Management Barriers and Gateway to Effective Communication

 Management Barriers and Gateway to Effective Communication

Effective communication is critical for business success. The four key barriers to effective communication in management include personal, process, and physical and semantic barriers. As a business manager, I will incorporate the following key strategies to ensure I put my point across, persuade colleagues of my ideas, and inspire confidence and trust.

For communication to be effective, two or more people must contribute equally in discussions and willingly exchange information. In management, it is the ability to state clearly state intention with percussion so employees and colleagues can receive our opinions and determine our needs adequately.  Barring physical distractions,

Personal barriers to communication relate to factors that negatively impact an individual’s process of communication. Specifically, they emerge from a speaker’s attitude, behavior, and emotion (Schmidt, 2020). To eliminate these shortcomings, I will embrace more openness and stay objective when receiving information. I will rely on my ability to identify and recognize emotions so they don’t control my behavior. Emotional intelligence is also critical for managing persuasion and maintaining relationships. Moreover, managing my emotions will also help me stay clear at the moment (Schmidt, 2020). Often during boards meetings, a colleague or staff member might say something you never expected. In such situations, a lack of emotional control might make a manager react unprofessionally. On the other hand, if I had my emotional intelligence in check as a manager, I would react more thoughtfully by looking at the information I received and responding appropriately.  

Another key element of overcoming communication barriers is active listening. Communication being a two-way street, the senders need to deliver clear information just as match as the receiver needs to demonstrate the same vigilance for communication to be effective. According to research, most workers spend about half of their time listening. On the other hand, managers need to listen to about 70 percent of their time (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017; Schmidt,2020). Listening in itself does not necessarily lead to good communication; active listening, by contrast, involves skill, practice, and concentration to achieve understanding.  As a manager, I understand the impact of poor listening, including low employee morale, poor customer feedback, and the eventual cost to business bottom-line profit. Specific to implementing this approach of communication will include encouraging feedback and asking clarification questions when in doubt. I will strive to be a good listener to better my managerial skills.   

Physical communication barriers refer to artificial distractions such as background noise and network disturbance due to thunderstorms. To eliminate physical barriers, I will ensure I become more aware of my environment and listening skills. Casting away distractions like removing background noise will be critical for this process. I will also express engagement to my patterners through gesturing and occasional nodding (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017).  Moreover, for additional cues, I will pay more attention to my colleague’s body language. Active listening will aim to forge healthy work relationships by treating every speaker with value. 

Semantic aims to understand the meaning of communication. Depending on the context, words can often mean several things to different people. Companies, for instance, keep a list of their acronyms. (Aka business jargon).  Given the amount of information communicated in business settings, organizations develop shortcode -Jargon to fasten communication (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). Like many tools, excessive use of Jargon can make listeners tune out and foster layers of added complexity between managers and communication partners. As an efficient communicator, I will choose the precise word intended for the cross purpose and only employ inappropriate shorthand context to avoid semantic barriers.

In summary, several communication barriers exist. Examples are Emotional disconnects, information overload, selective perception and semantics. As a manager, I will be conscious of these limitations and embrace communication techniques to persuade my listeners using empathy, controlling my emotions, and enhancing relationships.

References

Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective employee engagement in the workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), 4.

Schmidt, A. K. (2020, November 6). 3 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Help You to Communicate with Impact. LinkedIn. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-ways-emotional-intelligence-can-help-you-impact-koopmann-schmidt