Glossary of technical terms and Frequently asked questions

Glossary of technical terms and FAQs

Work ethic- set of values based on hard work and diligence.

Soft skills- these are personal attributes, habits and attitudes that make someone a good or bad employee.

Goals- this is something to aim for, provide direction to our work

Strategy- it is a plan of our work, some rules that we are going to follow in order to work the best efficiently.

Objectives- more specified goals. This is also something to aim for but more strict. For example loosing weight may be a goal for someone but loosing 20 kilos will be an objective because it is more specified.

Prioritizing- ability to choose the most important tasks that need to be finite sooner than the others so that the work is done most effectively. 

Diary- this is a diary in which are recorded all the important events, meetings and important notes. Usually it is divided into: months, weeks, days and hours. It is used for organizational purposes and to listing everything that people were doing or will be doing that day.

Targets- objective that we set to become better in something. It is also something to which we aspire, a benchmark that helps us to overcome difficulties.

In-tray- this is a special shelf for documents or an electronic inbox.

Independence- ability to independently perform our work without the supervision of other people. Solving problems without the advice of other people, the effective execution of tasks commissioned by the employer and the self-organization of our workplaces. Having the right skills and knowledge in order to not need constant assistance of other people.

Facts- these can be true or false; type of information that can be proved.

Opinions- there are as many opinions as many people on the planet. Everyone has something to say about different topics, there is no right answer, everyone is right to explain what he thinks about various facts. Opinions may vary because of: the age of the person, religion and beliefs, whether is male or female, experience, knowledge etc.

Summarize- main points of the talk/text.  

Paraphrase- repeating something using different words.

Open questions- type of question that can be responded in various ways, frequently used to pick up the conversation, for example asking about someone’s opinion.

Closed questions- we use this type of question if we want to hear clear and strict answer, for example Yes or No.

Probing questions- if someone’s answer doesn’t satisfy us and doesn’t explain much what we asked, we can ask again using probing questions to get information that we really need.

Frequently asked questions

Q1 What are the main attributes that employers seem to be seeking in a prospective employee?

Attributes that employers are seeking in a prospective employee are: planning and organizational skills as well as a good time management; Ability to work in team, essential knowledge such us verbal and written communication skills, numeracy and creativity skills.

Q2 What are “soft” skills and why do employers value them so much from prospective employees?

Employeers don't want to waste their time and money so they expect from their employees professionalism and full commitment to work. Certain behaviors, manners and habits have a huge impact on the work they perform so employers only choose those people who have positive attitude. To 'soft skills' we include for example: planning,organizing, time management, team work, verbal and written communication skills, numeracy skills and creativity

Q3 What are the main barriers to communication?

Main barriers to communication can be as follow:

-disability

-different language

-negative body language

-distractions

-background noise

-lack of concentration

-negative opinions and beliefs

Q4 What do the principles of communication depend upon?

Principles of communication depend upon the type of the communication that we are using in different situations. There are three main types of communication: general (any type of communication where there is audience), interpersonal (face to face) and written (emails, letters etc).

Q5 Why must you be sensitive to cultural differences or age differences in your audience?

To communicate with someone  properly  we have to consider his culture, age or the way he is and acts because otherwise we may offend or hurt him by saying something inappropriately . Respect to the other person is one of the most important things that we need to remember during the  conversation. Certain behaviors and words that we use may not be accepted by others and will be received  as offensive which will efect in making conversation difficult or even impossible.

Q6. Why is negative body language a barrier to communication?

Bad behavior during the conversation may affect our assessment in the eyes of another person and lead to interruption of the conversation or incomprehension. Negative manners, harshness, interrupting when someone else is talking is annoying and shows that actually we don't want to communicate with another person. This is one of the biggest barriers to communication.

How to overcome barriers to communication?

Communication is essential in a business or company as without communication, people cannot understand each other and confusion is created.

There are 3 barriers of communication that I have identified:

·         Background noise

·         Lack of concentration

·         Distraction

Distraction

Distraction can be found anywhere from a home to a business. It can be as simple as spilling coffee on a table or a mobile phone going off inside a meeting. These trivial things can disrupt the flow of communication that is going inside the room and people can start not listening to you because of this distraction. It can also be that you sound nervous if you are publically speaking and people get bored from hearing you.

You can overcome this by asking people to turn off mobile phones when they are inside the meeting or to pay more attention when doing trivial tasks that can be easy but with a bit of distraction, can prove to go wrong. When speaking to people for example during presentation, you can practice your speech more time so you are prepared. You can also try and adjust your tone of voice as it needs to be clear and precise.

Lack of concentration

Lack of concentration can be found when someone is publically speaking even if it’s a presentation or a speech. People can only take up so much information in one go and if the person speaking drags on for hours, people will not pay attention and they will get bored.

A solution to this problem is to keep it simple and short. People will retain more information if it’s given in short bursts instead of long time. Also, the person doing the presentation can try to include maybe puns or jokes so people pay more attention. The presenter needs to keep a calm and precise voice so people can understand everything that is being said and keep tuned.

Background Noise 

Background noise is found everywhere. In the office, at home, outside etc. Even the slightest sound can be distraction and break the flow on concentration in an office space.

A good way to prevent background noise is to close all windows and a door so no noise from outside is distracting. Also, asking employers to keep the music or even sound to a low can increase attention levels. Offices can also include cubicles for the employers to work as they can have their little space and are not distracted by anyone outside.   

Barriers to Effective Communication

A communication barrier is everything that interferes with effective agreement between the sender and the recipient of the message. May result both from the mistakes made by one or other party in communication.

·         Disability- the main barrier to effective communication is disability. If someone is deaf, visually impaired of mute we might have serious problems to communicate with him.

·         Background noise- obstacles that appear in our immediate vicinity we can include the external barriers. These can be for example, loud music, loud conversation next to us (for example in open plan offices) or street buzz. Such barriers are fairly easy to remove would support a change of conversation or music off.

·         Cultural differences- lack of knowing the culture, customs, traditions and even the language of our partner in communication affects the process of communication.

·         Lack of decentring skills - most people can not empathize with the speaker's situation. For the communication to be effective it is necessary to adopt the perspective of the speaker. Sometimes it makes us bad listeners.

·         Stereotypes- this barrier arises due to the fact that we evaluate our partners in communication because of their status. More attention and respect we show to people of high status than those with low. We are inclined to agree with their views to be polite to them. Conversely, we behave in relation to the interlocutor, which is characterized by low social status.

·         Selectivity of attention - the distortion is the result of not focusing on the whole expression of our interlocutor only a single fact. The listener does not see all the topics covered by the sender.

Barriers that are the result of our emotions, problems with trust, or interference in decoding verbal and nonverbal messages:

·         Judging- is the result of imposing our own opinions to the other people and also proposing effective solutions (that would be good for other people), not including the problems of the person concerned. Person that creates this type of disruption of communication uses in conversation statements such us: criticizing, insulting, rules, praised in order to later manipulate or evaluate.

·         Language barrier- we are not able to communicate with the person who speaks in another language which is unknown to us. What is more we can have difficulties in communication with someone because of: the meddling of speech phrases in foreign languages, the use of codes or ciphers prearranged and known only to a selected person in the group, using profanity not accepted by us.

·         Deciding for others- this barrier is a result of trying to decide in certain situations for other people. This causes the rise in our interlocutor submission. The result of such actions is limited by the interlocutor of our openness and honesty of expression. Creating this barrier is usually through: commanded, forbidding, threatening, moralizing, and throwing questions.

Principles of effective communication

Explanation of the principles of effective communication

Communication is a process in which the sender of the message makes his thoughts, desires and knowledge well known and understood by another person.

 The essence of communication is mutual understanding of the sender and recipient of transmitted messages.

There are two main ways used in the process of communication:

-       Verbal

-       Nonverbal

Language is the main way of verbal communication. This allows us to express ideas and feelings on the one condition: that the recipient understands the sounds and symbols.

Verbal communication may be oral or written. Both have their drawbacks and cons.

Oral communication provides a much more powerful expression of feelings and thoughts.

 It may however be associated with a tendency to express such extreme opinions and views.

 Written communication is more formal. Its advantage is durability and the possibility of careful preparation. Its disadvantage is the formalism and closed character.

For the effectiveness of the communication process are also important factors such as:

 • Creativity- in order to not to bore another person.

 • Credibility- it is an important characteristic of good communication. If our interlocutor does not trust us, even if we pass the information in the most appropriate way he might still not believe in what we say.

 • New/ Up to date information- before we decide to talk with someone and to give some information we should check first whether they are true and still valid. In this way the other person can trust us and share this information to other people.

 • The importance of information- instead of explaining no relevant details we should first focus on the most important parts of our speech to make sure that another person will understand everything and we will not miss anything important.

Only a part of what we say is received by another person in verbal form.

 Manner of speech to a large extent affects the efficiency of the communication process and combines the verbal and nonverbal.

Non-verbal communication includes such factors as:

 • Intonation

 • Voting power

 • Rate of speech

 • Pitch of the voice

 • Articulation

• Body Language which includes:

 • Gestures

 • Facial expressions

 • Posture

 • Clothing

 • Personal hygiene

 • Eye contact

 • Appearance

Our behaviour during the speech reinforces and complements its content.

Non-verbal communication is a supplement and reinforcement of direct verbal communication. That is why we should think of all of above aspects. Some bad behaviours, wrong gestures or rate of speech can affect our relation with interlocutors; we can for example offend or hurt them by saying something inappropriately, make them feel uncomfortable if the tone of our voice is too high etc. Respect to other people is one of the most important things that we need to remember during the  conversation.

Main principles of effective communication:

·         Listen carefully to what the other person has to say.

·         Do not use the partner's speaking time to prepare your own speech.

·         During your partner speech try to empathize with what he says.

·         Avoid asking questions when someone else is speaking until you really need additional information.

·         During your partner's speech do not butt in your thoughts - you can do it when he finishes talking.

·         Do not interpret what he says too hasty and let him explain everything properly.

·         During the talk, if possible, look in your partner's eyes.

·         During his speech try to use meaningful phrases, adjust manner of speaking to another person.

We should remember to follow all of them in order to communicate with someone properly.