Effective Communication

Consider your
audience.

Who are you communicating with? Make sure you are aware of your audience- those you intend to communicate with may differ from those who actually receive your messages. Knowing your audience can be key to delivering the right messages effectively. Their age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education level, subject knowledge, and professional experience can all affect how they'll receive

your message.

If you're advertising a fast food restaurant, for example, you might want to deliver your message to an audience that's likely to be hungry. This could be a billboard on the side of a busy highway that shows a giant cheeseburger and informs drivers that the closest location is just two miles away.

Or suppose you're announcing your engagement to your family. You might host a gathering afterwards to celebrate, send them photos of the engagement in a group chat, surprise them in conversation over dinner, or tag your family members in your announcement on social media. Your chosen form of communication will depend on

your family dynamics.

Practice
active listening.

Active listening is the practice of giving your full attention in a communication exchange.

Some techniques include paying attention to body language, giving encouraging verbal cues, asking questions, and practicing non-judgment. Before executing your communication, be sure to consider your audience and practice active listening to get to the heart of their needs and desires. This way, you can improve your communication as a counselor, social worker, marketer, professor, colleague, or friend.

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Here are some examples of active listening in practice:

If you work in marketing, you might engage in social listening to gather consumer data on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

If you are a professor, you might take advantage of end-of-semester feedback forms and act on your students' needs by hosting one-on-one meetings during office hours. Likewise, your students might choose to participate in discussions after your

lecture or at least sit attentively and ask questions.

If you are a team leader, you might read Slack messages from your teammates, gauge that they are frustrated with the workload, and respond by resetting priorities

for the next few weeks. This communicates to the team that their voices are heard.

If you are a parent, you might have a disagreement with your child about finishing their homework, but if you probe deeper with open communication, they may confess that their teacher made a discouraging comment that left them unmotivated.

Make your message
as clear as possible.

Once you have successfully identified your audience and listened to their intentions, needs, and desires, you may have something to communicate. To do this effectively, turn to the 5 Cs of communication to ensure your message is:

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• Clear

• Correct

• Complete

• Concise

• Compassionate

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Prepare to communicate in a way that achieves most of these characteristics.

Use the right
medium or platform.

Using the right medium or platform to communicate matters. Effective communication requires you to consider whether you need to meet in person or if Zoom would suffice. Is your message casual enough to use WhatsApp, or would a formal email be more efficient and thorough? If you are catching up with a friend, do you two prefer to talk on the phone or via old-fashioned letters? Whatever you choose should be intuitive and appropriate for you and your current situation.

You might assess the priority level and the type of communication needed. In a marketing campaign, is there a visual component on Instagram or is it a spoken podcast ad? Will the platform be a Facebook post, product placement in a film, or a printed poster hung in cafes? For a university lecture, do students prefer to be online or meet in person? Will there be a discussion afterward, and would it be fruitful to conduct it in a pub, cafe, or in a field outdoors?

By considering your audience, practicing active listening, clarifying your communication, and choosing the right medium or environment, you are well on

your way to exercising communication effectiveness.