On the second day of my internship, I arrived late because I had to handle my enrollment concern. I arrived at this office right at the time I said I should be arriving. Anyway, I was tasked to watch a video on effective communication and it turned out to be a recording of a presentation by Sir Raymond in Google Meet, a year ago. It was very informative and insightful and has made me more aware/conscious not only in the work environment but also in my daily life. Below are my insights and understanding of what it means to be an effective communicator. In the 2nd half of the day, my colleagues were shown how ticketing in Jira works and also how to give estimates on our tasks and subtasks.

What is communication?

To put it in the simplest terms, it is the transfer of information. It involves a sender and receiver, and the receiver could also send one back.

Communication mediums

Communication mediums, channels, or avenues. This is how and where the information travels before going to the receiver. For example, if you are talking to a person in front of you, the words that come out of your mouth would travel through the air before reaching the ears of the person you are talking to. I will talk about the different ways that people use when talking to one another.

Face-to-Face With F2F(face-to-face), the person you are talking to is right in front of you and you can get immediate feedback from the person you are talking to. Their thoughts and feelings are perceivable. And it’s easier to have engagements with one another.

Calls With calls, the factor of being right in front of the person is removed. There is the option of having a video call, but it’s not the same as having the person right in front of you.

Chat/Direct Messaging With Chatting/Direct Messaging(DM), you may get instant feedback just like F2F because we all have our mobile devices with us and also that we are connected most of the time. However, it may be more difficult to address sensitive issues for some.

Email With email, it’s more formal than chatting/DMning. It can be good for making announcements or giving information. However, it is not effective for back-and-forth discussions because it is much more difficult to backtrack on previous discussions due to how the emails are structured.

In my experience so far, I can agree with the definitions of each avenue above. However I would like to give my opinion on DMs, it mentioned that it may be difficult to address sensitive issues. For me, out of all the 4 avenues, I find chatting the most effective way. This is because of my personality & demeanor, if there are arguments, I tend to trip on my tongue and lose my train of thought. With typing in chat, it gives me time to collect my thoughts and carefully type and read what I wrote. It also goes vice-versa because there is less chance of being interrupted and being heard.

What I find the most difficult is to communicate through email. I find it difficult because of the way I have to change the way I talk because of how formal an email should be. I ended up taking more time to find the appropriate words to sound formal.

Mistakes in Communication

There are many mistakes and problems in communication, may it be due to personality, or maybe it is from a lack of awareness or lack of social skills.

How to be an Effective Communicator

It is important to be good at communicating, this is not only so that information can correctly be passed but also cultivate a harmonious environment in the workspace that promotes growth.

To be an effective communicator it is important to:

• Be Prepared - You have to prepare what you are talking about if you don’t understand what you’re saying. Then it is likely that the person you are talking to does not understand either
• Be Visual - Give cues, make guides, and show examples of what you are talking about so that you and the people you talk to are on the same page
• Be Mindful - Understand the people you are talking to, they may not be on the same level as you, maybe they come from a different background and they won’t pick up the same context that you’re seeing. It is your job as an effective communicator to make adjustments.
• Be Taking Notes - A good communicator is also a good listener. Effective communication also lies in how well you understand what is being said and then condensing it and only picking up the vital parts.
• Be Polite - Even if someone is right, would you appreciate and be thankful if they were rude to you and talking condescendingly? It comes a long way if you treat the person you are talking to with respect. They will appreciate it and, in return, treat you with respect.