Communication is very important whether it’s through formal channel that is with your boss or employees as well as informal channel that is with your family or friends because a slight miscommunication can lead to big problems both at workplace as well as in personal life and that is the reason why one should follow the complete communication process. Given below is the process of communication –
5 Steps of Communication Process
Message to Convey
The first step in the process of communication is the sender having some message which he or she wants to convey to the receiver of the message hence having some message is the first step of communication, in simple words without message there can be no communication.
Encoding
Second step is the encoding of that message so that message reaches the receiver in the manner in which the sender wants that message to be read and understood. Encoding can be simple like writing the message in simple form or it can be complicated like writing the message in code form which is very difficult to comprehend.
Channels of Communication
After encoding the next step is to select the channels of communication through which the sender wants to send the message to its target that is the receiver of the message. Channels of communication can be oral like communication through telephone, mobile or face to face or written like communication through email, fax and so on.
Decoding
After the message is delivered to the receiver of the message the receiver has to decode the message properly so that the message is understood by the receiver of the message as most of the time confusion happen due to wrong decoding of message by the receiver and hence decoding of the message correctly by the receiver is perhaps the most important step as far as process of communication is concerned.
Feedback
Once the message is decoded and understood by the receiver the next and final step is to give feedback which is given by the receiver to the sender. While giving the feedback the receiver can raise questions and give suggestions also so as to make sure that communication is complete and there is no scope for ambiguity about the whole communication.
As one can see from the above that communication process is the simple one but the majority of times due to silly mistakes this simple process becomes complicated one leading to the misunderstanding between two people both professionally as well as personally which in turn create unnecessary animosity between the sender and the receiver of the communication.