HEARING, LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING

HEARING, LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING

Hearing is becoming aware of sounds especially through stimulation of auditory nerves in the ear by the sound waves. It is a sense by which sounds are perceived.
Listening is much more – it is making conscious efforts to hear the speaker. It is matching of the mental faculties of the sender and the receiver. It is the understanding of the intent of total message as sent by the sender. When the speaker asks if the audience understood the message, listeners‟ nod is for the complete message including unspoken words, gestures and expressions of the speaker. Listening is an accurate perception of all that is being presented. Listening is a vital part of the entire process of communication. The effectiveness of communication is, in fact, determined by the extent to which listening and understanding takes place after an interaction. It consists of two stages:
 Encoding and transmission of the message by the sender
 Decoding and providing the required feedback by the receiver
Listening is said to have taken place if there is satisfactory execution of both the stages. If the message has been understood in exactly the same way as was intended by the sender, it can be said that listening has taken place accurately. However, if there are discrepancies between the intent of message sent and the way it has been perceived, listening is deficient and the communication has not been effective.

POWER OF SPEECH

POWER OF SPEECH

Spoken words form a powerful medium for influencing people to accomplish tasks. Salespersons make a sort of speech to persuade their customers to buy products they are selling. Travelling salespersons visit dealers and retailers and influence them to place order for the product offerings of the company. Insurance agents persuade their clients to buy life / general insurance of their firm for protection against various kinds of losses to life or possessions like household, car, health etc.
Similarly business managers, industrialists and leaders have to deliver speeches at events relating to product launches, sales conferences and training programmes. Besides, they speak ot inaugural events, seminars, meetings of trade associations etc. An organization is an association of people who often organize social, sports and cultural gatherings where managers / leaders are expected to deliver speeches suited to the occasion.
Outside the organization, community and political leaders are called upon to speak on several occasions / functions. Master speakers and orators have been sought to speak on diverse subjects. Powerful speeches can:
 Inspire listeners or make them dispirited
 Build tension on issues or relax tension among the audience
 Incite people to quarrel / fight or induce them to be friendly
 Turn hostile audience in to supportive one and vice versa
 Stir people to rebel / revolt or become docile
 Make people undertake long march or stay at home
It is difficult to visualize what Alexander the Great must have told his soldiers when he stirred them to undertake a long journey from Greece to India in olden days, conquering countries after countries and marching in to India when there were hardly any worthwhile means of transportation and transshipment.

SKILLS FOR INTERACTING WITH AUDIENCE

SKILLS FOR INTERACTING WITH AUDIENCE

Speakers should not only use slides prudently by pointing out the salient aspects of topic under discussion but also interact with the audience and maintain a reasonable eye contact with the listeners. It ensures that audience interest is kept at a higher level.
To enhance the effectiveness of the Power-point presentation, speakers must:
 Get comfortable with the subject
 Run through the slides at a reasonable pace
 Read „speaker notes‟ while rehearsing
 Learn to „time‟ the presentation especially the impact points.
If the above guidelines are followed, there is no doubt that, with practice, speakers gain confidence, poise and power. Acquiring the skills to influence others to work to own point of view or to achieve the common goals of the team, department or the firm, can be very fascinating and satisfying.
Thus, Power-point software is a powerful tool in the hands of modern, global managers and leaders.

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SKILLS

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SKILLS

„Power-point‟ software, created by Microsoft, is a very useful tool and is being used extensively as an essential aid to oral presentation. „Power-point‟ can be used in conjunction with Over Head Projector (OHP) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or as a vehicle for multi-media presentation.
Multi-media presentation is becoming popular very fast. It uses a compact disc that contains the entire subject in suitably prepared MS „Power-point‟ slides.
A few important guiding principles are:

(1)Know the subject material

Speakers must have authentic material on the subject of their presentation. Ideally, it should be audience-tested and modified taking in to account the feedback. To the audience, they are the experts.

(2) Know the audience

To customize the presentation for the audience, speakers must know them and their learning objectives. Speakers need to check out if the material available is adequate for meeting the learning objectives.

(3) Understand time constraints of presentation

Presentations are made in the limited time frame available. The challenge before the speakers is to complete the presentation within the time slot available and still make it very effective.

(4) Keep presentation simple

Three important rules are:
 Use as few words as possible
 Assume your audience can read
 Don‟t let words run-off the page
Many a times, speakers read all the words and lines in the presentation – it is almost „insulting‟ to the audience! This can be achieved better when speakers use „speaker notes‟ and audience does not have to go through the entire matter on the screen.

(5) Use speaker notes

For each power-point slide, speakers must create own dialogue. It is a detailed script of what they are going to say when the slide is projected on the screen. The entire presentation is prepared and printed before making the presentation. Once it is ready, it becomes easier for the speakers as they can make the presentation by working from the speaker notes.

TRAITS OF A GOOD SPEAKER

TRAITS OF A GOOD SPEAKER

Speakers have also to learn and acquire skills in speaking. These skills can vary widely from being effective in conversation among a few colleagues, a medium sized group or a large audience verging upon a public speech. A few salient traits of a good speaker are:

(1) Be earnest

An earnest person speaks not to show of nor talks about irrelevant topics. He remains conscious of the purpose of his speech.

(2) Have a sense of responsibility towards audience

He is conscious that time is precious and tries to make the best use of the time he gets with his audience.

(3) Has a sense of commitment to his subject / duty

He thinks and plans ahead what he has to say and does not take on more than what can be accomplished.

(4) Has a sense of responsibility towards other speakers

He does not try to monopolize the occasion and restricts to the time allotted to him.

(5) Keeps his cool

He is not carried away by excitement and enthusiasm. Over-confidence is as bad as under-confidence.

(6) Has a good sense of leadership

He speaks with eye contacts with the audience in full measure; talks with confidence, authority, and responsibility.

(7) Is balanced in approach

The speaker should remain balanced in spite of provocation if any and exhibit sanity to the audience.

(8) Has a sense of humour

An anecdote that is humorous is welcome as it adds a flavour to the message being delivered.

(9) Is focused and interested

The speaker must convey that he is very interested in the subject as it is interesting and will be of interest to his audience too. His focus on the subject should become evident by the time he finishes speaking.

(10) Is enthusiastic and spirited

The speaker must be full of spirits and assume lively audience who need to be enthused about the benefits of the message that he has the privilege of knowing and delivering.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SPEECH

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SPEECH

Listening to a good speech is a very interesting experience. Every one should put in the hard work necessary to acquire skills in speaking as it imparts considerable competitive advantage to the person. Some important aspects are:

(1) Clarity

The voice of the speaker should be clear, tone should vary and pitch should be pleasant. The ideas, emotions and arguments should come straight from the heart so that audience can grasp it easily. It should register with the listeners and vibrate with their feelings and thoughts.

(2) Informal, personal and conversational

A good speech should be like a conversation between two good friends – personal, informal and sincere. There should be a rapport between the speaker and the audience.

(3) Concrete, vivid and imagery

A speech should help build a picture that is easy to visualize and easier to comprehend. It should be furbished by concrete examples that grasp the imagination of the listeners.

(4) Brevity

It is very difficult to hold the attention of the listeners for more than 15 to 20 minutes. A good speaker should be able to convey his complete message in that period. He should come straight to the point and say what he wants by bringing three or four points to their attention.

(5) Interesting, jovial and humorous

A speaker wins or loses the battle in the first two or three minutes. If the speaker has impressed the audience with his opening remarks, he is well on your way to winning a space in their heart. And that is the target. It has to be a heart to heart dialogue. Lace it with short humorous anecdotes – laughter lubricates learning!
Anecdotes should be short, appropriate and in good taste. Quotations, proverbs and idioms should be like arrows piercing directly in to the heart of the audience. Experienced speakers learn to master the art of reciting these statements, giving a long pause after it has been stated to let it sink in with the audience

(6) Listener-oriented

Audience is your customer. It is your business to know their needs and wants, their desires and their expectations. Speaker has to be very sensitive to the body language of their audience and modify the speech to fine tune with them. If the message has to gel well with the audience, speakers‟ antenna should pick up the cues from the body language of the listeners.

INVOLVEMENT FOR EFFECTIVE PERSUASIVE SPEECH

INVOLVEMENT FOR EFFECTIVE PERSUASIVE SPEECH

The main purpose of speech is to influence the behaviour of listeners to a common aim. A few important strategies are:

(1) Be the change you want to see in others

A person must sell himself before he can sell his message. If audience feels that the speaker is not reasonable, there is a remote chance of his being able to convince them. The speaker must be committed to the goals of the speech himself. Avoid use of words like „may be‟ or „might‟. Replace them by using positive and action words like „will‟ and „must‟.
Speaker is usually the „power figure‟ in a speech – he should have enough material to support his claims. Audience can usually spot the pretender or the person who is faking or winging the speech. He should be honest and truthful. He should be able to show emotions that add to the credibility of the speech. His words must match with his gestures, sounds, expressions and postures because body language does not lie.

(2) Speaker must exercise self-control

One cannot let the words gush out of one‟s mouth to deliver the message. One has to use one‟s total self and reveal one‟s personality to deliver the message. Once the speaker shows a bit of his personality to the group, it becomes very supportive of the message!

(3) Reaction of the audience as a group

In order to measure the effectiveness of a persuasive speech, speakers must collect the reaction of the listeners as a group. It has two aspects:
(i) Delivery of speech
Listeners often pose a question to themselves – whether there was a gap between what is said and the body language or were they in agreement with each other?
(ii) Listeners find if speaker is faking
To avoid being assessed negatively, speakers, instead, find out what changes can be brought about in the speech to make it more convincing and persuasive.
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COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY

COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY

Human civilization has progressed reasonably well so far largely because human beings, as a species of the animal kingdom, have learnt to communicate and cooperate among themselves. There is a consensus that progress would have been faster if cooperation was always willing and with negligible confrontation and more co-existence with divergent views. Wars – hot or cold, always impede progress. Even so, humans have moved towards a greater degree of individual freedom in addition to freedom from hunger, want and illiteracy. Because of reasonably good level of communication achieved among communities, countries and continents, society is already talking of the universal rights of everyone on planet earth. These are stated below:
1 The right to be treated with respect
2 The right to have and express own feelings
3 The right to be listened to and taken seriously
4 The right to set own priorities
5 The right to say „no‟ without feeling guilty
6 The right to ask for what one wants
7 The right to get what one pays for
8 The right to get information from professionals
9 The right to make mistakes
10 The right to choose not to „assert‟ oneself
A careful examination of the above bills of rights would confirm beyond doubt the strategic importance of communication in the well being of our modern society. Communications form the edifice of evolution of entire human civilization. Human beings as a species have progressed better than other animal species largely because they have learnt to communicate among themselves better. Human beings have undertaken many projects jointly because they were able to influence other persons to a common viewpoint through better communication skills.

MINIMIZING NOISE DURING TRANSMISSION

MINIMIZING NOISE DURING TRANSMISSION

Even carefully crafted messages can flounder if they do not reach the target audience. Therefore, all potential sources of interference during the transmission of the message should be eliminated. Following points are useful:
 Choosing the right channel and media – it helps audience focus on the message
 Written messages should be made physically appealing and easier to read
 For oral communication, eliminate the environmental competition – choose comfortable and quiet location, adequate lighting, good acoustics and physical distraction(s)
 For oral communication, senders‟ own appearance is very important.
 Face-to-face communication is preferred as it is delivered directly
 Avoid long chain (with many intermediaries) of communication 

DELIVERING PERSUASIVE SPEECH

DELIVERING PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Besides flow of information, speaking involves persuading others to a common goal as that is the „core purpose‟ of communication. Sales persons persuade potential buyers to partake their products and services. Potential employees try to sell their skill sets and competence to future employers. Managers and leaders motivate their employees to reorient their mindsets leading to change in their attitude to the work and to the firm, resulting in higher performance and rewards.
When speakers try to persuade, motivate and guide listeners to a goal, the speeches are persuasive. All speakers must learn the importance of:
 How they physically present themselves?
 How they say things?
 What things they say?
Since managers / leaders have to be good speakers, it will be very beneficial to them if they learn and master the following important elements for becoming effective, persuasive speakers:
(1) Demonstrated skills in public speaking and attentive listening and ability to articulate and use body language to the best effect
(2) Understanding of elements of persuasion
(3) Identification of elements of personal credibility
(4) Ability to analyze other speakers‟ speeches
(5) Confidence to outline the main ideas and thoughts on a subject
(6) Creating and crafting persuasive speeches

MINIMIZING NOISE DURING TRANSMISSION &FACILITATING FEEDBACK

MINIMIZING NOISE DURING TRANSMISSION &FACILITATING FEEDBACK

Even carefully crafted messages can flounder if they do not reach the target audience. Therefore, all potential sources of interference during the transmission of the message should be eliminated. Following points are useful:
 Choosing the right channel and media – it helps audience focus on the message
 Written messages should be made physically appealing and easier to read
 For oral communication, eliminate the environmental competition – choose comfortable and quiet location, adequate lighting, good acoustics and eliminate physical distraction(s)
 For oral communication, senders‟ own appearance is very important.
1. Face-to-face communication is preferred as it is delivered directly
 Avoid long chain (with many intermediaries) of communication

FACILITATING FEEDBACK

Ideally when sender is face-to-face with the audience, feedback is direct, immediate and extremely useful. In business and industry, feedback loop is rather complex. A few salient points of importance for obtaining feedback are:
 Feedback is the quickest in oral communication that is face-to-face
 Feedback requires very good listening skills. Listening is more difficult than most people think
 Listening is a part of one‟s style. An aggressive or submissive communicator is usually not a good listener. Only persons with assertive style of communication are good listeners
 For written communication, feedback is delayed and mixed – it needs a lot of effort to sift through the information before coming to any conclusion.

CREATING AND DELIVERING THE MESSAGE

CREATING AND DELIVERING THE MESSAGE

If a person wants the audience to understand and accept his message, he is the only one who can help. He just cannot depend upon others to do it for him! It would, therefore, be useful to learn the correct way to go about it – earliest the better.

(1) First think of the purpose and the audience

Followings need to be done:

(i) Purpose

Define the purpose of the message clearly. Clearer the purpose, clearer will be the thinking and more systematic and logical will be the message. One must start keeping the end in view. Describe why of the message and visualize the outcome in terms of what the audience would do, if convinced.

(ii) Audience analysis

Communicators have to learn about the audience:
 Its current position versus the outcome intended to achieve
 Their willingness to understand and accept the message

(iii) Message as a bridge

Senders must appreciate that their message is a bridge of words that would move their audience from their current position to the new position, almost identical to their own.

(2) Telling what you are going to tell

A communicator is judged by the first few paragraphs in case of written communication and in the first few minutes in case he is doing an oral presentation. A good communicator acts as a guide to the audience in their journey. He provides them with a road map of the territory they are going to cover with him. He tells them what they are getting from the trip. Apart from telling the purpose, he tells them the main topics going to be covered. It helps audience to link and connect the topics with the purpose and get convinced.

(3) Telling what you want to tell

Being the body of your presentation, oral or written, it is the most critical part. A few useful guidelines are:

(i) Using concrete and specific language

The message may involve difficult, abstract and even boring material. A good communicator must help audience to understand and remember it. Highlight the following steps:
 First state the idea
 Use vivid and concrete examples to help visualization
 Use words that help to create a mental picture including the colours, objects, scents, sounds, tastes etc – they sink in to the memory quickly
 Specific details should also be vivid and attract receivers‟ attention

(ii)Sticking to the point

A good communicator eliminates all the information that does not contribute directly to the purpose. Following guidelines can help:
 Avoid overloading the message – most audience require a few pertinent points either to answer questions or to facilitate decision-making
 A lean or short message is easier to absorb
 By leaving unnecessary details, sender helps receiver to focus on a few important points
 Be brief and discuss three instead of eight points (say) as that may dilute the message
 If an idea is worth including, it is worth explaining properly

(iii) Connecting new information to existing ideas

Mind absorbs ideas by categorizing them in to similar mental files. It helps receivers understand and remember if sender indicates how the idea is related to existing files already in the human mind. In the absence of this link, new idea / material may get lost. A few tips are:
 Meaning of new concept is clarified by its relationship to the existing ones
 Receivers have a wealth of knowledge already – all they need is to apply it to the new
 Most fear the unknown – if new idea is similar to what one is familiar with, he becomes confident
 In general, if it is something similar, it is picked up quickly – it is looked at carefully and made a part of own collection / retention

(4) Telling what you have told

Recapitulating main points of the message is another good way of helping the audience to understand and remember. This is done by clever use of certain words, phrases and body language:
 When one comes to an important point, it must be so declared.
 Use headlines and bold types in written messages
 Use italics or other means of highlighting the main points
 Reinforce the message by using charts, graphs, maps, diagrams and illustration
 Oral messages use body language and voice power
These have a telling impact on the audience!
Before concluding, restating the main purpose and showing how the main points are supportive enhance the impact of the message.

COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY

COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY

Human civilization has progressed reasonably well so far largely because human beings, as a species of the animal kingdom, have learnt to communicate and cooperate among themselves. There is a consensus that progress would have been faster if cooperation was always willing and with negligible confrontation and more co-existence with divergent views. Wars – hot or cold, always impede progress. Even so, humans have moved towards a greater degree of individual freedom in addition to freedom from hunger, want and illiteracy. Because of reasonably good level of communication achieved among communities, countries and continents, society is already talking of the universal rights of everyone on planet earth. These are stated below:
1 The right to be treated with respect
2 The right to have and express own feelings
3 The right to be listened to and taken seriously
4 The right to set own priorities
5 The right to say „no‟ without feeling guilty
6 The right to ask for what one wants
7 The right to get what one pays for
8 The right to get information from professionals
9 The right to make mistakes
10 The right to choose not to „assert‟ oneself
A careful examination of the above bills of rights would confirm beyond doubt the strategic importance of communication in the well being of our modern society. Communications form the edifice of evolution of entire human civilization. Human beings as a species have progressed better than other animal species largely because they have learnt to communicate among themselves better. Human beings have undertaken many projects jointly because they were able to influence other persons to a common viewpoint through better communication skills.

ONE IS AS GOOD AS ONE THINKS

ONE IS AS GOOD AS ONE THINKS

Shakespeare had said, „Nothing is good or bad; only thinking makes it so‟. Ones‟ thoughts mould ones‟ personality. In general, two types of thought processes are:

(1) Positive thought

These are:
 Positive self-recognition
 Identifying relationships with self and others
 Self-confidence

(2) Negative thoughts

These include:
 Negative self-recognition
 Crisis of relationship with self and others
 Non-assertive (submissive or aggressive) behaviour

Communication skills when measured along the dimension of negative thought, can become non-assertive in nature. Negative behaviours lead to low morale and lower inputs of employees on the one hand and low work output and low efficiency on the other.
It is thus of critical value to budding managers / leaders to ascertain their style of communication behaviour and to adapt more positive style.