identity expands as they grow through interacting with others. They create self esteem levels that become the booster in their ability towards interacting with other people and the environment. As the child continues to grow, the self concept continues to change at each stage. When the child receives supportive messages, he/she gains positive appreciation and a self value that is of high level. As the child continues to grow, the self awareness changes as child becomes an adult. Selective memory helps one to maintain self concept. That is, when I consider myself to be shy and reserved, I will remember the days when I had peaceful day reading in the library with a smile (Joseph, 1983).

The personal communications can be assessed through listening to people carefully and then asses them accordingly. Engaging people or a person to a talk can help one to know how good this person is in his communication skills. The personal competence can be improved by listening carefully to what people say and interpreting exactly on that which the person is intended to convey to us. This can be improved by considering three factors which include knowledge, skills and motivation.

Empathy is feeling or even the capability of sharing another person’s emotions and feelings. It is a way of listening and also responding to another person in improving the mutual understanding and trust. The strategies towards active, critical and empathic listening is: being attentive and also being interested to what the other person is talking about. It is important to create an atmosphere that is positive through the non-verbal behavior. Another strategy is to avoid asking a lot of questions as this may give the speaker an impression that you are grilling him. Another very important strategy towards developing active, critical and empathetic listening is following good listening rules like not interrupting, not teaching, not giving advice and even not interrogating the speaker. When communicating with other people including my colleagues and my boss, I like being attentive without disrupting them when they are talking to me. I also not like giving them advice or even interrogating the speaker (Joseph, 1983).

An attitude is the degree of somebody liking or disliking of an item. It may be either be positive or even negative. Behavior, perception and attitude can be changed by the words spoken by a person. The way a person speaks can easily change the attitude or the liking of a person as well as the person’s perception towards something. The behavior of a person can also be changed by the words that are spoken by an individual. The ways the words are spoken determine the extent at which they can change those traits above. This comes as a result of change in the way of judging some things or actions. I have always found myself changing my attitude, behavior and even the perception because of the how a person has communicated to me. The words used by the person usually contribute to that.

Emotional intelligence is ability that an individual possesses in managing his own emotions and also for others he or she interacts with. It can also be defined as capabilities, competencies and also non-cognitive skills that do influence the ability of the person to cope with the demands and the pressures of the environment. I usually use my emotional intelligence to manage my own emotions as I interact with them. This is because people have different emotions which if not looked at very carefully can hinder communication. The emotional intelligence helps me in knowing between the outstanding leaders and the average leaders. It also helps the leaders to develop a positive feeling to their followers and hence developing a collective performance (Julia, 2008).

Self disclosure is unconscious and conscious act of revealing ourselves to others more. It usually involves several stages from developing our relationship with people who we have newly met. We disclose each others things slowly with time. If a person does disclose himself, then others may stop disclosing themselves to him also. The more one becomes revealed to a person the more the self disclosure increases up to a time he or she is familiar and knows in and out of the person. I have been able to disclose myself to my colleagues but it is after some time of interacting with them and knowing each other for a long time (Julia, 2008).

They are several strategies of managing the interpersonal conflicts; they include use of proper communication ways to solve the problem. I was once having a problem in my work place with one colleague, I called him and we sat down for a talk so as to resolve the problem. What helped very much is the ways we communicated to each other and understanding each in the sense that the problems occur and they only end when they are discussed about them.

On one side, self concept, defensive and supportive messages and the behaviors can create communication climates that are either negative or positive. If one can defend himself well and support his messages well, then that can end. The way one behaves determines very much how the climate of communication can end up being. If the cause of communication and the argument by the person pleases the other party, then it is possible that the climate may end up being positive. But if the messages given by one person are not satisfying, then the communication climate is very likely to result to a negative climate. I was once involved in a situation where I was to support myself and defend my behavior in a situation that I was mistaken to have used materials in a wasteful way. I gave defensive messages and supported my arguments and finally it came to be realized that I was innocent. This ended up generating a positive communication climate (Julia, 2008).

In the interpersonal communication, gender of the person communicating matters a lot. It has been revealed that females are having a communication style that is more socially oriented. The males are believed to have more direct way of communicating that is result oriented. Communication between people of different cultures causes some variation in the ways of communication. This usually affects the way of communication as people with different culture tend to communicate less. People of same culture do not have a lot of problems while communicating.

References

Alan Sharland (2008, June). Communication and Conflict. Retrieved Dec 19, 2009, from    http://www.communicationandconflict.com/interpersonal-communication.html

Joseph A. (1983). The interpersonal communication book. Michigan: University of Michigan press.

Julia T. (2009). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters. London: Cengage Learning press.