Barriers of communication Part II

3. Personal Barriers

In any communication as we had seen in the flow, we required two personalities.... One the sender and second the receiver... Any barrier arising out of these two individuals is called as a personal barrier. To start with we will discuss about the "Sender "

Sender
He is one of the most important factor in the whole communication process. If there is a problem in the start itself the whole communication goes for a toss. If he doesn't do his job properly... it goes down the drain. Some of the ways by which a sender can goof up the communication are given below.

a. Senders understandability of the message: How much the sender understands of the message they are trying to send is very important. If he doesn't know what he is sending it can be a chaos on the other side. This can usually happen when information is being transferred across various levels. Say from the Sr Manager => Manager => Assistant Manager => Team Leader => Supervisor => Junior Executives. Here at any point of time if any one in the chain doesn't understand what his superior is trying to convey... there will definitely be a miscommunication. I will give you an example of this at the end of this post.

b. Amount of knowledge - The sender should know the subject, understand the content and the purpose of it before actually delivering it to the other side. Imagine a trainer who doesn't know the subject but comes forward for training. How effective will be the transfer of information. Absolutely zero. This rule applies for any sender. This is important to decide the way it has to be communicated. Unless someone knows the importance and significance of the content they will not be able to decide what should be the mode of delivery. To know its significance knowledge of the subject is important.

c. Too much of Information- Information Overload. Any message that has to be communicated should have only the relevant information. Relevant information can be explained as the minimum data required to get the action done for which the communication has been intended. The sender should send only enough information to get the job done in the most efficient manner.

d. Presentation Order : The sequence of presentation has to be logical and categorized based on the importance and urgency. The presentation should be classified with side headings wherever required. Also, keeping one information per paragraph will be very effective in delivering multiple messages to the receiver

e. Lack of familiarity with the audience: This is a very important barrier. Most of the times peope send messages from their perspective without thinking whether the person on the other side will understand it or not. Unless the common understanding is not attained communication becomes a failure. You cannot teach rocket science to a kindergarden kid.. who has just started to learn ABCD.

f. Lack of experience: Is Experience required in communication. Many a time its yes. One very important aspect of communication which many people miss out is the appropriateness of the communication. Appropriateness can also be understood as reachability of the communication. The way it was taken in by the other person. For eg: A team member of your has commited a mistake. You can either scold or reprimand him for making him realize that mistake. Else, you can sit with him and politely explain him the severity of the situation so that he understands it very well. Now in both the ways the team member has got the information... meaning... the communication has happened...there was a common understanding...... but what about the after math of the exercise.... Which do you think will be more effective.. Obviously the second one.. (Of course.. the type of feedback is dependent on the severity of the situation). This decision making ability will come only through experience.....