Do You Hear What I Hear???

September 27, 2018 at 10:09 am (Add Value to Business, Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, career, Coming Out LGBTQ, communication, Communication Problems, Conflict, Diversity in the Workplace, Effective Communication, frame of reference, Job Interviews, Listening skills, Motivation, Overseas Business Conflicts, Social Media in the workplace, Social Media/Technology, Telecommuting, Uncategorized, Working Well with Teams)
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woman wearing headphones standing beside man

Photo by Nicholas Githiri on Pexels.com

Listening to me and Hearing me are two different things. How well do you listen? According to PR Daily, less than two percent of the country’s population, have had formal education on how to listen. Did that not just blow your mind, because mine is flabbergasted. We communicate everyday with people from around the world, only to realize what we are saying to each other is only being heard, and not comprehended. I have three quick points on how we can enhance our communication skills, by simply improving our listening abilities.

  1. Pay Attention
  2. Open Your Mind
  3. Interact

These tips do not have to be completed in order, but it is much easier to understand the conversation if you do. Let’s break these tips down into a simpler form.

  • Paying attention is the key to any conversation. This allows the sender and receiver the opportunity to feel each other out. It is also needed to retain pertinent information.
  • Open your mind to all ideas whether you feel like they are good or bad. You never know what someone else can bring to the table, not to mention we all fall short of knowing everything, so always be willing to learn something new.
  • Both the sender and the receiver should interact with each other. By doing this the other knows if the message sent is clear. Interaction could be as simple as eye contact or a nod of the head. The point is you are letting the other know you get it!

I have found in relationships with others in my life, communicating effectively is so important. Not understanding what someone is trying to tell you after they have said it over and over and you have heard it over and over is beyond frustrating. That is why during the communicating process, we must openly listen to each other and pay attention to the details in the message so that we can respond to effectively. Considering there are so many cultures that make up our country, some ways of getting a message across will vary. These steps might not work for every situation, but they can assist with the process.

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Closing the Age Gap

October 4, 2017 at 8:48 pm (communication, Communication Problems, Comparison and contrast, Effective Communication, frame of reference, Social Media/Technology, Uncategorized)

If I had a dollar every time my grandparents asked me how to use Facebook, fix their phone, or even how to send a text with a picture attached, I’d be rich. In today’s society of ever-evolving technology, the baby boomers seem to have a much steeper learning curve than the millennials.

The communication style between these two generations is drastically different for many reasons. One of which being that the technology that is available today is very different than the technology that was available in the 1970s/1980s. Many millennials have grown up communicating through texts and snapchats instead of through outdated letters and phone calls. Baby boomers would not be able to figure out snapchat and can barely figure out how to text. Most of them would much rather call if they need to talk or reach someone. Although these two styles of communication are much different, the same idea is behind each form of communication and the same goal is achieved, just in a different way.

Another big difference between baby boomers and millennials is cell phone usage. Today, it is becoming more and more acceptable to carry a conversation through text, while also carrying a conversation in person. If you have ever tried to even send just one text while talking to a baby boomer, you most likely received a dirty look, or a snarky remark about your phone. To them, the act of even just checking your phone while carrying a casual conversation can come across as extremely disrespectful.

Even though at times the communication styles between these two age groups seems to be drastically different, the one thing we all have in common is all generations have a need for human interaction. No matter the form.

 

Emma Sanders

Psychology Major at IUPUC

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Why Barack Obama is Who He Is

September 20, 2017 at 7:59 pm (communication, frame of reference)

Everyone has a past and everyone has childhood upbringings. Some were enjoyable and some were terrible. Does our upbringing impact our frame of reference as well as our communication style? In my opinion, yes, it does. Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United State of America, is no different. Let me give you some background on his upbringing. Obama did not have an ideal upbringing. He was raised mostly by his grandparents. His father walked out on him and his mother at the age of two to attend Harvard University. His father was a very intellectual person; however, he did not come back to visit Obama until he was ten years old. Obama grew up in poverty for much of his young life. He moved to Indonesia at a young age and saw much poverty there and a couple of years later moved back to his birth place of Hawaii. Raised by his grandparents most of his life, Obama attended a private school by scholarships where his grandparents encouraged him in his studies. In the private school, there were only a few African-Americans students enrolled. In private schools, this was still a time where it was uncommon for African Americas and whites to go to school together, so there was a lot of bullying. After high school graduation Obama attended college in LA, transferred to Columbia, and ended up going to Harvard Law School.

 All this impacted Obama because as he started working in Illinois, he was focused on helping people get a better education, helping low-income families, and working towards equal rights. His passions were coming from what he had seen as a child and how he was raised in his home. He wanted to help the less fortunate as well as others. He valued education and healthcare. I believe he was deeply influenced by his upbringing. As his knowledge grew, he realized he enjoyed public speaking. As he communicated, he could be one with his audience and be able to help them understand what he was speaking about. He used his stories so people could draw a picture and be able to understand his message. Once people understood his message he moved to what he wanted to change using uses encouraging energy and passion so that his audience would feel the same way. In 2004 the world really got to know who Barack Obama was in his Keynote speech, a very well-spoken speech, that changed his life by making him be an upcoming star for the Democratic party. He used his upbringing to relate to others and to make others relate to him.

In conclusion, how and where you grow up makes a difference in your life. It impacts your frame of reference. Your communication style is also influenced by this because of your experiences. Think about how you communicate with others and how that relates to how you grew up?

 Sources:

 Kennedy, Edward. The American Journey of Barack Obama. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008.print.

 Remnick, David. The Bridge. New York: Alfred Publishing Company, 2010.print.

 Garrow, David. Rising Star. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.print.

 

By: Liz Hall, Nuclear Medicine Major – IUPUC

 

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