Communicating Effectively

Emailing is one of the best and current ways to communicate with someone. It is quick, non-invasive and, more importantly it documents the communication. In this email, my interpretation of it was that it was concise and informative. However it was difficult to get the tone of the email. Without knowing who the person is who sent it, it could be taken as somewhat condescending. Emails in general are sometimes difficult to perceive the tone and intention that the person is trying to convey and this one is no exception. The other challenge with emails is that you are never guaranteed that the recipient actually read and understood the message. The email itself can be tracked to see if it was opened, but there is no way of ensuring the message was read.

Using voicemail is also direct and an effective means of communication. Even though the words were exactly the same as the email, the voice delivered a pleasant and professional message. As with the email example, I might not know the person but she sounded sincere and amiable. She was able to convey the same message without it sounding condescending or with any hint of irritability. It was easy to perceive that she needed the information but was not angry or overly pushy. The challenge with the voicemail is similar to the email since it is impossible to know if the recipient actually listened and/or understood the message.

The face to face message was very effective. The words were exactly the same as the two previous forms of communication but this was form was probably the most complete in terms of delivering the full intent of the message. The person who gave the message stood in a non-threatening place, smiled, used very few hand gestures and kept the tone of her voice in a friendly and professional manner. She also maintained good eye contact with the person she was talking to as she delivered her message. In this form of communication the sender can guarantee that the recipient received the message and get immediate feedback from the recipient. The only con to this form is that it does not have an immediate way of documenting the exchange. The sender must document the conversation in some form at a later time.

When working with a team it is important to use the most effective means of communication for each team member. All three are appropriate and useful, but not always the best for an individual person. People vary in their manner of receiving a message so it is important to find out either by asking the team member or even through trial and error which is the most effective. At times someone may need to use multiple forms of communication to get the message delivered. However in all cases, documenting the exchanges is critical and key to keeping everyone on the same page and properly informed.



Reference

Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication"