The Importance of Overcoming Barriers in Interpersonal Communication

The Importance of Overcoming Barriers in Interpersonal Communication

COM 200: Interpersonal Communication

The Importance of Overcoming Barriers in Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal skills are important assets to great communication. When the party is talking with clear understanding of the intentions, the receiver has succeeded in implementing a value path of communication. Interactions with others allow effective response and full attention.

Bevan and Sole (2014) lists two important principles for effective communication as “taking responsibility and respecting yourself and others”.

Taking responsibility is a process where it is important to first require a plan of knowing what is required and what is inportant. Having a purpose and valuing the time it takes to achieve that purpose guides the decision-making process and can allow prioritizing a critical and important issue. When taking responsibility for actions with appropriate communication, being honest, effective and clear with the intentions are vital. A good way to assist a win-win situation is to have universal acceptance and respect for the feelings of each other. This can be accomplished by listening, as defined by Bevan & Sole, (2014): “Listen and evaluate the other person’s statements before responding” (2014, section 1.4, para. 3).

Respecting the communication between parties by first listening and clearly understanding the nature and purpose for the question or comment means you must listen. Sometimes the simplest way to be clear of picking up the correct information is to return verbally what the receiver stated to you. This can assure both parties that the line of communication is clear and rid the conversation of confused dialogue. Instances such as these happens a lot on social media. When using the communication websites like Facebook and Twitter, the

opportunity to misunderstand the other party’s conversation is without justification.

An example is the conversation between church officials and the First Lady of the church about what to bring at a anniversary church dinner. There was an understanding that the members who are to serve the food did not have to bring a plate to add to the food menu. When the day of the dinner came, there was not enough food for all the guest and the servers could not eat after serving food to all of the members. It was clear that some form of miscommunication happened, perhaps when the person in charge did not weigh the gravity of the situation. Perhaps a phone call during the preperations or a resourceful meeting with copies of time and information discussed would have made the instructions easier to comprehend. Poor management skills and the lack of effective communication allowed a shortage of food and several hungry particpants to not be served at the church.

The importance of effective communication is prioritized to be the most aggressive line of transmission of information culturally. Sending and receiving information through satellite communications ( email, cell phones, email, and text messages) are fundamental in our interpersonal relationships and beneficial in our career obligations. Overcoming the barriers that affect our relationships are vital in acknowledging and acceptance of who we are and how we relate to each other. It is critical to understand the definition for these important principles of communication so that the many barriers that arise can be dealt with in a uniform manner.

Reference

Bevan, J. L., & Sole, K. (2014). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal

communication (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ (Links

to an external site.)Links to an external site.