Many a times, interpersonal conflicts arise as we fail to see the other party’s point of view and understand what he or she is going through. However, as the saying goes, it takes two hands to clap. If the other party is not open and honest about certain misgivings he or she has, it would also be difficult for us to try to understand the other party’s point of view or what he or she is going through. Isn’t this a very fine example of the importance of effective communication?
Below is something which might very well happen in a work environment:
Karen just got a job in a renowned investment bank. Soon after, she realizes that she is consistently running into problems and meeting glitches with long hours at work every day. She has been approaching her supervisor quite often for help in the problems at work. However, her supervisor always seems snappy and always gives vague answers to the questions she asks and has made some unpleasant remarks such as, “Haven’t you wrote this down in your note book? Go refer to your book then!”. As a result, she would procrastinate before asking in order not to make her supervisor think she’s wasting her supervisor’s time. Things never seemed to improve although she was really putting effort to learn and do well in her job scope. One day, she really couldn’t figure out what went wrong and decided to ask her supervisor for help. Her supervisor snapped back almost immediately, “Don’t you understand English? You mean students from NUS are of this calibre?” Karen felt this was beginning to become a little too personal and start to wonder how she should go about solving this issue.
David works in a renowned investment bank and he has a group of people under his supervision. The company has just hired someone new. He found out that she graduated from NUS and always never thought well of graduates of NUS. After a week, he realizes that this new team member still doesn’t seem to be able to catch the ropes. She goes to him every other day with problems he thinks she should have learnt by now. He tries not to spoon feed her by asking her to refer to the notes she has taken down all these while. This went on for quite some time and his tolerance level is decreasing by the day. One day, she went to him again; he couldn’t take it anymore and snapped at her, saying, “Don’t you understand English? You mean students from NUS are of this calibre?”
Standing in Karen’s shoes, what would you consider doing to resolve the conflict? What might be some of the reasons for your proposed solutions?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
effective comminucation skills
As far as I can remember, my mother used to tell me that arguments and unhappiness amongst people arise due to miscommunications. Even though I bore that in mind, it was only till I experienced such a situation myself did I fully understand what my mother meant.
Today, communication only isn’t enough. What is essential is to be able to communicate effectively. What does it mean to communicate effectively? Particularly in today’s fast-paced society, effective communication would mean conveying ideas, messages, feelings and emotions accurately and in certain cases, quickly. This is definitely not an easy feat.
In the light of globalization, with people of different languages and cultures are coming together, this is certainly posed a certain level of difficulty in conveying ideas accurately. Ideas get misinterpreted and the work gets done wrongly. Non-verbal cues are misread or in some cases, ignored and this could probably lead to the downhill of a marriage. Hence, gaining knowledge and understanding of different cultures and styles can help very much in minimizing communication errors and misunderstandings.
Effective communication skills are also important as man is constantly expanding and increasing the list of communication channels. Yet, with this increase in communication channels, comes yet another problem of deciding the appropriate channels to use at the appropriate times and situation. A wrong choice of channels could have varying degree of effects. It could very well mean a loss of job right down to a marriage breakdown.
As such, learning how to communicate effectively enables us to not only minimize misunderstandings but also learn to understand the original intention of the other party (many a times through listening) which enables a higher level of cooperativeness. This in turn leads to more efficiency in the work to be completed.
Today, communication only isn’t enough. What is essential is to be able to communicate effectively. What does it mean to communicate effectively? Particularly in today’s fast-paced society, effective communication would mean conveying ideas, messages, feelings and emotions accurately and in certain cases, quickly. This is definitely not an easy feat.
In the light of globalization, with people of different languages and cultures are coming together, this is certainly posed a certain level of difficulty in conveying ideas accurately. Ideas get misinterpreted and the work gets done wrongly. Non-verbal cues are misread or in some cases, ignored and this could probably lead to the downhill of a marriage. Hence, gaining knowledge and understanding of different cultures and styles can help very much in minimizing communication errors and misunderstandings.
Effective communication skills are also important as man is constantly expanding and increasing the list of communication channels. Yet, with this increase in communication channels, comes yet another problem of deciding the appropriate channels to use at the appropriate times and situation. A wrong choice of channels could have varying degree of effects. It could very well mean a loss of job right down to a marriage breakdown.
As such, learning how to communicate effectively enables us to not only minimize misunderstandings but also learn to understand the original intention of the other party (many a times through listening) which enables a higher level of cooperativeness. This in turn leads to more efficiency in the work to be completed.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
me, myself and i
you-fei [u-faye]
-adjective
One of my friends once commented that the word "youfei" has become an adjective. Well, I guess the main reason for that comment was a result of my clumsiness and carelessness which many a times, result in situations in which is embarrased myself.
Currently a yr 3 life sciences student, university life hasn't been quite packed with activities. Most possibly due to my laziness. Getting to know the existence of this module has given me a new perspective of my then, dull university life. University life is definitely more than just learning new things and passing exams, but more so, cultivate life skills (i.e. effective communication) which will be both useful and beneficial to one-self. A moulding experience I would say.
And so, I am excited to start on a whole new different learning experience, blogging.
-adjective
One of my friends once commented that the word "youfei" has become an adjective. Well, I guess the main reason for that comment was a result of my clumsiness and carelessness which many a times, result in situations in which is embarrased myself.
Currently a yr 3 life sciences student, university life hasn't been quite packed with activities. Most possibly due to my laziness. Getting to know the existence of this module has given me a new perspective of my then, dull university life. University life is definitely more than just learning new things and passing exams, but more so, cultivate life skills (i.e. effective communication) which will be both useful and beneficial to one-self. A moulding experience I would say.
And so, I am excited to start on a whole new different learning experience, blogging.
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