Workplace Communication Skills: Analysis of Listening and Speaking

This report, prepared for Excellence Consultancy International, examines crucial workplace communication skills. It begins by identifying obstacles to effective listening, such as the belief that speaking is superior, lack of formal training, biases, impatience, and thinking about responses instead of fully listening. The report then provides a comprehensive guide to speaking effectively, particularly on the telephone. It emphasizes the importance of positive greetings, active listening, clear pronunciation, maintaining a positive attitude, and using a persuasive communication style. The report underscores the need for patience and politeness in telephone conversations. References are provided to support the analysis of effective communication strategies. This report is a valuable resource for business professionals and students seeking to improve their communication abilities.

Running head: WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION SKILL
WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION SKILL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

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Question 1
Obstacles to Effective Listening
Introduction
Successful professional life of an individual depends upon various factors most of
which are based on the personal behavioural traits, skills and approach of the individual. One
of the most important aspect of effective communication is listening to others. If it is not
understood or known properly what the message is that is wanted to be communicated, the
communication from the other end will be useless. The following are the obstacles towards
effective listening.
1. General idea that Speaking is more effective than Listening- The general held belief
is that the people who speak more is stronger. However the fact is that an effective speaker is
only effective when that person has the ability to hear properly. When person A is
communicating with person B, it is imperative for person A to be hearing to what B has to
say, without doing which the communication from A would be meaningless.
Barriers to Listening

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2. There are no formal training for listening effectively- Though there are various
classes, coaching and training about effective speaking but there are no training of hearing
effectively with patience. Therefore people do not have learning experience in this aspect and
they have to slowly develop the skills with time and experience. Listening skill is not just the
way one hears but the way one understands what have been said.
3. Bias towards the source of the communication- There are various filters that keeps
one person away from properly listening or comprehending something that has been spoken.
Some of the filters are dislike or disagreement, bias, lack of concentration, disinterest and
confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the process in which people do not give a heed to the
information that does not conform to their philosophy of the world. It is seen that the people
only watch TV News channels which matches with their own political ideology, other TV
news channels are avoided, and this is also impediment to effective hearing.
4. Impatience to hear- People these days are very impatient to properly invest their
energy in hearing what the other person has to say. It is held that thinking is a task similar to
breathing which automatically happens. Listening also involves understanding of those words

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which are not said. In fact the process of hearing is not just going on recording what has been
said but to delve deep into the intentions behind1.
5. Thinking about what next to say- One of the difficult choice for the listeners is to
determine whether to listen to what has been said with full concentration or to start thinking
about the next answer without comprehending what is being said by the person with whom
interaction is going on. When a debate is going on it is seen that the participants start
countering even before a statement has ended.
Conclusion
Most of the leaders who speak well like Abraham Lincoln also have recommended to
listen first before speaking. However it is important to understand that listening involves
serious comprehension and understanding
Question 2
Speaking Effectively On the Telephone
Excellence Consultancy International is known for the perfection in
training the new comers towards effective listening and effective speaking.
This includes talking over telephone. Talking over telephone is different from
speaking directly face to face, because face to face speaking involves body
and hand gestures, which makes it easier for the participants to
communicate. The gestures supplements the spoken words, which is not
available in the telephonic conversations. The most important aspect of
communicating over phone will be discussed shortly in the following
paragraphs.
1 Warnecke, Emma. "The art of communication." Australian family physician 43, no. 3 (2014): 156.

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The starting of a phone conversation must include a positive greeting
and introduction of one self. Whether it is an incoming call or an outgoing call
it is important for the speaker to identify the self, greet the other person and
then start the conversation on a positive note. The next step is to first listen
patiently what the other person has to say if it is an incoming call and ask
politely if the questions that has been raised are not properly understood by
the call receiver. If it is an outgoing call then the caller must explain properly
the reason for calling and then wait for the call receiver to respond positively
or negatively to the proposal of the caller. The caller must be aware about
the pronunciation of each of the words over telephone because there are
various accents used by various people, therefore the caller must be aware
about the accent being spoken by the person on the other hand, if there is a
problem in understanding then the caller must speak slowly and emphasize
on each of the words that are spoken2. The caller must also maintain a very
2 Youtube.com. "How To Speak Effectively Over The Phone? - English Lesson - Telephone Skills". Youtube,
2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmXAqMQe0AI.

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positive attitude while speaking and may also actually smile because the
attitude of the speaker is translated through his or her voice.
The caller must have a persuading way of speaking so that the person
hearing can relate and have confidence on what has been said by the caller.
Otherwise there may be a lack of trust which will lead to a failed
conversation. In short a few things like introducing oneself, listening properly,
being polite and positive, pronouncing properly, being slow while speaking
and being patient, are followed the call conversations will be successful.

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Reference:
Caspersz, Donella, and Ania Stasinska. "Can we teach effective listening? An exploratory
study." Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice 12, no. 4 (2015): 2.
Miritello, Giovanna, Esteban Moro, Rubén Lara, Rocío Martínez-López, John Belchamber,
Sam GB Roberts, and Robin IM Dunbar. "Time as a limited resource: Communication
strategy in mobile phone networks." Social Networks 35, no. 1 (2013): 89-95.
Tyagi, Babita. "Listening: An important skill and its various aspects." The Criterion An
International Journal in English 12 (2013): 1-8.
Warnecke, Emma. "The art of communication." Australian family physician 43, no. 3 (2014):
156.
Youtube.com. "How To Speak Effectively Over The Phone? - English Lesson - Telephone
Skills". Youtube, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmXAqMQe0AI.