Page 193 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Communication Skills | 181

oral communication situations (such as dealing with customers, managing
subordinates, and getting along with co-workers).
Mastering communication skills is an essential component for teachers.
Perhaps the best place to begin is with an honest assessment of where you
stand. In the next few days, watch how you handle the communication situ-
ations that arise. Try to figure out what you are doing right or wrong. In the
months ensuing ahead, try to focus on building your competence in areas
where you need to work the most.
One way to improve your skills is to practice. Lack of experience in
writing or speaking can prevent you from developing effective messages.
Perhaps you have a limited vocabulary or are uncertain about questions of
grammar, punctuation, and style. Perhaps you are simply frightened by the
idea of writing something or of appearing before a group. People aren’t ‘born’
writers or speakers. Their skills improve the more they speak and write.
Someone who has written ten reports is usually better at it than someone
who has written only two reports. You learn from experience, and some of
the most important lessons are learned through failure.

TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOOD COMMUNICATION

The American Management Association has given excellent essentials of
good communication. They are popularly called Ten Commandments of
good communication, they are as follows:

i. Clarify ideas before communicating: by systematically thinking
through the message and considering who will be receiving and/
or affected by it, the manager overcomes one of the basic pitfalls
of communication—failure to properly plan the communiqué. The
more systematically a message is analysed, the more clearly it can be
communicated.
ii. Examine the true purposes of communication: the manager has to
determine what he or she really wants to accomplish with the message.
Once this objective is identified, the communiqué can be properly
designed.
iii. Take the entire environment, physical and human into consideration:
questions such as what is said, to whom, and when will all affect the
success of communication. The physical setting, the social climate,
and past communication practices should be examined in adapting
the message to the environment.
iv. When to obtain valuable advice from others in planning communiqués—
consulting with others can be a useful method of obtaining additional

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