IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN BUSINESS :

Ca. Ratan Kr. Agarwala

“EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION” means clear and unambiguous

conveyance of messages to and from others with the least
possible distortion in meaning.

“EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION” involves effort from both the

sender of the message and the receiver. And it's a process that is
SUSCEPTIBLE TO ERRORS, MUDDLING IN TRANSMISSION, or
MISINTERPRETATION BY THE RECIPIENT. And when these
ambiguities and errors in transmission or interpretation are not
timely detected or not at all detected, the same may lead to
serious confusion, wasteful effort and missing out certain
opportunities.

Thus, COMMUNICATION is EFFECTIVE only when the Receiver and

Sender mean the same as intended by the COMMUNICATION.

When the message sent does not exactly reflect the thinking of
the sender, it causes a communication break down and stumbling
blocks – both in personal as well as in professional life.

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In modern competitive environment, most companies retain or
sack employees depending upon their communication ability.
Communication Skills, both Oral and Written, as well as the Ability
to Work in group environment are the most contributory factors
of a successful job career. In spite of its ever growing importance
in day to day personal as well as business life, many people are
grossly unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas
effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This lack of
Communication Skill gives them the last bench space or no space
at all in the workplace, and stands in the way of career growth.
Good Communication Skill is therefore an utmost necessity to
build a successful career. To do this, one must be careful of four
basic factors:

a. what your message is ?,

b. what audience you are sending it to ?, and

c. how it will be perceived ? And

d. what are the circumstances surrounding your

communications ?

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Communications Skills–The Importance of Clear Communication:

The Communication Process involves many stages. Problems may

creep in at any stage of Communication Flow. These stages are:

SENDER

ENCODING

THE CHANNEL

DECODING

RECEIVER

FEEDBACK

CONTEXT

At each of these stages, there is inherent risk of misinterpretation

and confusion. For effective communication, the thrust should be
to reduce down to the least the frequency of problems at each
stage of this process, with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned
communications. Following Communication Strategy should be
adhered to:

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MESSAGE SOURCE:

At the Source of Origination, the Sender of the Message must

have to be clear about the purpose of communication, and the
content of the Communication. The Sender must be sure of the
usefulness and accuracy of the intended Message.

MESSAGE:

The main message is the ULTIMATE INFORMATION that the

sender wants to communicate.

ENCODING:

ENCODING is the process of transferring the message or

information to be communicated into a form that can be correctly
and properly decoded at the receiver’s end. Success in encoding
not only depends upon sender’s ability to convey the desired
information but also on his ability to anticipate and eliminate the
sources of confusion in the message. The Sources of Confusion are
CULTURAL ISSUES, MISTAKEN BELIEFS and ASSUMPTIONS,
MISSING INFORMATION etc. A very important part to be looked
into in this stage is the quality of the audience or message
receiver. If we are not convergent about whom we are
communicating with, it is likely to result in delivering the message
that are liable to be misinterpreted at the receiver’s end.

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COMMUNICATION CHANNEL:

The medium through which we send message is called its channel.

Channels may be VERBAL CHANNELS, FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS,
TELEPHONIC TALKS, and VIDEO-CONFERENCING. Written Channels
may be in the form of LETTERS, E-MAILS, MEMOS, and REPORTS
etc. Channels selection also should be on the basis of Message
Content, Message Length and so many other factors. If we want
to deliver a long list of instructions, verbal channel is not effective.
Again, using E-Mail to give negative feedback may also cause
problems.

MESSAGE DECODING:

Successful Decoding of a message is nonetheless important than

successful Encoding of a Message. Taking sufficient time to
correctly read a message, listening actively to someone’s verbal
communication are certain examples of good decoding. Problems
may arise if the message receiver does not properly attend to the
message or does not properly understand the message because of
lack of knowledge enough to understand the same. .

RECEIVER:

Same message may be interpreted by two separate individuals

separately. Each individual enters into the communication process
with ideas and feelings that will undoubtedly influence his own
understanding of the message, and his response. To be a
successful communicator, these factors should be duly considered
before delivering the message.

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FEEDBACK FROM THE RECIPIENT:

The Message Receiver or the Audience is likely to provide their

respective feedback to particular message. These reactions and
feedbacks must be properly attended to judge your own quality of
communication to ascertain that what you had intended to
communicate; the same has been interpreted by the audience in
the same way you desired to communicate. If from analysis of the
Feedback, you conclude that there is a misunderstanding, you
always have a chance of sending the message second time in
refined way.

CONTEXT OF THE MESSAGE:

MESSAGE CONTEXT means the situation in which your message is

delivered. Context may include the surrounding environment or
broader culture like the corporate culture, international cultures,
and so on.

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UNITERRUPTED COMMUNICATION:

For strong, effective and purposeful communication of the

intended message in the same way it was intended, you must
commit to breaking down the barriers that exist within each
of these stages of the communication process. For example, if
the message is unnecessarily too lengthy, disorganized, ill
drafted, contains improper language, or contains errors; it is
bound to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Use of very
sophisticated language when the audience is not that
knowledgeable will also leave the audience without
understanding the message. These vital factors must be
considered while drafting the message before
communication.

NB. The ideas expressed in this article are ideas and thoughts of
the author only. Any similarity or otherwise with any other
printed article on the topic shall be a mere coincidence as these
contain basic normal ideas on Communication Skills.