Why Are We So Confused???

Have you ever been involved in a conversation with another person or persons and at the end, thought to yourself, “I have no clue what we just talked about?”  This often happens because our communication skills as a society are inadequate.  We are listening to respond instead of being active listeners.  Communication is a vital element, especially to a leader, communication is the exchange of information that is then used by people to make choices that influence present and future individuals (PSU WC, 2019, L.4).

One area that we need to be aware of when it comes to communications is bias.  One of the most common mistakes in communication bias is tone.  It can range from verbal tone when speaking to someone to written tone and how emails are constructed and perceived by the receiving party.  One of the biases that we studied was egocentrism.  Egocentrism is defined as relying on your viewpoint and either underestimating another person viewpoint or disregarding it entirely (Effectiviology, n.d.).  With so much of our communications in business being via email, we need to learn how to effectively navigate how the person receiving the information will perceive it.  We also need to recognize that just because we are ready to communication information, that the receiving party may not be in a place to receive that information and we must adapt for that (Myatt, 2017).

As we have also learned, diversity and culture can impact how communication should be incorporated into your business relationships.  Take, for example, I work in a heavily male populated field.  Most of the people that I have daily interactions with are men.  Most of the men email with daily are executives (CEO, CFO, Presidents, VP, etc.) at the companies they are employed with.  As a female in a dominantly male field, I have grown accustomed to having to prove myself to my counterparts.  The one item that still happens almost daily in email is I am referred to a Mr. Miller.  My first name is unisex, and with a Vice-President title, they assume that I am male.  This is an example how gender bias in our culture has a play in business communications.

The most important take-away is that we need to be constantly aware of how we are communicating with our employers, employees, customers, peers, business partners, etc.  They may reside or be from a culture that is very different from our own.  How we interact with them both verbally and in writing will determine what type of relationship we will have.  One thing the past has taught us about great leaders is that they are great listeners and perceptive in their surroundings (Myatt, 2017).

 

References:

Effectiviology (Ed.). (n.d.). Effectiviology. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from https://effectiviology.com/egocentric-bias/

Myatt, M. (2017, March 17). 10 communication secrets of great leaders. Retrieved September 23, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/04/04/10-communication-secrets-of-great-leaders/#54a947b022fe

PSU World Campus. (2019, September 22). Olead 410 Lesson 04: Global Communication Retrieved from PSU World Campus https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008449/modules/items/27026964