Have you attended the cliché that “transmission is the only key to success”? Also, that idea is often duplicated for a cause: it is accurate. Effective contact clears obscurity, promotes teamwork, facilitates production, and enhances enthusiasm.
Isn’t that fantastic? But there’s a catch: communicating effectively isn’t always straightforward. It cannot be easy. For example, interact/Harris Poll indicated that 91 percent of employees believe their leaders lack this crucial talent in a poll of 1,000 employees.
Physical Barriers Are the First Communication Obstacle
If you picture closed doors, towering cubicle walls, and walled-off spaces, you’re on the right track. Physical barriers are the tangible hurdles or boundaries that separate team members.
The distance can also be considered a barrier in this category, even though it isn’t tangible.
When team members are geographically dispersed and unable to work side by side, communication becomes even more complicated (which is why, according to Buffer’s 2020 State of Remote Work Report, communication and collaboration is the most challenging aspect of working remotely second only to loneliness).
How to Take them Out
Nobody is suggesting that you instantly convert to an open office floor plan (which has its own set of complaints), but there are a few things you can do to help your team navigate physical boundaries, such as:
Provide lots of collaborative space so that employees may choose to stay focused on their work in their workspace or go to a location where more excellent discussion is encouraged.
Establish ground rules for your team’s various communication channels (for example, instant messages are for urgent requests, and emails are for status updates and summaries).
Keep your office door open to be approachable, or create regular office hours for team members to come in and ask questions.
Cultural Barriers Are the Second Communication Barrier
Various groups are more effective, innovative, and promising than homogeneous masses. There are multiple eras, civilizations, ethnicities, and other beliefs. They have diverse opinions, work principles, norms, and preferences in accumulation.
Sometimes cultural barriers are even more pronounced, and an employee feels they don’t fit in with the company’s existing culture.
All of these examples are at the root of cultural divides. When you don’t understand or relate to someone, it’s difficult to communicate appropriately.
How to Take them Out
If there are cultural differences, it can be tempting to believe that forming a homogeneous team is the best option. Unfortunately, that is not the case. You’ll need to figure out how to get around these cultural divides so you can reap the benefits of having a varied staff while still communicating effectively. Here are a few suggestions:
Design policies or “user manuals” for your team that contain vital details on how to work practically with them and their contact selections, such as how they choose to accept credit and feedback.
Celebrate your team’s diversity with various events and instructional opportunities (they’re entertaining and educational!).
Measure each team member’s work style and preferred communication style with a people analytics tool like F4S, then use the culture tool to flip between different cultures to detect potential friction areas. For example, in Culture A, a little low motivation for “reflection and patience” may convert to an exceedingly common cause in Culture B. However, the average worker has a higher “reflection and patience” score. This indicates that while working with a Culture B team member, the Culture A team member may come out as impatient and hurried, and being aware of this might help prevent difficulties.
Language Difficulties Are the Third Communication Hurdle
If you’ve ever tried to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak your native tongue, you know how difficult it is to develop a shared understanding. As a development, speech can be a powerful transmission hindrance.
It’s vital to remember that this isn’t only about dialects; it’s also about jargon. Confusion is unavoidable when a marketing team member uses industry jargon like “PPC” and “top of the funnel” to communicate with a finance team member.
How to Take them Out
Of course, if your business has a significant language barrier, you’ll need to look into translation services to bridge the gap. However, there are a few more considerations to keep in mind:
Keep jargon to a minimum and encourage your team members to express themselves as clearly as possible. You can even make it into a fun “jargon alert” game to help you recognize when you’re falling into the trap of employing sophisticated acronyms or slang.
Keep in mind your body language as well. Different people interpret gestures and postures differently, so don’t overlook your nonverbal communication.
Wherever feasible, use pictures, demonstrations, and examples. These can assist in providing far more clarity than written or vocal communication.
Perceptual Barriers Are the Fourth Communication Barrier
Picture heading into a discussion with the anticipation that it would be a complete collapse of your period. How curious are you in delivering engagement?
Isn’t it correct that your inspiration is at an all-time low? That’s a perceptual obstruction.
Our communication style is influenced by the assumptions we bring into conversations, and these assumptions can limit our capacity to get our point through or receive messages from others.
How to Take them Out
It would be lovely if you could turn off your prejudices, preconceptions, and views. While getting through this stumbling block isn’t straightforward, these pointers can help:
Facts and proof should be used to back up your claims. This form of evidence can assist you in backing up your statements, regardless of what others think.
Consider things from a fresh angle, and encourage your teammates to do the same. It’s all too easy for us to get caught up in our thoughts. Putting oneself in another’s shoes can help you grasp their aims, viewpoints, and strategies.
Ask follow-up questions. These require you to make decisions based on the data in front of you rather than your assumptions.
Interpersonal Barriers Are the Fifth Communication Barrier
Let’s look at another example to help with this. Assume a situation when you had to articulate with an individual unmistakably stubborn. They announced that their moment of opinion was right and rejected to attend to anyone else’s.
That conversation must have been challenging because you couldn’t connect with the other person. This is an instance of an interpersonal obstacle.
How to Take them Out
I’m not going to sugarcoat it: interpersonal obstacles are difficult to overcome, especially when someone is reclusive and unwilling to participate in the conversation. However, here are a few pointers to help you get back on track:
Take a deep breath in and out. Although these situations can be discouraging and distressing, rising emotions will not help.
Remember to pay attention. When we think of “communication,” we frequently think of the words we use. On the other hand, listening is just as vital (if not more so). Allow others the opportunity to express themselves. You might uncover a lot concerning the origin of that interpersonal obstacle.
Gender Barriers Are the Sixth Communication Barrier
There are many misconceptions and generalizations about men’s and women’s communication styles.
While some of them may be accurate, others have been refuted; it’s essential to pay attention to any differences in how different genders in your office communicate to promote collaboration and working relationships.
How to Take them Out
Stay away from broad generalizations and learn more about your team members individually, regardless of gender or gender identity. You can do so by employing the tactics listed below.
Personal user guides can be helpful in this situation as well. Rather than relying on stereotypes, they allow you and your team to learn more about each other’s distinct tastes and styles.
Encourage team members to provide each other feedback. This is useful for overcoming any communication hurdles and understanding how their teammates perceive their communications.
On your team, have open discussions about gender bias. It’s far preferable to be open and honest about those concerns than to turn a blind eye and pretend they don’t exist.
Emotional Barriers Are the Seventh Communication Obstacle
Emotions and communication go hand in hand. For example, if you’re nervous or frightened, you might suppress the temptation to speak up. On the other hand, you’ll have difficulty receiving information if you’re furious and agitated.
These are just a few examples of how our emotions might prevent us from communicating effectively.
How to Take them Out
Emotions are expected, and they should not be stifled or suppressed. But, on the other hand, you and your team must learn how to deal with them. So grab a peek at some of these concepts:
Recognize when it’s time to leave. Whether your emotions are rising or you witness a heated debate amongst team members, make it a habit to “take a break” and return to the conversation once everyone has taken a hiatus. Also, make a habit of naming your feelings. As bizarre as it may seem to remark in front of your colleagues, “I’m upset,” it’s beneficial in calming down that emotion. It’s comprehended as “calling it to tame it.”
Communication Is Crucial (And you Need to Do It Right)
The value of communication in the workplace cannot be overstated. However, it is not always straightforward. In reality, communicating efficiently and courteously can be exceedingly tricky.
This is due to several impediments that stand in your path. However, you and your team will be able to communicate and work on a whole new level if you use this as a guide to recognize them, understand them, and then steer around them.
Note to Remember
Lack of effective communication is shared among all people from all walks of life. Cultural differences and language barriers make it difficult for people to communicate effectively, understanding each other’s messages. Even though communication is crucial, the process can be hampered by language, jargon, and other common issues. There are also linguistic factors to consider. For example, a person can have difficulty understanding a message if they do not understand the other’s tone of voice. Another barrier to communication is the concept of personal space, which varies from culture to culture and social setting to society.
Some communication barriers are technological and socio-religious. Using technology is easy to do, but the cost can be steep. Many organizations cannot afford to implement good technology. Another barrier is the lack of appropriate workplace space. It is impossible to provide a dedicated workspace to all employees in all locations. Many people have different communication preferences, so there is a need to make sure that the communication channels are designed to fit the needs of all employees.
The complexity of today’s communication ecosystem makes it difficult to deliver information to everyone. For example, the average employee spends 20% of their time looking for internal data so this complexity can pose a barrier to communication. The other wall is cultural and demographic differences. Because of these differences, people’s communication styles may vary. As a result, there may be a lack of effective communication. In addition, cultural and linguistic barriers make it challenging to communicate effectively in many cultures.
The communication barriers can be perceived as perceptual. This means that a person’s mind can interpret a message from the body language and tone of voice. In addition, a person’s emotional state can influence the news, and it may be unintentional or intentional. These differences are also evident in a company’s use of language, which can be a barrier in intercultural situations. For example, it may not be appropriate to make a call in a foreign language.
The linguistic ability of both the sender and receiver is one of the main communication barriers. It is challenging for a foreign language to communicate with someone who does not speak the same vocabulary. Besides, the wording of the message can differ, leading to confusion. This can also be the cause of conflict between organizational members. If you are a foreign language, the linguistic ability of the recipient will be irrelevant.
