HEARING, LISTENING, AND UNDERSTANDING

HEARING, LISTENING, AND UNDERSTANDING

A 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 take 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.

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 a 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 the 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 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‟ the 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.

Aggressive communication style

Aggressive communication style

This style or behavior happens when persons:

 Stand up for their rights in a way that violates the right of others to have their say
 Express own thoughts, feelings etc in an inappropriate way even when they believe that their views are incorrect

The aggressive style of communication enhances speakers at the cost of others. It puts the other person down and is based on the opinion that their opinions are more important than others. It is characterized by:

 Blaming others or factors external and outside own control
 Showing contempt for others
 Being hostile to others
 Attacking others orally
 Patronizing others

Aggressive behavior usually succeeds in getting what he wants; it also conveys a sense of power over others. It helps the communicator to release his steam and provides an outlet for his anger and bad feelings.

Non-assertive (Submissive) communication style

Non-assertive (Submissive) communication style

This style or behavior happens when persons:

 Fail to stand up for their rights
 Do things in a manner that others can easily disregard
 Express opinions, feelings etc in an apologetic and cautious manner
 Fail to express own opinions, feelings etc altogether

A person becomes submissive when he sees that his own needs and wants are less important than others. The person tends to justify or explain while accommodating others‟ viewpoint.
In the event of a conflict, a person with submissive communication style can easily defuse the situation by avoiding taking a strong stand. It helps people to escape anxiety or confrontation. He avoids feeling guilty about letting someone down etc. Usually work suffers because aggressive viewpoint, not necessarily the best option, prevails.

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. Everyone should put in the hard work necessary to acquire skills in speaking as it imparts a considerable competitive advantage to the person. Some important aspects are:

(1) Clarity
The voice of the speaker should be clear, the 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.

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. Traveling salespersons visit dealers and retailers and influence them to place an 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 to 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 into a supportive one and vice versa
 Stir people to rebel/revolt or become docile
 Make people undertake a 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 into India when there were hardly any worthwhile means of transportation and transshipment.
In modern India, people recall nostalgically Jawaharlal Nehru‟s speech at the midnight of 15th August 1947 of „tryst with destiny‟ or later on the death of Mahatma Gandhi, „the light has gone out‟.
Speeches of Late Dr. S Radhakrishnan who became the second President of India had a certain magic about them. It was difficult to improve upon the impromptu speeches of Late Swami Ranganathananda of Ramakrishna Mission.

BASICS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

BASICS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

Oral communication connotes words uttered through the mouth i.e., spoken words. It is any utterance of, at or near the mouth, involving resonance of the mouth. It must be distinguished from the nasal resonance – resonance through the nose. Oral communication always conveys an idea or a feeling.
There are two forms of oral communication:
 Speaking
 Listening

Oral communication covers both the forms. Remember the famous saying, „It takes two to tango‟. Like the famous chicken and egg story, it is difficult to decide which one came first. At any rate, it is pointless talking unless someone is listening. One cannot be listening unless someone is speaking or talking. It is said that „the art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard‟.

(1) Speaking
An average manager speaks for about 30 % of his time. The proportion goes up as one goes up the hierarchical levels. Speaking implies:
 Talking
 Conversing
 Chatting
 Addressing
 Discoursing

(2) Listening
A close synonym of listening is hearing; hearing is any sound that goes through the auditory nerves or sound waves as they enter the ears. An average manager spends about 45 % of the time listening. It should advisably go up as one goes upwards in the hierarchy. Listening is a very powerful trait of leaders.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Future managers and leaders must strive to become powerful communicators by acquiring a good perception of their target audience and being precise in their expressions. They should have good command over the process of reshaping opinion of their audience and remain both friendly and congenial in their disposition.

Crafting effective message is like a painting – the creator of the message is like the artist who must first think of the purpose and the audience. He should tell in advance what he is going to tell, follow it by telling it in a concrete and specific language, sticking to the point and connecting new information to the existing ideas concisely and finally, wind up by summarizing what he has told. This has a telling impact on the audience. Quality of messaging can be further improved by minimizing noise, distraction, and disruption during delivery and facilitating feedback that enables the communicator to monitor and modify the message as appropriate.

In modern business environments, messaging covering both communication and flow of information, has assumed strategic importance as it enhances communicators‟ persona to „impress‟, paves way for their „success‟ and prevents „failure‟. Business communications play a crucial role in setting corporate objectives, formulating strategies and facilitating management through well-orchestrated planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. The entire process of management is mediated through conversation, correspondence and intelligent use of body language at an individual, group and organizational levels for facilitating a free flow of information/ communication that support decision-making and action-taking. These are then controlled through monitoring, measuring and communicating different aspects of administration relating to price (P), quality (Q), reliability (R), service (S) and time (T) – the five pillars that are „sine qua non‟ of management..

Human civilization has progressed faster because they have learned to communicate and cooperate better. As society progresses further, human beings are on way to evolving the foundational rights of behavior that should apply to every individual.

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 learned 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 a reasonably good level of communication achieved among communities, countries, and continents, society is already talking about 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 an evolution of entire human civilization. Human beings as a species have progressed better than other animal species largely because they have learned 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.

Targets of communication

Targets of communication

At the organization level

The decisions taken at organizational level need to be communicated to all personnel so that everyone is aware of the corporate objectives and devises suitable strategies for long-term, medium-term and short-term action plans for accomplishing the required tasks. At the organizational level, the focus is more on communication to external stakeholders – shareholders, investors, financiers, suppliers, customers, competitors and internal stakeholders like employees, managers, and directors who are not employees of the firm.
Consequently, public relations and corporate communication play a major role in communication at this level. There are a number of issues that warrant communication to both internal and external agencies. Environmental issues are of interest to the community and society at large and need is to keep them informed of the measures being undertaken by the firm, on a proactive basis, to combat pollution and go in for cleaner technologies as a voluntary option rather a compulsion under the laws.

Decision-making and action-taking

Management process cascades into taking a series of decisions followed by actions at all levels of the organization in fulfillment of their tasks which together combine into bigger targets or departmental objectives and finally the corporate goals.

Business communications provide the bridge between decision-making and action-taking and emerge as the critical process in the linkage between „planning your work‟ and „working your plan‟.

Price, Quality, Reliability, Service and Time parameters

If a job cannot be measured, it cannot be managed. In all jobs, we can organize a detailed system of measurement for at least five of its critical success factors viz., price (P), quality (Q), reliability (R), service (S) and time (T). These five variables account for the most foundational aspects that need to be continually measured and monitored to ensure that the execution is happening as originally planned.
Thus, communication about these five constituents of management (P, Q, R, S & T) at all levels of the organization would form the bread and butter of the management of information flow, highlighting its critical importance in the very functioning of the enterprise. Conversely, if communication is absent among different functionaries of an enterprise, they can neither fix the targets nor measure the actual performance nor even the variance between the target and actual. Such organizations will become babes in the wilderness!