Communication mistakes to avoid in 2018

Swati Rai

No, communication skills are not something that can make or break your career and your technical role specific skills matter. However, equally important is the art of making conversation, speaking at a public platform, communicating to get the deliverables secured and convey a positive image of the company. Communication is ever changing in today's fast-paced, always on, hyper connected world. Mastering it, therefore, is no mean feat but something that comes with practice, diligence but most importantly by observation and internalisation of good practices.

The world is a smaller place

Communication across global time zones now being a necessity, it's important that conversation and all text communication be culturally sensitive. Awareness of basic norms of directing appropriate ways of communication with people of different nationalities and cultural contexts, is a must to develop precise, accurate interaction patterns. Common faux pas to avoid would be in areas such as, norms of greetings and address, non-verbal cues, and in the intensity and the directness of language.  Best not to base one's communicative tactics on conjecture, hearsay or worse still, stereotyping, but to make oneself aware of the tips to communicate successfully in different cultural contexts. 

Less is more

No, you don't have to fill up pages, or screens to convey a single thought.  Make a conscious effort this New Year, to churn out, a cleaner and leaner copy of your thoughts. Go on a word diet, be harsh with your first copy, weed out unnecessary fillers, repetitions, simplifications and yes look at different ways to convey meaning to make it interesting to read and listen. Be ruthless with self-censorship for verbosity and beating about the bush. The world as we know is constantly on its toes and surely has no time for swimming in the sea of radar less words to fish out meaning. 

Attitude, attitude

'Inferential Communication' — this is a technique that helps you read between the lines and in gauging the speaker's attitude. Paralinguistic aspects such as eye contact, vocal tone and gestures, give the participant in a communicative process, ample information of how invested is a person in the entire talk.  Don't end up on the wrong side of a client, partner or a prospective employer, if you fail to notice these signals that may not to be worded, but are more attitudinal.

Millennial speak

As more and more millennials get added to the workforce, it's also important to know the norms of communication amidst this segment, so as to perhaps also take into cognizance these patterns. At ease with communicating via texts, voice messages, shorthand, abbreviations and of course emojis - welcome to the world of millennial communication. Raising an eyebrow or being a grammar prude is not a solution. An understanding of the fact that fast communication is the need of the hour, however it should not compromise the quality and the style-sheet of company. Therefore, making the text sharp, conveying the intent instantly with apt vocabulary, will grab the attention of any generation minus the age factor. This requires a re-look at the copy something that mandates practice.

Listen first

In this whole conversation around conversation, the important aspect of listening to communicate effectively is overlooked sometimes. Interruptions and false assertions of one, result in a person constantly speaking over the speaker. If something is a communication killer, this is it. Effective listening cuts down on the entire communication process significantly and makes it more efficient. This is so as it helps in chopping off the need to clarify time and again and repetition. Processing information given out by the speaker is not the same as hearing. So, listen carefully also to gauge speaker's attitude, intention and act accordingly the to save time.