Often wounder why the simplest of message can be misconstrued? At times you can save the trouble and conveniently blame the surroundings for it. Yes, you heard me right. Our surrounding plays a vital role in enabling us to understand a message better, in simple terms communicate better. Even your gender plays an elaborate role in communication. Let's look at some surprising but common communication barriers that you and I face on a daily basis.
Emotions
We human are highly influenced by our emotions. Our emotions will influence the way we send and receive a message. A happy heart makes you communicate well and makes the receiving easier. Everything will sound nice and proper as oppose to an upset or stressed feeling.
Solution:
- Have a clear mind while communicating, list down your points clearly and run thru to see if it makes sense.
- Choose words that are crisp and not offensive as you may not know the recipient mind state.
- Control your emotions while communicating elements that may strike anger or grievances.Pause and compose your thoughts should you feel like having an emotional burst/ melt down
These barrier can be minimized if you are able to communicate face to face, where you are fully aware of yours and recipients mind state.
Physical Disability
Physical disability is a greater barrier when it comes to communicating. Thankfully we have more means of communication this era.
Solution:
- Always know your audience and check if they have special needs
- Choose the most suitable means.mode of communication to get the message across
Language
I have the worst of experience when in comes to communicating with people who are not familiar with a common language. It takes hours and hours to get a simple message across.... I have just animated & exaggerated the whole situation.
Well, with the modern technology we can always find means to translate the words or worst case communicate thru showing of picture.
Culture
Being a Malaysian I am sure we are exposed to mainly 3 cultures of our nation. We often understand thing just a little bit different than the others around us. Cultural norms will influence the way we talk, think and react. When we see similarities we are able to communicate better.
It takes a little effort to understand another's culture and plan out the communication to suit their understanding. Technology is once again the best teacher to all of us, we can read and watch videos about people, places and their culture.
Lack of Concentration
Even the best of pre-planning and preparation will not work if we lack concentration. Engagement or engaging your recipient is another critical skill one needs to acquire. Speaking with proper modulation will help get the message across. Tuning the mind and paying more attention will be another thing both sender and recipient can exercise to reach assertiveness.
Gender
Men generally listen better when a women speak. It is defiantly the work of the pheromones, forms the magnetic attraction towards the opposite gender. Choosing the right words will ease the communication process when it comes to dealing with the battle of sexes.
