Just twisting Roald Dahl’s quote here: if you want to get anywhere in life in the 21st century, become an effective communicator.....
TIPS ‘N’ TRICKS
Just twisting Roald Dahl’s quote here: if you want to get anywhere in life in the 21st century, become an effective communicator.
Remember, in a job interview, no matter what field it is, the employer would first like to chit chat with you to find out how well you can communicate before verifying your academic records. Since 21st century is all about effective communication, your ability to talk to a variety of audiences, ask questions, carry out meetings, express ideas, resolve conflicts, craft clear emails and write impactful social media post can really boost your career.
While revisiting the notes I took during an online course on improving communication skills, I found few tips quite useful for anybody working on their communication skills.
Understand your audience
Audience is always at the centre of communication. They are the people you talk and write to. Trying to understand who your audience is and what they are like with an open mind is the first step towards better communication. Only after that will you be able to create audience-friendly content and choose the mode of communication that makes it easier for them to connect with you. Let’s say our audience is a dean of a certain university and we want to ask if they would be interested in giving an interview for a magazine. Our mode of communication will surely be email — because you will not be allowed into the office without an appointment and, in case you get their number, chances are high that your messages and calls will be ignored all together.
Of course, we will begin our email with showing a lot of respect. Instead of “Hi” or “Hello”, we will prefer using “Dear Madam/Sir”. I know this sounds too basic but under social media dominance we can forget things. Keeping in mind that authority figures are essentialists, we will keep our email brief and emphasize on how his/her interview will help students. Just don't mention about how their interview would benefit “your career” or “your publication” otherwise your mail will be dropped into the bin recklessly.
If you don’t know anything about your audience or you are in a different cultural setting, search and find out about their interests, beliefs, background, roles and personalities, so that you are well-prepared before you communicate with them. “When we aren't curious in conversations, we judge, blame and even shame, often without even knowing it, which leads to conflict."
As clear as crystal
Clarity is subjective. A message that is clear to you (sender) might not be clear to the receiver. Following a standard way to write emails, organising meetings or giving presentations can be very helpful to achieve this goal.
Make sure you use standard grammatical rules and terminology to produce clear messages for your audience. You must have noticed people using “SM” for social media in official emails assuming that their receiver will understand it without any effort. If you’re curious, just look up “SM”. Oxford dictionary says it’s an abbreviation for service mark, sadomasochism, sergeant major, and short meter. So why confuse our audience?
Understand the context of your communication
You also need to be aware of the culture of your workplace and the organisation with which you intend to communicate. This reminds me of a problem we had while purchasing a house. Our real estate agent wasn't able to communicate properly with the lawyer just because he failed to understand legal firms don't have a culture of discussing legal matters over phone and they prefer face-to-face conversations. Since the agencies are always buzzing with phone calls, it is pretty normal for agents to have telephonic conversations. This tussle eventually ended up with errors in our property documents. So for effective communication, it is very crucial for people to adjust themselves according to the context of their audience.
Also, without the understanding of the broader multicultural context of your audience, you will not be able to establish common ground and understand each other. I can whatsapp the PR manager, a girl of my age, since I have met her several times in Karachi at 11 pm on Sunday to inquire about a media event; but, in case my audience is a male university teacher in Islamabad and I have to ask him for his thoughts on a certain workshop, I will preferably email him in the daytime and will keep my message as formal as possible.
Have a clear purpose in mind
When I was teaching in a school, meetings would start off with inspirational quotes, followed by a flood of teachers’ complaints, and end on how recipes differ from one house to another. Meetings were just meet-ups. And that was why when things went wrong, Principal would resort to blame game and say teachers weren't following instructions when they hadn't communicated them clearly in the first place.
In workplaces, people often forget to consciously think of the purpose of their communication. Whether our purpose is to simply inform our audience or give instructions, make sure you know what you want them to understand and do. Also think of the relationship you have with your audience and how you want this to develop. Sometimes, your purpose is to network or develop friendship. No matter what the purpose is, take a moment to bring that into your awareness so that you can make a conscious effort to achieve it. If the purpose is clear to you, you’ll have a better chance of making it clear to them.
But sometimes you don't explicitly mention your purpose in conversations. Like, while trying to reach out to a friend you haven't been in touch with for years to ask if they could help you with job search, you will not say: hey, I am messaging you because I am about to lose my job; can you find one for me, please? That’s rude and mean! Instead tell them you still love them and want to connect; then ask what they have been doing and when they reply back with kind words, tell them you are looking for jobs. Chances are they will immediately offer to help you with your job search.
Select the most appropriate medium
You can choose from a range of channels to contact people. Communication can take place through meetings, video conference, emails, phone calls, posters, etc. So how do you decide which one's best? Consider factors like geography, urgency, familiarity, and professionalism. If you’re in Karachi, and your receiver is in Lahore, face-to-face meeting isn't an option. Or, if the receiver is not comfortable with telephonic conversation, you will choose email and messages as your mode of communication. Suppose if a marketing team is working on a collaboration with a brand, they would want to exchange messages in written form via email or proposal forms, that can be recorded and easily shared with multiple audiences.
This is not an exhaustive list of tips on effective communication, but in the beginning, if you just focus on these five principles, you will feel more equipped to carry out communication tasks confidently at work.
And don't forget that communication will get complicated with time and experience, so keep working on upgrading your skill set.
The course was conducted by Hilary Collins - she teaches Open University courses in Strategy and Design Thinking.
- By Tooba Ghani
