James P. Comer said, “While most of today’s jobs do not require great intelligence, they do require greater frustration tolerance, personal discipline, organization, management, and interpersonal skills than were required two decades and more ago. These are precisely the skills that many of the young people who are staying in school today, as opposed to two decades ago, lack.”
Communication is inseparable from human survival and essential for existence. We all communicate every day. The question is, do we get the desired response? The answer opens the new question: Do we communicate effectively? In this article, let’s understand what interpersonal communication is and how it works. How does it help us to connect with people effectively?
Meaning
The word ‘Interpersonal’ has Latin roots. In the Latin language, the word “Inter” means “between” or “among”. The word “Personal” comes from the Latin “Persona”, which originally meant “mask” later came to mean “person” or “character”. Thus, interpersonal literally means between people or between persons. Interpersonal communication is the process of exchange of information, ideas, and feelings between two or more people through verbal or non-verbal methods.
Types of Interpersonal Communication
- Face-to-face interactions between colleagues, family members, and friends.
- Interactions through text or email.
- Connecting through phone or video call.
- Group discussions and team meetings
- Business interaction while taking or receiving services.
- Presentations
Obstacles to Effective Internal Personal Communication
- Language: In a multilingual workplace, language becomes a challenging factor. Different people will have different levels of mastery over the language. Their skill and dialect in using the language may vary from the rest of the people. Therefore, people struggle to communicate their thoughts in the standard language.
- Emotions: In interpersonal communication, whether one is the sender or receiver, anger, stress, extreme happiness, and sadness can prevent one from having a clear understanding of the situation. Lack of confidence, low self-worth, and an inferiority complex can create difficulties in expressing.
- Environment: Physical factors such as noise, poor internet connection, unstable network, and remote work location can delay or prevent effective interpersonal communication.
- Culture: Different cultures have different norms, understanding, and interpretations of words and communication styles, which can often lead to misunderstandings.
How to Improve Interpersonal Communication
- Active Listening: Provide your full attention when someone is communicating. Do not prepare your answer while the person is speaking. Don’t haste to react, respond; first understand and then respond. If required, take a moment and then respond thoughtfully. When the person is speaking, do not interrupt the speaker; let them finish the statement. Avoid checking mobile phones and resist the temptation to speak or react immediately. For effective listening, one can maintain eye contact and nod to indicate one understands.
- Clear and Concise Language: Lucid language helps the listener understand. Thus, avoid jargon or technical terms that others might not understand. Use the appropriate tone and language to communicate clearly.
- Being Curious: Don’t jump to conclusions or assumptions while the speaker is speaking; it can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. Be curious and ask open-ended questions when necessary.
- Recap: When concluding a lengthy email, discussion, presentation, or call, provide a quick summary of all the discussed points.
- Check by Asking: When you are in doubt or dilemma, or not sure what you have understood is the same thing the speaker wants to communicate, ask the question. Like, if I am not wrong, you meant to say this? Or are you saying we need to focus on this project first?
- Master Non-verbal Communication: Non-verbal communication, such as body language, tone of voice, and facial expression, conveys a message. Be aware of this to communicate yourself better and to understand other people, too.
- Empathy: Be empathetic, which includes understanding and sharing the feelings of others. Try to put yourself in their shoes while communicating and show understanding and compassion for their perspective.
- Establish Connection: Identify common ground to build rapport. It will help in building trust and enhancing communication. Look for common interests, experience, or humor, or other forms to enforce positive communication.
- Strong Technical Support: Especially in remote work locations, do not always rely on just a phone call, mail, or message. Use video conferencing as and when required. Make sure you have the necessary technical support system, a strong internet connection to reduce delays or obstacles in work.
Why Master Interpersonal Communication
- Communicating responsibly and having a good understanding of others helps us to build enhanced relationships.
- Career Growth: In the workplace, people having extraordinary interpersonal skills, often considered leaders and more productive. Therefore, they will have better career opportunities compared to the rest.
- Fewer conflicts: Strong interpersonal skills will help to create a positive atmosphere and minimize conflicts.
