Page 186 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Make Ethical Choices
One place to look for guidance is the law. If saying or writing something
is clearly illegal, you have no dilemma—You obey the law. However, even
though legal considerations will resolve some ethical questions, you will
often have to rely on your own judgment and principles. If your intent is
honest, the statement is ethical, even though it may be factually incorrect; if
your intent is to mislead or manipulate the audience, the message is unethi-
cal, regardless of whether it is true. You might look at the consequences of
your decision and opt for the solution that provides the greatest good to the
greatest number of people, and one that you can live with.

Adopting an Audience-centred Approach to Communication

The third guideline contributing to effective communication is adopting an
audience-centred approach, or keeping your audience in mind at all times
during the process of communication. You care about your audience, and
you take every step possible to get your message across in a way that is mean-
ingful to your audience. In fact, empathizing with and being sensitive to your
audience’s feelings is the best way to overcome such communication barriers
as differences in perception and emotional interference.
In reality, the audience-centred approach is more than an approach to
business communication; it is actually the modern approach to business in
general. By focusing your attention on your audience, you accomplish the
other factors that contribute to effective communication. You want to know
what your audience’s needs are and what they think of your message. You
sincerely wish to satisfy the needs of your audience, you approach commu-
nication situation with good intentions and high ethical standards. Finally,
because you value your audience’s time and make a practice of anticipating
your audience’s expectations, you create and process your oral and written
messages effectively and efficiently and use technology wisely and responsibly
to obtain and share information.

Creating and Processing Your Messages Effectively and Efficiently

In Chapter 2, we discussed the six-phase process of communication. The six
steps we presented involve transforming your idea into a message and trans-
mitting it. Let us understand how to plan messages, generate ideas, organize
your thoughts, and turn your words into effective messages.

Learn About Your Audience
Creating an effective message is difficult if you are unfamiliar with your audi-
ence or if you do not know how your message will be used. For example, if you

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