Effective communication is essential to ensure successful work flow and processes in any business or organization. It is important at all organizational levels: proper communication strategies introduced between superiors and subordinates, as well as between coworkers, can create a favourable environment at the workplace for all members of an organization. Despite the importance and advantages of positive communication, many organizations and individuals still have barriers that do not allow them to fulfill their best potential.
Through the course, I have identified a number of criteria for effective organizational communication. These include the following:
- Empathetic leadership:
- Empathy is a major factor contributing to positive workplace environment because it creates stronger bonds between people, which improves many aspects of their work, such as giving and receiving feedback (Reidhead, 2021).
- Clarity:
- All the goals of the organization, as well as the steps and strategies to achieve those goals have to be clearly presented to employees, so that they can feel that they are a part of the discussion.
- Open-mindedness:
- Being open to new ideas ensures constant development of all people working in an organization. However, it requires a number of additional skills, such as active listening and flexibility.
- Responsiveness:
- Effective communication can only be established if all participants realize that they have to respond, and not to react.
These are several of the criteria that I consider most important for effective communication. My personal communication style and methods mainly comply with the criteria mentioned. I do believe that empathy and open-mindedness are part and parcel of any communication. Without adhering to these principles, people risk showing disrespect and changing what should be a two-way communication into a competition to win an argument (Buluş, 2017).
Unfortunately, I still have barriers that sometimes do not allow me to communicate effectively. For example, I tend to overthink and make assumptions about other people’s emotions or intentions. Eventually, I avoid listening to another person’s explanations or asking them questions that could help me get the information I need. I can also occasionally become too emotional during conversations, especially when I want to prove a point or defend my opinion on some matter. Therefore, these are the areas that I will focus on when developing strategies for improvement.
My improvement plans will be based on a system of journaling that I will use as a way to keep track of the progress I make. I will start with developing a list of goals I want to achieve in a set period of time. Every day, I will focus on implementing one particular improvement technique related to one or several goals. For example, in order to improve my ability to empathize, I will have to work on my listening skills, as well as my ability to give positive and constructive feedback. Therefore, I will choose a specific time period during which I will only focus on introducing better listening strategies into my daily organizational communications. When certain behaviors become habitual, I will move to the next goal on my list, and focus on strategies to develop different skills. Every day, I will report my experiences in my journal to identify the weaknesses I need to work on more.
To conclude, it is worth mentioning that successful communication is a building block of organizational stability and effectiveness. Principles such as empathy, open-mindedness, clarity, and responsiveness are some of the crucial criteria of effective communication. Although my communication methods and strategies comply with these principles, I do not always succeed at applying them in real-life communication situations. Having analyzed my weaknesses, I realized that skills I need to improve include open-mindedness, responsiveness, and empathy. My improvement plans consist of a series of journals that I will use to monitor the progress.
References
Buluş, M., Atan, A., & Sarıkaya, H. E. (2017). Effective communication skills: A new conceptual framework and scale development study. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 9(2). Web.
Reidhead, C. (2021). Effective communication as a tool for achieving organizational goals and objectives. Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies, 04(04). Web.