How effective communication in a relationship keeps you safe

Effective communication in relationships is of great importance. Communicating effectively with people can save you from loads of dangers that you never saw coming — ever heard of miscommunication and misinterpretation?   

We communicate every other day via mails, speech, texts, and body language – with colleagues at work, that next-door neighbour, the fruit seller along your street, the bus driver, the bolt rider, your spouse, your friend, your parents, your siblings, your child, that customer at work, your classmates, on social media, with your employer, your best friend, the banker, that salesperson at the mall, that stranger you helped to cross the road. The list is endless.     

While it is true that you cannot do without communication, you will agree that it is important to do it well. Ever heard the saying? “What is worth doing at all is worth doing well”.  

Have you been in an argument with someone because they misunderstood what you said, or you misunderstood the message they were trying to pass across?  That happened because your communication with each other was not effective. Communication is good but effective communication in relationships is even better and more rewarding.   

What is effective communication?

Brian Tracy once said, “Having a great conversation is not the same thing as communicating effectively.” He also mentioned that what differentiates ‘talking’ from ‘effective communication’ is that the latter comprises listening, ensuring others get your point, and persuading them to take action on what you’re saying.   

Effective communication in relationships is the process of exchanging information so that the message that is being passed across is well understood by the parties involved.   

When communication is done effectively, the sender and receiver of the message feel a sense of satisfaction. Why is that? Because the message has been well understood by both parties and they can now do what is expected of them without being confused.   

 Effective communication in relationships is beyond exchanging information between the parties involved. It’s deeper than that. It entails practising empathy by making a conscious effort to understand the emotion and intentions behind the information in order to avoid misinterpretation which may lead to conflict and then a strain in such a relationship. It could be a mentor-to-mentee relationship, employer-to-employee relationship and the like.  

What are the benefits of effective communication in relationships?  

What do you stand to gain from communicating the way you ought to?   

1. It fosters a better relationship between the parties involved. When there is no miscommunication there would be no disagreement.   
2. It builds trust. Having someone that is truly interested in your message and takes the time to decode makes you trust that person enough to handle information well another time   
3. Increase productivity because the recipient understands what you’re saying. It makes things easier to handle it could be work or instructions.   
4. It gives a sense of accomplishment: when the message passed across is well received you get what you want and that gives you a sense of accomplishment.   
5. It saves your relationship: Miscommunication has ruined many relationships because they either read wrongly, heard wrongly, or didn’t even pay attention and took the wrong information personal.  
6. It helps to improve teamwork. It is calming and encouraging when everyone on the team understands what to do and can give feedback by asking questions, getting actively involved in decoding, and getting the work done.  
7. Effective communication in relationships would make the process of problem-solving easy and achievable.  
8. It will help improve your mental health and social health as a person. Because you don’t go about settling misunderstandings that have gone out of hand and start walking on eggshells with the party involved.   

Elements of communication   

There are basic elements that express how information flows from one party to the other party. Let’s take a look at them.  

1. The sender or the source  
2. The receiver  
3. The message  
4. The channel or medium   
5. Feedback  

• The sender is the source of the information. The process of communication starts with the sender. He or she has to first encode the information or instruction before transmitting it. That is, convert information to a form that can be understood by the recipient.  
• The receiver, also called the recipient, is the person to that the message is directed and receives the message. He or she has to decode the message received by interpreting and understanding the intention of the sender. Decoding could be actively listening or reading or paying close attention to information.   
• The message which is also called the content is the information that is sent from the source to the receiver. It could be verbally, through texts, body language, or sign language.   
• The channel which is also called the medium is the passage of the information sent. It explains how the message moves from its source to the recipient. The text could be through emails or letters, verbal could be one-on-one or through the phone.   
• Feedback is the response of the receiver to the sender after the message has been well interpreted and understood. This is the element that makes communication make sense; in other words, makes communication effective. It is the element that completes the communication process.  

Note that communication is incomplete when there is no feedback.  

Imagine talking to a fruit seller that you want to buy apples and oranges from and you wait for five minutes with no sign of him wanting to attend to you. That would mean there is no feedback from him, right? You could get angry and walk away or insult him because this man has decided to ignore you. It could also be that he didn’t hear you because he was not actively listening or because you weren’t audible enough. It could have been unintentional, but all you can see is that you said something and there was no feedback. Feedback is an important factor when it comes to effective communication in relationships.  

If the misunderstanding is not cleared, there’d be a strain on the relationship between the fruit seller and the buyer.   

Can communication be learned?   

Yes, with conscious effort. Now you know the basic elements of communication. Bear this in mind when communicating that encoding, decoding, the channel and feedback are of utmost importance.  

Let it be your guide when communicating with people. It will help you gather your thoughts as the sender, and help you practise effective decoding of the information received.   

There are many who need to learn important skills to communicate clearly and effectively. Why? Learning these skills will help you build a connection with the people you’re communicating with. Your boss, friend, neighbour, colleague, mentor, that stranger at a conference. It will also help you build and maintain trust and respect.   

You can avoid miscommunication and disagreement. You only have to do the right thing. Learn effective communication in relationships and practice it. What will you do differently starting from today?