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Without knowing the force of words it is impossible to know men." - Confucius

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Communication & Leadership

No one would talk much in society if they knew

how often they misunderstood others. - Johann Communication Channel
Wolfgang Von Goethe Relevant corporate information sent directly
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Many of the problems that occur in an organization www.communicatiekanaal.nl/

are the direct result of people failing to

communicate. Faulty communication causes the
most problems. It leads to confusion and can
cause a good plan to fail. Communication is the Dynamcis Ax Batch
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exchange and flow of information and ideas from
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one person to another. It involves a sender www.larsmikkelsen.com
transmitting an idea to a receiver. Effective
communication occurs only if the receiver
understands the exact information or idea that the
sender intended to transmit.

Studying the communication process is important

because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate,
and supervise through this process. It is the chain
of understanding that integrates the members of an
organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and
side to side.

The Communication
Process
Communication
That is what we try to do
Speak to those near us

Thought: First, information exists in the mind of

the sender. This can be a concept, idea,
information, or feelings.
Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver
in words or other symbols.
Decoding: lastly, the receiver translates the
words or symbols into a concept or information
that he or she can understand.

During the transmitting of the message, two

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elements will be received: content and context.

Content is the actual words or symbols of the
message which is known as l a n g u a g e - the
spoken and written words combined into phrases
that make grammatical and semantic sense. We
all use and interpret the meanings of words
differently, so even simple messages can be
misunderstood. And many words have different
meanings to confuse the issue even more.

Context is the way the message is delivered and is

known as p a r a l a n g u a g e - it is the non verbal
elements in speech such as the tone of voice, the
look in the sender's eyes, body language, hand
gestures, and state of emotions (anger, fear,
uncertainty, confidence, etc.) that can be detected.
Although paralanguage or context often cause
messages to be misunderstood as we believe what
we see more than what we hear; they are powerful
communicators that help us to understand each
other. Indeed, we often trust the accuracy of
nonverbal behaviors more than verbal behaviors.

Some leaders think they have communicated once

they told someone to do something, "I don't know
why it did not get done. I told Jim to it." More than
likely, Jim misunderstood the message. A
message has NOT been communicated unless it is
understood by the receiver (decoded). How do you
know it has been properly received? By two-way
communication or feedback. This feedback tells
the sender that the receiver understood the
message, its level of importance, and what must
be done with it. Communication is an exchange,
not just a give, as all parties must participate to
complete the information exchange.

Barriers to
Communication
Nothing is so simple that it cannot be
misunderstood. - Freeman Teague, Jr.

Anything that prevents understanding of the

message is a barrier to communication. Many
physical and psychological barriers exist:

Culture, background, and bias - We allow our

past experiences to change the meaning of the
message. Our culture, background, and bias can
be good as they allow us to use our past
experiences to understand something new, it is
when they change the meaning of the message
that they interfere with the communication
process.
Noise - Equipment or environmental noise
impedes clear communication. The sender and
the receiver must both be able to concentrate on
the messages being sent to each other.

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Ourselves - Focusing on ourselves, rather than

the other person can lead to confusion and
conflict. The "Me Generation" is out when it
comes to effective communication. Some of the
factors that cause this are defensiveness (we feel
someone is attacking us), superiority (we feel we
know more that the other), and ego (we feel we
are the center of the activity).
Perception - If we feel the person is talking too
fast, not fluently, does not articulate clearly, etc.,
we may dismiss the person. Also our
preconceived attitudes affect our ability to listen.
We listen uncritically to persons of high status
and dismiss those of low status.
Message - Distractions happen when we focus
on the facts rather than the idea. Our educational
institutions reinforce this with tests and
questions. Semantic distractions occur when a
word is used differently than you prefer. For
example, the word chairman instead of
chairperson, may cause you to focus on the word
and not the message.
Environmental - Bright lights, an attractive
person, unusual sights, or any other stimulus
provides a potential distraction.
Smothering - We take it for granted that the
impulse to send useful information is automatic.
Not true! Too often we believe that certain
information has no value to others or they are
already aware of the facts.
Stress - People do not see things the same way
when under stress. What we see and believe at a
given moment is influenced by our psychological
frames of references - our beliefs, values,
knowledge, experiences, and goals.

These barriers can be thought of as filters, that is,

the message leaves the sender, goes through the
above filters, and is then heard by the receiver.
These filters muffle the message. And the way to
overcome filters is through active listening and
feedback.

Active Listening
Hearing and listening are not the same thing.
Hearing is the act of perceiving sound. It is
involuntary and simply refers to the reception of

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aural stimuli. Listening is a selective activity which

involves the reception and the interpretation of
aural stimuli. It involves decoding the sound into
meaning.

Listening is divided into two main categories:

passive and active. Passive listening is little more
that hearing. It occurs when the receiver of the
message has little motivation to listen carefully,
such as when listening to music, story telling,
television, or when being polite.

People speak at 100 to 175 words per minute

(WPM), but they can listen intelligently at 600 to
800 WPM. Since only a part of our mind is paying
attention, it is easy to go into m i n d d r i f t -
thinking about other things while listening to
someone. The cure for this is a c t i v e l i s t e n i n g
- which involves listening with a purpose. It may be
to gain information, obtain directions, understand
others, solve problems, share interest, see how
another person feels, show support, etc. It requires
that the listener attends to the words and the
feelings of the sender for understanding. I t
takes the same amount or more
e n e r g y t h a n s p e a k i n g . It requires the
receiver to hear the various messages, understand
the meaning, and then verify the meaning by
offering feedback. The following are a few traits of
active listeners:

Spend more time listening than talking.

Do not finish the sentences of others.
Do not answer questions with questions.
Are aware of biases. We all have them. We need
to control them.
Never daydreams or become preoccupied with
their own thoughts when others talk.
Let the other speakers talk. Do not dominate the
conversations.
Plan responses after the others have finished
speaking, NOT while they are speaking.
Provide feedback, but do not interrupt
incessantly.
Analyze by looking at all the relevant factors and
asking open-ended questions. Walk others
through by summarizing.
Keep conversations on what others say, NOT on
what interests them.
Take brief notes. This forces them to concentrate
on what is being said.

Feedback
When you know something, say what you
know. When you don't know something, say
that you don't know. That is knowledge. - Kung
Fu Tzu (Confucius)

The purpose of feedback is to alter messages so

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the intention of the original communicator is

understood by the second communicator. It
includes verbal and nonverbal responses to
another person's message.

Providing feedback is accomplished by

paraphrasing the words of the sender. Restate the
sender's feelings or ideas in your own words, rather
than repeating their words. Your words should be
saying, "This is what I understand your feelings to
be, am I correct?" It not only includes verbal
responses, but also nonverbal ones. Nodding your
head or squeezing their hand to show agreement,
dipping your eyebrows shows you don't quite
understand the meaning of their last phrase, or
sucking air in deeply and blowing it hard shows that
you are also exasperated with the situation.

Carl Rogers listed five main categories of

feedback. They are listed in the order in which they
occur most frequently in daily conversations. Notice
that we make judgments more often than we try to
understand:

Evaluative: Making a judgment about the worth,

goodness, or appropriateness of the other
person's statement.
Interpretive: Paraphrasing - attempting to
explain what the other person's statement means.
Supportive: Attempting to assist or bolster the
other communicator.
Probing: Attempting to gain additional
information, continue the discussion, or clarify a
point.
Understanding: Attempting to discover
completely what the other communicator means
by her statements.

Imagine how much better daily communications

would be if listeners tried to understand first, before
they tried to evaluate what someone is saying.

Nonverbal
Behaviors of
Communication

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To deliver the full impact of a message, use

nonverbal behaviors to raise the channel of
interpersonal communication:

Eye contact: This helps to regulate the flow of

communication. It signals interest in others and
increases the speaker's credibility. People who
make eye contact open the flow of
communication and convey interest, concern,
warmth, and credibility.
Facial Expressions: Smiling is a powerful cue
that transmits happiness, friendliness, warmth,
and liking. So, if you smile frequently you will be
perceived as more likable, friendly, warm and
approachable. Smiling is often contagious and
people will react favorably. They will be more
comfortable around you and will want to listen
more.
Gestures: If you fail to gesture while speaking
you may be perceived as boring and stiff. A lively
speaking style captures the listener's attention,
makes the conversation more interesting, and
facilitates understanding.
Posture and body orientation: You
communicate numerous messages by the way
you talk and move. Standing erect and leaning
forward communicates to listeners that you are
approachable, receptive and friendly.
Interpersonal closeness results when you and the
listener face each other. Speaking with your back
turned or looking at the floor or ceiling should be
avoided as it communicates disinterest.
Proximity: Cultural norms dictate a comfortable
distance for interaction with others. You should
look for signals of discomfort caused by invading
the other person's space. Some of these are:
rocking, leg swinging, tapping, and gaze
aversion.
Vocal: Speaking can signal nonverbal
communication when you include such vocal
elements as: tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre,
loudness, and inflection. For maximum teaching
effectiveness, learn to vary these six elements of
your voice. One of the major criticisms of many
speakers is that they speak in a monotone voice.
Listeners perceive this type of speaker as boring
and dull.

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Speaking Hints
Speak comfortable words! - William
Shakespeare

When speaking or trying to explain something,

ask the listeners if they are following you.
Ensure the receiver has a chance to comment or
ask questions.
Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes -
consider the feelings of the receiver.
Be clear about what you say.
Look at the receiver.
Make sure your words match your tone and body
language (Nonverbal Behaviors).
Vary your tone and pace.
Do not be vague, but on the other hand, do not
complicate what you are saying with too much
detail.
Do not ignore signs of confusion.

On Communication
Per Se (a few
random thoughts)
On Discussing
Communication

Trying to speak of something as messy as

communication in technical terms seems to be
another form of the "math and science"
argument, that is, math and science and
technology are the answer to all of our
problems. - Anonymous

But what forms of human behavior are not messy?

Learning is not "antiseptic," yet it is discussed all
the time - we do not leave it to the academics,
such as Bloom, Knowles, Dugan, or Rossett.
Leadership and management seems to be even
messier, yet we categorize it, build models of it,
index it, chop it and slice it and dice it, build
pyramids out of it, and generally have a good time
discussing it. But when it comes to
"communication," we call it too messy to play with
and leave it up to Chomsky, Pinker, and others to
write about so that we can read about it. Yet we all
communicate almost every single day of our lives,
which is much more than we will ever do with
learning or leadership.

Paul Ekman

In the mid 1960s, Paul Ekman studied emotions

and discovered six facial expressions that almost
everyone recognizes world-wide: happiness,

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sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise.

Although they were controversial at first (he was
booed off the stage when he first presented it to a
group of anthropologists and later called a fascist
and a racist) they are now widely accepted. One of
the controversies still lingering is the amount of
context needed to interpret them. For example, if
someone reports to me that they have this great
ideal that they would like to implement, and I say
that would be great, but I look on them with a
frown, is it possible that I could be thinking about
something else? The trouble with these extra
signals is that we do not always have the full
context. What if the person emailed me and I
replied great (while frowning). Would it evoke the
same response?

Emotions

Trust your instincts. Most emotions are difficult to

imitate. For example, when you are truly happy, the
muscles used for smiling are controlled by the
limbic system and other parts of the brain, which
are not under voluntary control. When you force a
smile, a different part of the brain is used - the
cerebral cortex (under voluntary control), hence
different muscles are used. This is why a clerk,
who might not have any real interest in you, has a
"fake" look when he forces a smile.

Of course, some actors learn to control all of their

face muscles, while others draw on a past
emotional experience to produce the emotional
state they want. But this is not an easy trick to pull
off all the time. There is a good reason for this -
part of our emotions evolved to deal with other
people and our empathic nature. If these emotions
could easily be faked, they would do more harm
than good (Pinker, 1997).

So our emotions not only guide our decisions, they

can also be communicated to others to help them
in their decisions - of course their emotions will be
the ultimate guide, but the emotions they discover
in others become part of their knowledge base.

Mehrabian and the

7%-38%-55% Myth

We often hear that the content of a message is

composed of:

55% from the visual component

38% from the auditory component
7% from language

However, the above percentages only apply in a

very narrow context. A researcher named
Mehrabian was interested in how listeners get their

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information about a speaker's general attitude in

situations where the facial expression, tone, and/or
words are sending conflicting signals.

Thus, he designed a couple of experiments. In one,

Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) researched the
interaction of speech, facial expressions, and tone.
Three different speakers were instructed to say
"maybe" with three different attitudes towards their
listener (positive, neutral, or negative). Next,
photographs of the faces of three female models
were taken as they attempted to convey the
emotions of like, neutrality, and dislike.

Test groups were then instructed to listen to the

various renditions of the word "maybe," with the
pictures of the models, and were asked to rate the
attitude of the speaker. Note that the emotion and
tone were often mixed, such as a facial expression
showing dislike, with the word "maybe" spoken in a
positive tone.

Significant effects of facial expression and tone

were found in that the study suggested that the
combined effect of simultaneous verbal, vocal and
facial attitude communications is a weighted sum
of their independent effects with the coefficients of
.07, .38, and .55, respectively.

Mehrabian and Ferris also wrote about a deep

limitation to their research: "These findings
regarding the relative contribution of the tonal
component of a verbal message can be safely
extended only to communication situations in which
no additional information about the
communicator-addressee relationship is available."
Thus, what can be concluded is that when people
communicate, listeners derive information about
the speaker's attitudes towards the listener from
visual, tonal, and verbal cues; yet the percentage
derived can vary greatly depending upon a number
of other factors, such as actions, context of the
communication, and how well they know that
person.

References
Butler, Gillian, Ph.D. and Hope, Tony, M.D. (1996).
M a n a g i n g Y o u r M i n d . New York: Oxford
University Press.

Mehrabian, Albert and Morton Wiener, 1967,

"Decoding of inconsistent communications,"
Journal of Personality and Social
P s y c h o l o g y 6:109-114

Mehrabian, Albert and Susan R. Ferris, 1967,

"Inference of attitudes from nonverbal
communication in two channels," J o u r n a l o f
C o n s u l t i n g P s y c h o l o g y 31:248-252.

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Pearson, J. (1983). I n t e r p e r s o n a l
C o m m u n i c a t i o n . Glenview, Illinois: Scott,
Foreman and Company.

Pinker, Steven (1997). H o w t h e M i n d

W o r k s . New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

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Notes

For author and Created May 11, 1997 A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge
copyright Updated May 21, 2008
information, see Jump Production.
the About page.
Contact: donclark@nwlink.com

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