What is a Communication?

Communication is a message transmits from Point A to Point B in a medium (environment). The cycle is only complete when Point B responds to Point A that he/she receives the signal.

Many people nowadays are very well informed of the current affairs because of the advanced technologies. They just switch on their computer and head to the popular search engines. Click on the topic and tons of information will fly in. Thus people are knowledgeable. They are willing to voice out their opinion.

More and more people are willing to speak up. Thus if there is any information they find that is debatable. They will start to speak up. Thus one way of communication is no longer the mode. The communication cycle have not even finish, the response already kicks in.

Thus a complete communication cycle always take plenty of planning and execution.

In a classroom environment, the teacher will transmit the knowledge from his/her perspective down to the students. Teachers will ensure the students understanding the topics by asking the students to perform some exercise so as to ensure they understand. The act of exercise could be a form of responding to the communication cycle.

In an office environment, taking email for this scenario, communication cycle begins when sender mails out information to the other party. If the recipient did not respond, sender will get worried and excited. Communication cycle has suddenly paused.

Remember communication is not complete until the recipient responds.

Thus the sender will tick the delivery receipt option; read receipt option and whatever means to ensure the recipient get to open up the sender’s mail. Alternatively, sender will picks up the phone and contact the recipient to reinforce the sending signal had been received.

If you are the sender, please do some actions to ensure the recipient responds to the message. If you are the message recipient, please help the other party to complete the communication cycle. In a mail, just respond to the sender that the message was received and actions will be followed shortly kind of similar message back to sender.

What do you think is the communication barrier in an office environment?

Electronic mail may not be the ideal communication tool. It is just a fast convenient way to transmit your message across to another person when your recipient is outside your reach. There is no true communication in the aspect of expression, tonality and body language. There are still some messages not been sent across to recipients like your happiness and anger.

It is very easy to misunderstand what is said, even if emoticons (smiley) are used.

When you feel that a person is not telling the truth, check out the alignment between words, voice and body.

You need certain information that on your body to transmit the message across to the recipient. If the highly detailed information is not expressed thru actions, the messages might not be sent across correctly. A lot of communication actually comes through non-verbal communication.

Mehrabain Theory

In a typical mail message, you are not able to communicate your emotions. You can only use words to express your joys, frustrations. According to Mehrabain Theory,

* 7% happens in spoken words.
* 38% happens through voice tone.
* 55% happens via general body language.

The implication is that in all communications:

* It’s not just words: a lot of communication comes through non-verbal communication.
* Without seeing and hearing non-verbal, it is easier to misunderstand the message. In an email, how can you tell that a person is actually telling a joke versus writing a joke?
* When we are unsure about words and when we trust the other person less, we pay more attention to what we hear and see.

In my opinion, the ideal communication would be a face to face communication. With this, you are able to sense the other communication mode, such as visual, auditory portion from the sender. In a business environment, you can actually pick up the phone and communicate with the person directly. You are then able to grasp the message.

If the sender is angry, he will raise his voice with his hands on the hips. If sender is sad, he will lower his pitch and can see that his tears rolling down the cheek etc. This kind of non verbal communication is sometime critical in a message.

Developing good communications skills is important, so that we convey our messages clearly and prevent any misunderstanding. When we have communication breakdowns at work, we spend time and energy trying to make amends. It is hard for anyone to admit that their unclear communication caused the breakdown, and thus apologize. It’s wiser to make a conscious effort to prevent communication breakdowns instead.

One way to avoid conflicts at work is to communicate clearly and frequently with your colleagues on the following:

• What you are currently doing for the company

• What are some goals you are striving for at work, and even some of your personal ones that may affect work

• Some of the difficulties you are facing with customers, management, colleagues etc (without sounding like you are whining and complaining)

With the increased use of e-mails and text messages, we may forget the value of face-to-face interactions. When we communicate with a person face-to-face, we can build trust and open-ness with our verbal and non-verbal cues. We can also sense and understand the other person’s point of view and what they feel.

Use e-mails if you have specific requests or updates for a colleague, and the message can be read at their convenience. With e-mails, you can still sound cordial, instead of distance. Just a few more seconds of typing some niceties like “Have a great day!” can bring a feeling of goodwill to the reader.

At work today we tend to communicate more via e-mail and this has an impact on our interpersonal communication. For example, if you communicate your unhappiness or anger via email, pause a moment before you hit the ‘Send’ button! Cool down, review what you have written, and edit it so that it sounds more objective. Stick to the facts and avoid character attacks. Be objective and constructive. If you are criticizing something, offer a solution to improve the situation, if possible.

As you learn to communicate more effectively at work, you will be better able to achieve your goals, garner more support during setbacks, and feel much happier at work.

Communication is an art of conveying message to the other party. Imagine in the game of “Pass it on”. One has to convey the hidden message that he received to another party without uttering a word. Similarly, an email message can only convey the content over but not the emotions.

A face-to face communication is crucial. In some books, there are some eye assessing cues that tell us the eye can indicate the truth being said by the party.

In fact, 55% of the communication is actually done through visual communication. 38% is done through vocal communication. The remaining 7% will be through verbal communication. This clearly indicates that the body language – a combination of visual & verbal gives a very high percentage while communicating with one another.

There are several work from home opportunities that you can find on the Internet.

Depending on the niche, you can transfer your hobbies, passion, interest into a money making machine.

Online jobs are becoming more competitive.

There are many people started to work from home.

What’s the reason? The reason is very simple.

There are a couple of reasons for people to enjoy the beauty of working from home. You have

- Time flexibility – you can start your day’s work at 11am and stop your work at 4pm. So long the objective is achieved, you are able to start and stop work anytime. You can also spend more time with your family, friend. You can also catch up with your long lost untouched hobbies, games, and so forth.

- 9-5 job – Throw away the concept of having a grueling 9-5 job. In a workplace, you have to face your demanding boss, not forgetting your unreasonable deadlines.

You may also have to look into their mood in order to execute your task or activities. You do not have to face all these unappreciative work because you won’t find all these in your online work.

- More passive income – depending on your niche market, some people quit their full time job in order to concentrate their lucrative online job.

You just have to work once and the money can literally be coming back to you even after a few months later.

Working from home opportunities are not the purpose of earning extra income as they can also be a chance for you to grow as an individual and harness the untapped potential.

Please comment if you have any feedback.

For more information, please subscribe below to my other articles.

Do you know the difference between a “job” and a “career”?

According to the dictionary, a “job” is defined as “a paid position of employment and something one has to do, a responsibility.” Interestingly enough, the root word for “job” is, humorously, an Old English word that means “a lump.” The reference is to a quantity, a “lump” of work, so to speak. As it applies to our topic, it is one distinct and unrelated period of employment in a series of jobs one may have.

A “career,” on the other hand, comes from Middle French and stems from an earlier word for “car” — and then “street.” So, a career is a path. The dictionary defines it as “an occupation, a way of making a living, especially with opportunities for advancement or promotion, and progress through life.” It is a journey – a career pathway.

These definitions are nice and dandy – but what do they mean to you?

Time is life and there are 3 main stages in our lives.

When we are young and still under 25 years of age, we all have our dreams.
As we grow up, we are taught that if we want to be successful, we have to work hard.

We see our parents working very hard.
Our teachers tell us that if we want to do well, we need to study hard.
It is no wonder for many people, life becomes very hard.

As we grow older, our dreams start to fade and become more distant.
Dreams become less possible and seem harder to achieve and as time goes by, some of us begin to give up on them.
When you are 25 and you are out there working, reality begins to set in.

We see some of our friends becoming rich and they do not seem to have to work hard.
We console ourselves by saying, “They must be lucky”.
We begin to question ourselves: why is this happening and what went wrong?
We get demotivated and we do our job mechanically: we wake up in the morning, go to work, eat, sleep, wake up, and go back to work.

The cycle repeats itself. If we do well in a job, we get a pat on the back but if we do not, we get kicked in the butt.
We just continue to exist.
We live pass time, having nothing to look forward to except our upcoming retirement.

Ask yourself: How can you expect to achieve greater heights if you do not change what you are doing now?
The greatest insanity is to do the same thing every day and expect different results.
If we want a change in life, we must change our life.

Please share your comments and feedback by completing the details below or the box on the right hand side.

Wealth means different things to different people. For some people, wealth means big cars, big houses and anything that makes you look and feel good. For some, it means long term financially security. What is your definition of Wealth?

In order to create wealth, we need to first understand what wealth is. Wealth can be categorized as “the period you can survive ahead if you stop work tomorrow”.

Think about it: how many days can you survive forward if you stop working tomorrow (without selling your assets)? What would your answer be?

Most of you would probably say 60 – 180 days. Some may be lucky enough to say a few years perhaps.

If we agree on this definition of wealth, then the answer for a truly wealth person would be INIFINITY.

True wealth is when you can say, “If I were to stop work tomorrow, I can survive forever.

The money will come from somewhere, somehow and I do not have to work for the rest of my life.”

You will probably say, “Yes, I want to have a true wealth!” we want to be able to stop working and still enjoy our lives without worrying about where the money will be coming from the next month.

Wouldn’t this be great and ideal?

Please share your comments.

Do you find your work monotonous, routine and you have to face or smile
to your boss even if you don’t feel like it?

Do you find traveling to office is sometimes a chore?

Spending time and money on traveling and transportation can sometime be frustrating.
Waiting time; hot weather; wet weather; long traveling time,
squeezing yourself in the same transport etc.

Not only the above, you could only got your salary at the end of the month.
Thus you are trading your time and effort with the fixed amount of dollars.

Let’s be brutally honest…have you wonder what is the objective of working?
In my opinion, everybody is working for the 3 meals that served on the table.
To get enough money so as to support the family.

Do you live to eat or eat to live?

Why make our lives so miserable to exchange the amount of paycheck?

Instead of spending more time with your family and friends, you are spending more time
in office to trade for money.

Although you can still get your fixed regular amount of paycheck at the end of the month,
won’t it be great if there is another opportunity for you to work from home and
get the same or more income?

You will Work once and get paid quickly.
The amount could be double, triple or even higher than what you had expected or
asked for during your full time employment.

The answer is to work for your hobbies.
What are your hobbies? Internet surfing, gardening or chess playing?

Working for hobbies is different because you are doing something that you like.
You will find utmost pleasure in what you are doing.

My hobby is to surf the web.

After surfing the Internet for a while, I find that it is quite boring.
Either going for search engines, web email, various websites, blogs and others.
I find its not so exciting after all.

Then I ponder to myself, since there is an increase in Internet citizens,
why not monetize something when I am surfing the web?

With the current financial crisis, this idea began stronger and more concrete.
Whatever I have, try to monetize my hobbies…

As there is a saying, “Every journey starts with the first step.”
Thus I try to build my own website, affiliate marketing, ebay and some other money making tools.

In order to know more about work versus hobbies, enter your details at the right
hand side and then subscribe to my book.

You will find more materials, supporting facts to work with hobbies than to
work for corporate and companies.

There are 10 copies of the books left. Sign up now to get a copy of the book.

If my article makes sense, feel free to forward the link to your friend.

http://www.dennis-kwan.com/wtgt/

Leave a comment so that I know how you feel about it.

The National Wage Council had informed companies
to stick to their wage and bonus reduction guidelines.

They had urged employers, unions and the
government to press on with concerted actions
to cut costs, save jobs and enhance competitiveness.

Due to the high living standard, many people wanted
to remain the existing or desire for a better salary
range.

One of my friends, Michael, had tried to reduce his
employment wages in order to support his family.
However his current low wage could not sustain for long.

As per writing, Michael is still looking for another job.
His wage is not enough for him to sustain a family of
5 that includes 3 young primary children who are
still schooling.

Wages had further been cut and reduced tremendously.
However, there were always no sign of reinstate
to the original level prior of the wage cut, even
though the economy was in healthy state.

Many companies are reducing their wage payout.
Companies for example, like Hewlett Packard,
had already mentioned that they will reduced their
wage payout by percentage depending on the seniority
in the company.

Another friend of mine, Victor was affected and his
salary was cut 5% in the recent exercise.

What are you going to do if you are hit with wage cut?

Will you start to look for another stream of income if
the main source is impacted?

Are you affected by the recent recession?
Appreciate your comments.

http://www.dennis-kwan.com/wtgt/

Work today is so stressful. Even if you have a job,
the work is almost pushing you to the walls.

Many organizations are reducing budget
on the staffs hiring. Thus there are little resources
to do the pile of jobs.

- Are you grueling at your 9-5 job ?
- Are you facing tons of unfinished backlogs?
- What about facing an unreasonable boss that
keeps nagging at you

If there is any error in the task, boss will nagging at you, give you deadline to finish your assignment. While you are trying to excel in your work and yet your boss says this is your basic requirement to fulfill the job. ….OMG

After being employed for so long, I want to tell my friends that I am getting tired to work for people. It does not pay to work so hard and yet your effort is unappreciated. I would rather work for something and yet pays me well like my hobbies, things I like.

At least it provides me a route to excel in my work. If I can excel in my hobbies, like communication. I can become a consultant and share my experience with other. Wont it be great that I can get paid if I am doing through my hobbies.

What do you think? Leave your feedback and comment.