Communication with difficult subordinates

Listening may seems like a natural process in communication. However, if you look properly and analyze it in-depth, you will notice listening is actually a vital element in whole communication process. Listening to others simply means you are getting inputs from them. Therefore, if you have poor listening skills, then you might interpret intended message differently. To ensure proper interpretation, you need to be certain when to apply active listening technique and when to switch to passive listening. Listening is not a gift; it’s a skill that can be enhanced and we strongly urge you to do so.

To communicate well, you must ask the right question to the right person at the right time. Hence, questioning technique is vital in ensuring effective communication. This is simply because you will get what you asked for. If you ask general question, you will get general reply, if you ask specific question, you will get specific reply. Likewise, if you ask silly question, then you will definitely get silly reply. To improvise your questioning techniques, you can adhere to these 4 types of application-based question. They are namely,

• Fact-finding Question
• Feeling-finding Question
• Clarifying Question
• Developmental Question

Communicating with others may seems to be an easy task, however if you stop and think about it properly, you will notice that many issues occurred at our workplace are due to miscommunication. Things will definitely be better if you take some time and look into effectiveness of our day-to-day workplace communication. How we interact with our subordinates, peers, superiors, vendors and customers matter because their inputs are vital for our success. Hence, communication should not be viewed as merely a plain process; it should be viewed as a process to influence someone to fulfill our objective.

Miscommunication is the result of two critical assumptions that are made by most people. First, people tend to assume that they know what others mean. And second, people assume that others know what they mean. Both of these assumptions can hinder the ability to effectively communicate. If we assume that others understand the message we are sending, we don’t provide an opportunity for them to ask questions and we don’t clarify the intended message. When we assume that we know what others mean, once again, we don't ask for any feedback or clarification. In many cases, we even stop listening to the communication when we think we know what the message is.

Many people think that they are not communicating if they are not speaking. The communication process, however, has two halves, i.e. speaking and listening. Cicero once said that it is a good thing that humans were given one mouth and two ears. It must come as no surprise that people tend to be better at speaking than at listening. Yet if sufficient attention is not paid to listening, the intended message will surely not be received. Too often people perceive listening to be a passive process. To be more effective, however, requires that it be active. Remember that talking is only half of the communication process.

FGJ