“The biggest challenge for today’s business leaders is not the lack of well-founded principles for running an excellent company, but the lack of disciplined application of those principles.” Lee J. Colan

Communication is your door to all that is good in life. It is a door to financial wealth, loving relationships at home and business relationships at work. Communication is the most discussed and least understood area of human behaviour. But, most of the time, we tend to practise it less effectively than anything else. Our ability to communicate in so many ways is unique to humans. People who cannot speak can be wonderful communicators. Effective communication is rarely taught and even more rarely learned in our society. Superior communication skills are primordial to living a life by design.

The word communicate comes from the latin “communis” or common meaning ‘share’. We speak of a common room or a canteen where everyone shares the space. It indicates that two people or groups are sharing something but many problems and disputes can arise from a lack of understanding.

Excellent communication is the ability to transmit a message from the sender to a receiver and have that message interpreted in the receiver’s mind. If the receiver is uncertain about some aspect of a communication, it is the responsibility of the receiver to clarify the issue through the artful use of questions. The transmitting communicator also accepts the responsibility for the result of a communication. This means the transmitter must be certain to encode a message effectively so that it is received in a manner that is understandable to the receivers.

Effective organizational communication is an essential precondition of effective management. Organizations with more than one level of management suffer from communication problems that can interfere with aspects of the organization as well as with corrective actions.

Its purpose is to ensure that both managers and workers have access to the same information. In this way, they can agree on the tasks to improve the organization and everyone will work together in a better-coordinated way. In practice, the same incentives should be applied to both managers and workers, otherwise they develop different goals, negating the effect of the shared information. We consider that communication has been successful if there is a shared meaning.

Don’t cultivate a failure-fearing culture in the people at home or at work. When you set an example of admitting mistakes in your choices and self-correcting, others will believe they can do likewise without penalties from you.

Seek out and listen to people in your organisation. If the problem lies in your wounded ego, deal with it. As Warren Buffet once said, “When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging.”

The ability to communicate effectively has implications in every part of life. Better communication can improve family relationships, enhance business relationships and improve overall quality of life. Poor communication can result in disputes, arguments and disagreements. Each of the areas above can be practised and, with practice, communication can improve in every situation.

<B>Farhanaz GOOLAMHOSSEN BARBHUIYAN</B>