While working at the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) in Customer Service, a few months back, I came across a very unhappy taxpayer. We communicated through the telephone and I was guiding her to complete her E-Filing. At a certain section, she became very annoyed with me as she kept telling me she could not fill up this section. I tried every possible way to assist her but soon found out that that section would be filled up by the system automatically. After telling her about it, she still insisted that she wanted to fill the section herself. After another, "Ma'am, the field will be automatically filled, and you do not have to fill it up." She hung up. In this situation, I believe I didn't express my instruction to her properly, in other words, I did not communicate effectively.
Effective communication occurs when the recipient of a message understand it’s meaning and can express that meaning back to it’s sender.
To me, effective communication is important as it creates fewer misunderstandings between the two parties as it helps one to bring his ideas across well and it allows both parties to get to know each other's personalities and feelings better which would help to improve their relationship both in a social and professional setting.
In the workplace, it can ensure the success, in terms of efficiency, of an organisation if effective communication is practiced at all levels. When both employers and employees communicate effectively, there would be fewer misunderstandings which can result in mistakes being made which would then lead to precious time being wasted to rectify those mistakes. There would also be less friction between co-workers, allowing for a conducive work environment for everyone and ultimately leading to the success of the organisation. Furthermore, one could get passed over for a promotion due to one not expressing his interest effectively to his superiors.
In a social setting, the ability to use communication skills, such as, listening, interpreting nonverbal cues and possessing empathy for the speaker, would allow one to build meaningful connections and relationships with the other party.
For myself, I would want to communicate effectively in order to build connection and trust between myself and others in order to develop meaningful relationships with them.
Here is a video of what happens when there is a communication breakdown:
For myself, I would want to communicate effectively in order to build connection and trust between myself and others in order to develop meaningful relationships with them.
Here is a video of what happens when there is a communication breakdown:
Sometimes it's useful to distance yourself from what you're doing for a bit just to consider possible areas of miscommunication or gaps in information that could be either misinterpreted or be the cause for miscommunication. A lot of times we know our work well but we forget that the receivers (listeners or readers) don't know as much as we do or even the way in which we know something. So if we assume that everyone should be able to understnd what we do, we could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteHey Irfan! It's good that you started out with an example of how miscommunication while at IRAS has had an impact on your working life. I too have had similar misfortunate instances while I was in army handling phonecalls from my superiors. One thing that I feel is that communication via phonecalls isn't always the best idea. Both parties on each end of the phone are unable to read each other's non-verbal communication cues. As we mentioned in class, up to 90% of communication is non-verbal in nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that effective communication is vital to efficiency in the workplace. This is after all what all employers want as it allows for a conducive working environment.
I absolutely loved the funny video at the end too. Using videos is a good way to end a blog post. Perhaps, I will use one for my next blog post. Thanks for the idea!
Cheers,
Arvind
To Dr Radhika: Yes, I realised that what you say is absolutely true, I might have lost abit of my temper at her and failed to realise that she is not as familiar with how the system works, so it's not her fault. I will definitely remember this in the event something similar happens to me in the future.
ReplyDeleteTo Arvind: Thanks for the encouraging words. Yes you should definitely try to find images or videos that complements your blogpost and engage your readers.
Thanks for the feedback guys!