Overcoming Communication Barriers at Workplace

Effective Communication is the foundation of every business seeking success. One of the keys to a successful business relationship is good communication. Communication is a process of transferring information between two individuals, the sender, and the receiver.

For communication to be effective, the receiver must fully understand the message that the sender intended. However, there are four types of communication barriers that interfere with good communication. These barriers are process barriers, personal barriers, physical barriers, and semantic barriers. Process Barriers refer to how a message is sent and received and may be interrupted in the process.

For instance, using the wrong media to send a message will trigger a process barrier. As a manager, I would ensure that I follow all the steps associated with an effective communication.

Communicating through the right media

There are situations when you must communicate through the right media to communicate effectively. For example, if I need to inform an employee that their job has been terminated, I would not do this by e-mail, or text.

The correct method of communication, in this case, would be through formal, verbal face to face and it would give both counterparts the opportunity of feedback. Process barriers also occur when the sender intends to send a message and forgets to click the “send” button. The sender probably got distracted or became busy and later, by the end of day realized the e-mail or text never went out. Overcoming this common situation may be easily achieved if the computer or cellular phone is set to have a notification for any pending unsent messages.

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Computers may also be programmed to not shut down until all pending messages have been reviewed. A reminder could also be set to be sent to your car, your iPad, iWatch, or similar. Personal Barriers in communication may come from involving personal feelings toward the person you are communicating with. If there is a personal situation that is influencing the way the message could get through, an alternative is to communicate via electronically. It is easier to communicate the message by writing and not you’re your emotions. If as a manager, you do not like a person or like a person too much, you must control your emotions and remain professional and ethical. This may also be achieved by using a third party that will be partial if decisions need to be addressed. It is also very important to identify what keeps you from achieving your goals and take the necessary steps to remove those personal barriers and focus on the positive. Trust issues are also personal barriers that will keep you from establishing a reputation and a strong network of people who will help throughout your career.

Maintaining trust

As a manager, one of the main goals is to maintain trust at the core of any professional relationship. A tool that I would use to overcome this barrier would be to praise employees work. Giving credit to others is very kind and well-mannered. Also, micromanaging employees is a huge blow to building trust. Instead, I would have meetings once a week or twice a month to effectively oversee direct reports without hovering over their shoulder. Lastly, I would assign tasks of responsibility and step by step increase the responsibility to gain trust. Your trustworthiness will help determine your success in your job and career. Physical Barriers include a work environment that has a lot of background noise, poor lighting, walls, or unstable temperature.

Minimizing physical discomfort 

All these barriers will affect how individuals try to send and receive messages. If there is a lot of background noise, then the receiver may not hear what the sender is saying. If the temperature in a work environment is too hot or too cold the sender will not focus on the message that they are trying to send. People tend to not concentrate on the information they are trying to send since the physical barrier promotes uncomfortable feelings.

The first step to overcoming physical barriers begins by identifying the barrier. As a manager, adapting the “open concept” design at the office will significantly help minimize a hostile work environment. Room temperature is now programmed to a digital thermostat that is easily accessible via mobile application in case it needs to be adjusted. Semantic Barriers occur when a message is sent by a sender to a receiver and it is interpreted wrongly in a communication process causing misunderstandings between them. Semantic barriers arise due to language, education, culture, and place of origin. The words we say may mean different things to different people.

Words and phrases are interpreted differently depending on the translation or the interpretation. A word might have a meaning in one field, but a different in another field or group of people. There are different tools we may use in overcoming semantic barriers such as choosing words which are familiar to the receiver in the interpretation we wish to give. We may also choose words with positive rather than negative connotation. Semantic barriers may also be overcome if the message is direct, simple and meaningful. The information should be worded as to reach the level of the readership.