Overcoming Communication Barriers in Advising

Whenever people try t o d o something together, they depend on communication. Advisors spend a large part of each day communicating with others, and the success of these endeavors depends substantially o n successful communication skills. The successful advisor can communicate effectively. This involves many skills, especially writing, speaking, and listening. Once mastered, these skills can be powerful tools in enabling the advisor to create an atmosphere of openness, understanding, and mutual trust leading t o a more successful and productive working operation. In desiring to communicate better, an advisor needs t o be aware of possible barriers that can block a message. These barriers may be built by either the sender or receiver, and responsibility for eliminating them also lies with both sender and receiver. The basic ingredients in communication can be illustrated (See Figure 1 .). Essentially a person (the sender) has a message that he/she sends by memo, lecture, direct advice, discussion, etc. (medium) to the people (receivers) with whom he/she wants to communicate. These messages create certain emotions in the individuals receiving them which may get back t o the sender (feedback).