Stellar oral communication skills are extremely important today, as indicated in the extensive number of job postings on the web entailing “excellent oral and written communication skills” as a primary requirement for most positions. There are a number of resources available that pinpoint the various means to the most effective oral communication. At the core of each of these different resources is the mutual understanding that the main goal of oral communication is to get the message across to others clearly. Whether one is applying for a job in IT consulting or in architecture design, effective oral communication is key in not only maintaining internal relations, but most important, client relations.
In order to disseminate information effectively, whether during an interview or a presentation to clients, the communications process must be executed with little external barriers/noise. The communications process follows as such: the source encodes the message in a way that will is understandable to the source; the message travels through a channel, or means of delivering the message such as conferences, phone calls, etc.; the message is decoded in a way that is understandable to the receiver; and finally feedback is delivered back to the source (see Figure 1.)
Through the involvement of encoding, decoding and pushing through external barriers, portions of a message may be lost in oral communication if the message is not initially produced as clearly and concisely as possible. The best measure of how effectively the message travelled is feedback. Essentially, the source should anticipate a certain magnitude of feedback if his message was delivered appropriately. Feedback returning opposite of the source’s anticipation is more than likely a result of the message travelling through heavy barriers.
Traversing difficulty in conversations is a direct effect of messages travelling through external communication barriers. These barriers can include, but are not limited to: physical distractions, information overload, distorted preconceptions and cultural differences. While physical distractions can come in the form of uninviting body language and literal background noise, information overload is apparent in delivering too much too soon. Distorted preconceptions are often present in the form of defensiveness, power struggle and value judgment; while cultural differences play a major role in communication barriers in the obvious form of language barriers, in addition to role expectations, and culturally linked mannerisms. No matter the form, it is critical that both the source and receiver quickly identify and remove these barriers in order to focus on the message at hand.
Again, removing communication barriers, and initially producing the message in the clearest form possible are key in effective oral communication. Today’s job market not only calls for effective communicators, but also effective listeners. Therefore, it is not only the source’s responsibility to produce the clearest message initially in order to be an effective oral communicator, but also the receiver’s responsibility to critically listen in receiving oral communication. Both of which must be barrier free in order to maintain an efficient communications process.
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