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Home » Management articles » Five Types of Communication Skills

Five Types of Communication Skills

June 7, 2020 By Hitesh Bhasin Tagged With: Management articles

Communication is a very basic and fundamental process for human beings. However, when a brand wants to communicate with their customers, then the communication takes another form. Similarly, there is communication involved between teams as well. There are various types of communication between people as well as between teams.

Table of Contents

  • What is communication?
  • 5 Types of Communication
  • 1) Verbal Communication
  • 2) Non-verbal / Interpersonal communication
  • 3) Written Communications
  • 4) Formal &Informal
  • 5) Visual Communication
    • Thank you for reading our article about business verbal communication lesson
    • Related posts:

What is communication?

Communication is the act of sending information or ideas via speech, visuals, writing or any other such method. The Communication model has a sender who is sending the message and the receiver who is receiving the message. In between, the speech or ideas need to be simple enough to be decoded and understood by the receiver. If the ideas are not presented properly, then decoding is improper and the receiver does not understand.

Based on the types of senders and receivers involved, we can define various types of communications. If we take an example of communication between teams, you will see the higher amount of formal communication as compared to informal. On the other hand, when we consider personal communication and communication between the group of personal friends, you will find these types of communication to be more informal in nature.

In essence, below we discuss the various types of communication used between people or between teams.

5 Types of Communication

Let us delve deep into the 5 types of communication observed between the group of people or a formal team.

1) Verbal Communication

types communication ed lesson mse cert image - 1

Verbal communication can also be called as Oral communication. In very simple terms, any communication that happens orally between people is known as verbal communication. The objective of such communications is to ensure that people understand whatever you want to convey. Because of its very nature, verbal communications is more quick and precise then email communication.

In the era of messaging via Whatsapp or using email, people still prefer personal meetings or phone calls (or face to face skype calls) because they are effective and much more convenient in conveying the message.

Nowadays, Verbal communication is an important aspect and is looked as a key strength in an individual.

A manager or an executive needs to have good verbal communication skills. A manager has to handle a team of people and he needs to be skilled to convince the team of people in acting like he wants them to. Executives meet many customers who are each different in terms of their understanding and talking skills. Thus, Executives to need excellent verbal communication skills.

The higher up an organization you go, the better should be the verbal skills that you have. This is because you need to ensure that your speech is precise and to the point and does not leave any scope for any misunderstanding.

An M.D or a C.E.O may be giving a television interview which is being watched by 100’s of stakeholders of the company. Their speech and verbal communication need to be precise so that they don’t mess up or are not misunderstood. Even in tough times, the verbal communication skills of these leaders play a major part in consoling the crowd.

Also Read  11 Self Development Skills and how to Improve them

Example of people who were great at the verbal type of communications.

  • Nelson Mandela
  • Martin Luther King
  • John F Kennedy
  • Mahatma Gandhi

2) Non-verbal / Interpersonal communication

image - 2

How do you make people feel when you enter the room? Is your body language strong and are you standing straight and erect or are you slouched and tired? Are you clean shaven, looking your immaculate best for a team meeting or are you shabby with shirts that are not ironed? When you shake hands, do you do so strongly or do you just brush your hand against others?

The above were some examples of Non-verbal communications or interpersonal communications. One of the HR requirements for new joiners in an organization is for them to have good interpersonal skills. This basically means that the employees should brush up on their non-verbal skills.

If you were in a sales meeting and you have not achieved your target, how will you react? Will you be steady and calm or will you panic and stutter? These are important non-verbal skills and your growth might depend on them.

A manager who panics and who is not good at non-verbal communication will generally not be a favorite with his team members. This is because his team members do not look up to him. A manager who stutters, who is not well dressed, who has the wrong body language or someone who is not a strong personality, will not gather a huge following behind him.

However, people with good personalities go a long way in motivating the employees below them. If an employee is demotivated, just keeping a hand on their shoulder and saying a few motivating words is enough for the employee. Taunting them or making faces when talking to them, ignoring them completely or imitating them will demotivate the employee even further. Thus, non-verbal skills play a major role in office culture.

As employees grow into managers and as managers grow into leaders, they become better and better at a non-verbal type of communications. They know that their own calm headed behavior at times of panic is what will keep the team in check. Similarly, they don’t let their teams get complacent when the going is good.

Example of the Non-verbal type of communications

In Customer service, non-verbal and interpersonal skills play a huge role. Imagine you were unhappy with a product and you went to the customer service department. Instead of understanding your problem, the customer service executive gives a rude reply. Repeatedly you visit them and even though the problem is not resolved, you don’t get a satisfactory answer.

Compare that with a customer service department which smiles when you come in. They reassure you that they are on top of your problem. They are proactive and update you themselves on when to expect the problem to be resolved. Later on, they follow up whether you were satisfied with the response and if there was anything they could do further.

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This smile, the body language of reassurance, the listening ability are all non-verbal type of communications. A good customer service executive will pay special attention to them and will ensure that you leave satisfied! Hiring good customer service executives, who have great interpersonal skills, is the sign of a good organization which is focused on customer satisfaction.

3) Written Communications

image - 3

There are many many ways that written communications can be used. The number of ways is ever increasing with the penetration of smartphones and the internet. One of the most common forms of written communications used till date is Email. But slowly, written type of communications is becoming more informal with Whatsapp and other online messaging apps being used regularly.

All different forms of written communication can be formal or informal. If today, we visit a court of law, you will find that even Whatsapp messages are considered to be legal in nature. In fact, there have been so many cases of celebrities brought under the scanner because of wrong written communications on their social media account.

Thus, the above example is further proof that written communication needs to be used safely and effectively. In fact, written communication between friends can be informal but this type of communication between working professionals should always be formal so that any misquoted words are not misused with ill intent.

The advantage of written communication is that it acts as the final word once a decision has been taken. When you quote your prices to the customer, when you rank a dealer on top, when you promote an employee or when you launch a new product, you use written communication to communicate the update to your team and your employees.

A problem with written communication is that it becomes too formal and might incite ego or various political problems when written communication is used. Newspapers are perfect examples of written words which create controversy.

There is a very apt quotation “Words are mightier than swords”. A wrong email delivered in the wrong hands can cause the world to turn upside down. The many emails and documents released by Edward Snowden which brought the US government under the scanner, are perfect examples of how to use written documents safely and privately otherwise they can bring a whole organization tumbling down (whether justified or not is a different discussion)

4) Formal &Informal

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There are two types of communication when considering the formality of the communication. One is the formal and official type of communication which can be emails, letterheads, memos, reports and other such kinds of written material. These are considered as documentary evidence and certain formality is associated with them. You cannot submit such formal documents and later deny them.

Informal communication is one where there is nothing official about the communication that is happening. It can be known as Grapevine communication. There is no specific channel of informal communication because there is Social media, Whatsapp, SMS which are all vehicles of informal communication which can be used by people.

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Advantages of formal communication

  • When you want to finalize policy and want to decide a course to adopt, then formal communication is more effective
  • Formal communication can help in establishing procedures and ensuring that the steps are followed.
  • Any promises or any official plans need to be formally documented so that they can be referred to later.

Advantages of informal communication

  • informal communication helps the “Open door policy” and makes people more confident and forthcoming with their ideas and creativity.
  • Informal communication does not incite fear into peoples mind
  • Informal talks encourage people to share their problems.

The problem with formal communication is that it is not personal and a distance is maintained if you use only formal communications. Whereas on the other hand, informal conversations can get out of hand and there can be negative grapevine generated.

5) Visual Communication

image - 5

One of the industries which most prominently uses Visual communication is the medical industry. New medicines which come into the market have to be shown to doctors and the advantages have to be explained. At such times, the medical representatives carry informative pamphlets which are shown to the doctors and dropped with the doctors.

These informative pamphlets have all the information about the medicine so that doctors can feel confident in suggesting the medicine to their patients. Similarly, many different industries are using visual communication to help interaction with their customers so that they can communicate their ideas better. Explainer videos as a concept is rising and is becoming as one of the best types of communication observed on websites.

There are many elements in visual communication that can be used by marketers or companies.

  • Colors (such as brand colors)
  • Design (logo and brand design)
  • Advertising
  • Animations
  • Illustrations
  • Typography
  • Presentations
  • Video resume’s

In person to person communication too visual communication plays a role. Consider the diagrams made by teachers on blackboards when explaining a concept to a class of students. Or we can also take the example of graphs made in powerpoints by managers when doing a powerpoint presentation to a team of executives or seniors.

To summarize, the type of communication most common are

In teams

  • Formal Communication
  • Verbal Communication and Non-verbal communication
  • Written communication
  • Visual communication

In group of people

  • Informal Communication
  • Verbal and Non-verbal communication
  • Informal written communications

Above were all the different types of communications used by a group of people or between the team.

Thank you for reading our article about business verbal communication lesson

Related posts:

Informal OrganizationWhat is an Informal Organization? Importance of Non-Verbal Communication Internal CommunicationsInternal Communications: 5 Types, Strategy and Advantages What are the interpersonal skillsInterpersonal skills: Meaning, Importance and How to improve them Written CommunicationWritten Communication – Meaning, Types, Advantages Organizational CommunicationWhat is Organizational Communication? And Why it is Important Employee Background Check: Concept, Importance, Steps & Advantages 10 Ways To Be SuccessfulHow to be Successful? 10 Ways To Be Successful What is communication Definition: Communication is a way by which meaningful messages can be conveyed across people to convey ideas. Any kind of medium may be used by communication to convey the message. Explanation: Technically, communication is defined as the process of understanding and sharing meaning. Here, the process is any kind of activity that does not remain constant. It changes all the time and cannot be defined. Therefore the concept of the process has a change in feedback, change in perspective, or any other relevant change which impacts the existing state of affairs. For example, when you travel to the office from home, your process changes because your perspective changes since you interact with a different set of people. The next part of the definition of communication is understanding. Understanding means to comprehend or interpret. You will be able to understand a movie more clearly than merely watching non-moving pictures without explanation or sound. The last part of the definition is sharing. When you do something together with one or more people, then it can be termed as sharing. Thus communication is a culmination of all of these components to form a comprehensible, knowledgeable, and informational activity to convey information, messages, or any other relevant thoughts to a receiver or a group of receivers. Importance of communication Practically the world runs because of communication. The importance of communication cannot be stressed enough in our day to day's work. If it were not for communication, then we would be back in Neanderthal times. Right from our home to our workplace, there is communication everywhere. From a song, speech to site head nod, or handshake, different forms of communication are used throughout the day without you realizing it. Communication makes conveying the thoughts easier and helps to understand the perspective of another person. Learning would stop without communication since you cannot teach anyone without the use of text, pictures, sound, or sign language. There would be no exchange of ideas or thoughts without communication, and businesses would not be able to sustain, and neither could people. Elements of Communication It is essential to understand the vital components of communication to understand the process of communicating clearly. Following are eight different components of communication 1. Source The source is the creator of the message. The source initiates the message and sends it to the sender. A person talking to a group of people can be considered as a source of speech. The source conveys the message with the help of verbal as well as non-verbal communication. Sometimes written and visual types of communication may also be involved. The primary objective of the source is to convey the thoughts or ideas they have to the receiver. 2. Message The actual context of communication is a message. The message is the formalized structure of communication. A group of pictures may be kept together to convey a story, or a couple of letters are put together to convey a message. As explained above, the message's intention is dependent on not only the words of the message but also the tone, voice modulation, and manner in which the messages are conveyed to the other person. Different elements come into play in various types of communication. For example, tone, voice modulation will matter in verbal communication, while the grammar and punctuation matter in written communication. On the other hand, in the case of non-verbal communication, your gestures and body language matter while in the case of visual communication, the pictures, its settings, and visual quality will matter. 3. Channel The method in which the messages are communicated from one point to the other is called a channel. Channels are essential to convey the message from the source to the destination. If the message is not transmitted, then the desired action will not be taken, and the communication process will not be valid. 4. Receiver The receiver is the one who receives the message from the sender. The receiver can be considered as the termination point of the communication process or originating source for the feedback process of the communication. The receiver can see, feel, hear, touch, or appropriately analyze the message sent by the sender depending on the type of communication. Both the receiver and the sender must be on similar lines so they can understand the message because if the sender and receiver are not able to understand each other, then the entire purpose of the communication fails. There could be many differences between the sender and receiver, and for optimum communication to happen, those differences should be as low as possible. 5. Feedback After the receiver receives the message, the receiver comprehends the message. He tries to make meaning out of it and understand it. Once he understands, then the feedback is sent from the receiver to the sender. During this time, the receiver becomes the sender, and the sender becomes the receiver because feedback travels from receiver to sender. The existence of feedback suggests that communication is a two-way process. As much as the sender wants to convey a message to the receiver, the receiver also wants to convey back message to the sender. This feedback will be based on the message which is initially sent from the sender and will be sort of an answer to that message. 6. Environment The atmosphere in which we receive the message is called an environment. The environment may include but is not limited to the surrounding equipment, objects, climate, and other things that are present when the process of communication happens. The external surroundings in which we stand to talk to another person can also be termed as the environment. A theatre packed with an audience can also be considered as the environment. Every environment may have some requirements for looks. For example, going to a party will have a dress code, while coming to an office with a formal dress code. In such cases, not only the dressing but also communication depends on the environment. It is essential to understand your environment before you start communicating. 7. Context The context is where the setting or scene of communication takes place. For example, business discussions such as presentations take place in a group of people. Therefore the context for such a discussion is formal. On the other hand, communication with family members is usually casual. Context is about how people expect you to be in specific settings. Typically environmental cues are used to create those expectations. 8. Interference Interference is another term for noise that is present in the communication process. The primary function of noise is to block or create an obstacle in communication so that the intended message is either half reached or not reached at all to the receiver. For example, if a baby cries in a theatre during the climax of a movie, your attention is disturbed. The intended message of the movie does not reach you. While this is an example of external noise, there is also an internal noise that is present in ourselves. Thoughts that are occupied in your mind when you're doing work is called psychological noise. These thoughts interrupt your work more often than you can imagine. If not for these psychological interferences, all of us would have been productive at least ten times more than we are right now. Another type of noise is when the message is communicated to you clearly, but your mind interprets it differently. For example, an invitation card says, "Black tie only." A significant interference would be detected in the person if he wore 'only' a black tie to the party. Types of communication Following are different types of communications that are observed around us: a. Verbal Communication As the name suggests, verbal communication is the one in which you talk. It is the most profoundly used type of communication among all other types. It is used while talking in person, on the phone, on a video call, and practically everywhere. For mute people, sign language is used as a method of verbal communication for them. It is recommended to use different voice modulations when talking to different people. For example, the voice modulation would not matter if you speak with friends, but it would matter when you're talking to your boss or your colleagues at work. The tone of your verbal communication, the pitch, the words, all of them matter. Also, all of these elements of verbal communication change with the person. For example, the pitch, words, and tone of your communication with your mother would be different than with your customer. In verbal communication, it matters what you say, but it equally matters how you say it. And examples of tone and pitch would be like the sentence Hey, what are you doing here? This sentence can be said and meant in 6 different ways depending on where the emphasis is given, try saying the sentence while emphasizing on different words. Verbal communication is also essential in a business where you have to write emails and convey the message to your client, design, advertisement, marketing strategy, and other crucial aspects of the business. 2. Nonverbal communication As the name suggests, this type of communication is primarily concerned with body language. The non-verbal communication is used to convey information that cannot be sent by verbal communication. This type of communication is essential when you have to send a lot of things in a short time without the use of words. Sometimes non-verbal communication may be unintentional. For example, a frown while talking to an irritating colleague even though you are trying to speak politely. Other aspects of non-verbal communication are gestures and body language. A handshake will convey much of the first impression of a person than anything else, or someone can understand a lot from the walk or posture of a person. The way a person sits uses hand gestures, and facial expressions can determine more than verbal communication. Some researches have concluded that communication happens more by non-verbal means than by verbal means. Therefore about 70% of what you want to say does not come out of your mouth, but your nonverbal communication reflects it. 3. Written communication When you write the words conveying the message to another person, then it is termed as written communication. Different alphabets, numbers, symbols are used to write messages. Writing is present in every aspect of modern-day communication. There are blogs, letters, advertisements, audiovisual information, all of which require the use of written communication or letters. Written communication is utilized in public applications, like writing traffic information. For illiterate people, a combination of pictures and words is used to convey information. In business terms, a common language is used throughout the organization. Since most of the companies have become multinationals or intend to become one, English is their preferred language since it is easy to convey in offices and branches worldwide. 4.Visual communication As the name suggests, visual communication primarily happens in the form of pictures, photographs, videos, and other types. Sometimes, a text may be used along with images to convey the information better, or sometimes there may be no text. However, visual communication is considered more useful than other forms since a picture conveys a thousand words. Other times, visual aids are utilized with textual information to discuss or present a specific topic. Both of them, in combination, have a great impact on the customer. Most of the social media platforms like Instagram, youtube primarily depend on visuals. However, it cannot be emphasized enough that always consider your audience before deciding any mode of communication. For example, using visuals in a metro train will not be a good idea since audio communication will make more impact over there. On the other hand, using visual communication on a mobile app would be a better idea. Conclusion: Therefore, communication is a vital aspect of our existence. Using appropriate communication in appropriate settings is essential for effective communication. This can be achieved by being mindful of different elements of communication.What is Communication? Importance, Elements & Types Explained Barriers to EntryBarriers To Entry: Meaning, Types, Examples
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About Hitesh Bhasin

I love writing about the latest in marketing & advertising. I am a serial entrepreneur & I created Marketing91 because i wanted my readers to stay ahead in this hectic business world. You can follow me on Facebook. Let's stay in touch :)

Comments

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      VERBAL is when giving information is either formal or informal, you can communicate vertical or parallel structure using one on one
      Non VERBAL
      Sound something that you can hear
      color tells you like traffic light is giving information
      smell tell you something is wrong like ado
      writings you can write a letter to inform something
      signs its can tells you what to do
      view touch and interactions something that can make you to act

      Reply
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