Communication concepts and concepts that enhance communication will be discussed briefly in this writeup. The focus will be the subtopics noted below:
A: Concept definition
B: Other explanation
C: Example of a workplace scenario depicting the ABSENCE of the concept
D: Example of a workplace scenario depicting the PRESENCE of the concept
- THE ART OF PERSUASION
A:
Persuasion is the ability of a person or a speaker to sway other people towards a particular direction of discourse. It usually involves the ability to influence people’s choices and thoughts using several cues and strategies.
B:
Persuasion to me, exists in two broad ways:
- Persuasion cues on the speaker
- Persuasion cues on the audience
The speaker’s persuasion can be said to depend on their authority (or credibility), their consistency and their likeability.
The audience’s persuasion, however, depends on more factors, including their level of involvement (whether high or low), their biases (negative or positive/neutral) and their will to reciprocate.
More cues that aren’t people specific include context, relationship or existing similarity between the parties and social validation.
In persuasion also, the concepts of pathos, ethos and logos are necessary:
PATHOS: Appeals to the emotions of the audience.
ETHOS: appeals to the speaker’s credibility, competence or authority (positive or negative).
LOGOS: appeals to the logic of the audience through argument and premises.
A very good social example of the art of persuasion is a community volunteering group led by a leader. The leader’s persuasive skills determine the level to which the followers will be involved in volunteering activities. He’s expected to give the audience reasons to participate, reinforce his credibility, be consistent in his actions while maintaining a likeable personality.
C:
A presenter casually presenting a proposition as though it were a chore. Perhaps, lacking upright standing, low pitch, presenting in the form of a narration and avoiding eye contacts. He lacks the expressions and persuasion skills.
D:
Presenting a proposition on model change and even though the chances of a positive response was initially low, he still got it using attention seeking, quality argumentation and persuasion skills.
- ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LISTENING
A:
Active listening: this type of listening is to understand and gain more information on the topic.
Reflective listening: this involves helping a speaker to explore her own thoughts and feelings.
B:
Active listening requires good use of verbal and nonverbal communication. It also involves mental and emotional discipline to understand and improve your knowledge of what is being said. An active listener is open to new knowledge and ideas that are superior to their present understanding. Reflective listening has a listener pay attention to the speaker’s point of view in a bid to reinforce his knowledge and see the subject through the lens of the speaker. More often than not, reflective listeners respond to feelings rather than content. .
C:
A new employee asking questions about the workplace asks: “So you allow Solape to leave earlier than closing time?” is an example of reflective listening. A better question might have been framed as “so the company allows employees to leave earlier as long as tasks are completed? Or does the company operate a hybrid work system?”
D:
A better question to the above might have been framed as “so the company allows employees to leave earlier as long as tasks are completed? Or does the company operate a hybrid work system?”
- EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
A:
Emotional intelligence, simply put, is being able to understand, control and use emotions to relate with others.
B:
More specifically, I understand emotional intelligence as the ability to understand one’s emotions and the emotions of others. This way, understanding your emotions, its abilities and limitations, while understanding others’ put us at an advantage when faced with needs for emotional intelligence. For example, a workplace scenario of a leader providing emotional support to their members. This includes understanding their emotional state, carefully choosing words in different scenarios and more. A social scenario could be being supportive to friends and families especially when they’re in particular needs.
C:
A company driver complained of his wife needing support post-child birth but the boss declined because he was needed particularly at work that day.
D:
We had to put the windows down and not use the air conditioner all day because a team member complained of her body negatively reacting to it that day.
