Conditions for effective communication and developing communication skills
School Communication
1.
2. Fact: School leaders spend 80% of their time communicating.
ISLLC Standards require the principal to facilitate, advocate,
ensure, collaborate, promote, and influence stakeholders. In
order to meet these expectations, the principal must have
various and effective communication skills.
Effective communication builds relationships, establishes trust
and gains respect (Green, 2009).
3. What is Communication?
Communication is the process of transmitting and
receiving information.
What is Effective Communication?
Effective communication is the process of transmitting,
receiving, and agreeing on the information transmitted.
4. Barriers to Effective Communication
Information Overload
Status Difference
Semantics
Filtering
Paralanguage
Interpersonal relationships
5. Reducing Barriers to Communication
Establish effective interpersonal relationships
Manage position power
Acquire feedback
Develop an understanding of cognitive dissonance theory
Practice active listening
Develop an understanding of communication accommodation theory
Display empathy
Understand the ethics of conversation
6. Interpersonal Relationships
• Establish a culture of trust
• Reduce the amount of defensiveness
in conversations
• Create equity in relationships with stakeholders
• Acquire an understanding of your communication
style
(Gibbs, 2007)
7. Position Power
Uses the position as principal to gain compliance of stakeholders by
threatening to impose sanctions or punishment
Uses the position as principal to gain compliance of stakeholders by offering
rewards or recognition
Influences the activities or actions of other stakeholders based on the title
of principal
9. Cognitive Dissonance Theory
When attitudes or behaviors are in opposition to the beliefs
of an individual; brings about unpleasant physical reactions
Individual will try to eliminate dissonance through avoidance
Can be reduced by adding new cognitions or changing old ones
10. A humorous look at cognitive dissonance theory to
gain understanding:
11. Active Listening
Sensing – process of receiving signals from a sender
and paying attention to them.
Don’t form an opinion until speaker is finished
Avoid interrupting
Remain involved with the speaker
Evaluation – understanding the message, evaluating
the message, and remembering the message
Empathize with the speaker
Organize ideas about the message
Responding – giving feedback to the sender
Nonverbal cues (eye contact, nodding, facial expression
Send back signals using “I” messages
Clarify the message
12. Communication Accommodation
Theory
To gain approval and emphasize or minimize social differences,
individuals tailor their communication to the listener by
changing the language, accent, dialect or paralinguistic
Features. Nonverbal behaviors can be changed as well. This
behavior can be unwelcome by others if it is perceived as
presumptuous (McCann & Giles, 2006).
13. Display Empathy
The ability of the sender of information to put themselves in
the place of the receivers. This sends the message to the
receiver(s) that they are valued, their opinions matter, and
their feedback is appreciated. Principals who display empathy
build respect for individuals (Green, 2009).
14. Ethics of Conversation
Principals that lead conversations that include ethics advance
a sense of value, equity, trust, and acceptance. If these
qualities are not part of the conversation, people do not
communicate effectively. They often feel misunderstood,
frustrated, defensive, or angry (Sobel & Ornstein, 1996).
15. “In the area of leadership,
these is no talent more
essential than one’s ability to
communicate” (Guarino, 1974, p.1).
16. References
Adams, S. (1992, August 9). Dilbert. [Cartoon].
Gibbs, J. (2007). Defensive communication. In D.A. Kolb, J.S. Osland, & I.M. Rubin
(Eds), The organizational behavior reader (pp. 225-229). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Green, R. (2009). Practicing the art of leadership: A problem-based approach to
implementing the ISLLC standards. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
McCann, R., & Giles, H. (2006). Communication with people of different ages in the
workplace: Thai and American data. Human Communication Research, 32(1),
74-108.
Sobel, D., & Ornstein, R. (1996). The healthy mind, healthy body handbook. New York,
NY: Time Life Medical.
Notas del editor
Use the opening slide to engage audience in the topic.Ask them which 5 words they see first when looking at the wordle.Have them compare the 5 words they noticed first with the people sitting around them.Do the word choices have anything to do with their sense of communication as a principal?
The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards have recently been developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers in collaboration with the National Policy Board on Educational Administration (NPBEA) to help strengthen preparation programs in school leadership. The Program in Educational Leadership uses the ISLLC standards as a requirement for the student’s learning portfolio.There are six standards. Each standard is followed by the Knowledge required for the standard, the Dispositions or attitudes manifest by the accomplishment of the standard, and Performances that could be observed by an administrator who is accomplished in the standard.All standards require communication skills, however, Standard 1 is the most explicit and comprehensively tied to communication.Standard 1: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.KnowledgeThe administrator has knowledge and understanding of: learning goals in a pluralistic society the principles of developing and implementing strategic plans systems theory information sources, data collection, and data analysis strategies effective communication effective consensus-building and negotiation skillsDispositionsThe administrator believes in, values, and is committed to: the educability of all a school vision of high standards of learning continuous school improvement the inclusion of all members of the school community ensuring that students have the knowledge, skills, and values needed to become successful adults a willingness to continuously examine one’s own assumptions, beliefs, and practices doing the work required for high levels of personal and organization performancePerformancesThe administrator facilitates processes and engages in activities ensuring that: the vision and mission of the school are effectively communicated to staff, parents, students, and community members the vision and mission are communicated through the use of symbols, ceremonies, stories, and similar activities the core beliefs of the school vision are modeled for all stakeholders the vision is developed with and among stakeholders the contributions of school community members to the realization of the vision are recognized and celebrated progress toward the vision and mission is communicated to all stakeholders the school community is involved in school improvement efforts the vision shapes the educational programs, plans, and actions an implementation plan is developed in which objectives and strategies to achieve the vision and goals are clearly articulated assessment data related to student learning are used to develop the school vision and goals relevant demographic data pertaining to students and their families are used in developing the school mission and goals barriers to achieving the vision are identified, clarified, and addressed needed resources are sought and obtained to support the implementation of the school mission and goals existing resources are used in support of the school vision and goals the vision, mission, and implementation plans are regularly monitored, evaluated, and revised
Communication is the process of sharing information, thoughts and feelings between people through speaking, writing or body language. Effective communication extends the concept to require that transmitted content is received and understood by someone in the way it was intended. The goals of effective communication include creating a common perception, changing behaviors and acquiring information.ComponentsThe act of communication begins with internal processing about information or feelings you want to share with someone else (called encoding). After encoding, the message is sent through either spoken or written words, which completes encoding. At the other end of communication is receiving and interpreting what was sent (called decoding). The recipient can and should confirm receipt to the sender to close the communication loop.ContextConsidering the context of communication improves its effectiveness. Context takes into consideration the age, region, sex and intellectual abilities of the recipient. It is also useful to assess receptivity and the emotional state of the sender and receiver at the time of communication. For example, when speaking to an elementary school child about the importance of brushing teeth, you should choose different words and examples than you would when talking to a teenager or an adult.Body LanguageAlso called nonverbal communication, body language includes posture, position of hands and arms, eye contact and facial expression. Children learn to read body language as a way to enhance understanding of the speaker's intent. Body language that is consonant with the verbal content improves understanding. Body language that is inconsistent with content creates a question in the mind of the listener about the real message. For example, someone may be saying, "I really want to hear your opinion on this." However if the person is looking away, has his arms folded or is typing a text message at the same time, his body language communicates an entirely different message. Effective communication requires that content and body language give the same message.
If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information. If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver (ho-hum) with an information avalanche.Status Difference - The status dimension is inherent to many different social encounters and thus affects how people interact with each other verbally and nonverbally. However, the fact alone of possessing high status might only marginally explain the exhibited nonverbal behavior. For instance, a high-status leader can adopt a directive leadership style and show behaviors such as frequent interruptions, a loud voice, and averting gaze while the other is speaking. By contrast, a high-status leader can equally well adopt a participative leadership style and show behaviors such as infrequent interruptions, a soft voice, and looking at the other while he or she speaks. Semantics -this can seem like an easy one, but even people speaking the same language can have difficulty understanding each other if they are from different generations or from different regions of the same country. Slang, professional jargon and regional colloquialisms can even hurt communicators with the best intentions.Filtering is the deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favorable to the receiver. For instance, If an elderly widow loves animals, presenting her the value of contributing to a specific charity to help finance rescue shelters for animals rather than explaining its more global mission may be a good example of filtering in communication. To the extreme, this is what "spin doctors" do. Most of us filter our communication with others simply in presenting the message in ways we believe the receiver will best understand.The most obvious form of paralanguage is body language or kinesics . This is the language of gestures, expressions, and postures. In North America, for instance, we commonly use our arms and hands to say good-bye, point, count, express excitement, beckon, warn away, threaten, insult etc. In fact, we learn many subtle variations of each of these gestures and use them in certain situations. We use our head to say yes or no, to smile, frown, and wink acknowledgement or flirtation. Our head and shoulder in combination may shrug to indicate that we do not know something.Interpersonal relationships will be discussed in detail on a later slide.
Communication barriers exist all around us. Misinterpretations abound in our discussions with team members. We delete, distort and generalise information in every conversation. And yet we think we clearly understand what others are saying and why they are saying it.These barriers exist because we put them there. There are many ways we interpret information given to us by others, and these cause us to have a mis-alignment of understanding. How can we reduce the barriers that effectively blind us to meaning and comprehension? Here are eight ways:Establish effective interpersonal relationshipsManage position powerAcquire feedbackDevelop an understanding of cognitive dissonance theoryPractice active listeningDevelop an understanding of communication accommodation theoryDisplay empathyUnderstand the ethics of conversation
As an instructional leader, you realize how vital the interpersonal relationships between students and teachers, teachers and other teachers, teachers and administrators, school staff personnel, parents, and community members can be for creating a positive successful learning environment for all students. You also realize how detrimental negativity can sometimes be to positive student progress. Our duty as school administrators is to identify, encourage, and maintain behaviors that are associated with the modeling and nurturing of interpersonal relationships that encourage student success.Successful educational leaders are successful planners. They have developed the ability to collaborate with their leadership team, teaching staff, students, and parents including all stake holders associated with the operation of a successful school. The planning process allows participants to become involved in the implementation and completion of the plan and to have a voice in the decision making process thereby empowering those who will be effected by the plan itself.An effective campus principal is constantly involved in establishing and maintaining a professional environment that includes the modeling of positive interpersonal relationship techniques. It becomes essential for the effective instructional leader/principal to lead in establishing a vision for what positive interpersonal relationships should look like and sound like whether the relationship is between teachers and students, teachers and other teachers, teachers and parents, teachers and administrators. This includes all school personnel and the community surrounding the campus.
Legitimate power arises from the culture of society – power is delegated legitimately by higher establishment authorities to others. It gives leaders the power to control resources and to reward and punish subordinates. All managers have legitimate power over their subordinates. Because of his or her position, the principal has a certain degree of authority. He or she has the right to expect that tasks they give to his staff should be executed.Expert power comes from specialized learning and arises from a leader’s knowledge of information about complex situations. This power is based on the experience and skills of the principal, which are respected. Coercive power refers to the capacity to punish subordinates or to threaten to do so. Leader’s with coercive power can threaten an employee’s job security, make changes to the employee’s work schedule, and, in extreme cases, use physical force. The principal might in some instances force the staff to do tasks in a specific way. Failure might lead to punishment in the form of unpleasant things to do. This power thus uses fear as a motivator.Reward power refers to the capacity to control and administer things valued by others. This is based on the ability of the principal to offer rewards like acknowledgement, merit awards and recommendation for promotion for excellent work. Referent power is also based on admirable characteristics of the principal. This might result in educators wanting to support the actions and managerial style of the principal. Apart from these forms of power, the principal must be able to exercise personal power to motivate and gain the collaboration of other people. He must also be able to persuadepeople to change their attitudes or opinions. Personal power refers to the leader’s ability to develop followers on the strength of his or her personality. This power is based on the relationship the principal is able to develop, both in and out of school. This includes leading staff, working with peers and getting the best out of everyone to serve a common purpose.
Static communication creates a vacuum. The speaker assumes the message is received but has no feedback from the listener. This lack of feedback means the speaker fails to modify the message to help the listener better understand the speaker's attitude and position. When principals fail to create open feedback channels, they operate in a communication vacuum. Principalscan't improve their messages to teachers, and teachers aren't able to ask questions about operations or make suggestions for school improvement.Feedback helps stakeholders answer questions about school improvement and helps community members receive school information. Regular staff meetings help teachers and staff collect feedback from each other to enhance school-wide communication. Opening discussion on any topic during a weekly meeting allows the staff to provide feedback to the principal about upcoming decisions. Clarification feedback doesn't need to be done in person. A suggestion box and owner email account provide the same opportunity for staff feedback to clarify school policies. Open communication for students and parents using suggestion boxes and online forums also helps clarify school policy and procedures.
In 1957, Leon Festinger published a theory of cognitive dissonance, which has changed the way psychologists look at decision-making and behavior.At its heart, cognitive dissonance theory is rather simple. It begins with the idea of cognitions. Cognitions are simply bits of knowledge. They can pertain to any variety of thoughts, values, facts, or emotions. For instance, the fact that I like ice cream is a cognition. So is the fact that I am a woman. People have countless cognitions in their heads.Most cognitions have nothing to do with each other. For instance, the two cognitions mentioned before (that I am a woman and that I like ice cream) are unrelated. Some cognitions, however, are related. For instance, perhaps I have a sweet tooth and I like ice cream. These cognitions are "consonant," meaning that they are related and that one follows from the other. They go together, so to speak. However, sometimes we have cognitions that are related, but do not follow from one another. In fact, they may be opposites. For instance, perhaps I like ice cream, but I am also trying to lose weight. These two thoughts are problematic -- if I eat ice cream, then I may gain weight, and if I really want to lose weight then I cannot eat ice cream. These types of cognitions are referred to as "dissonant."The basic idea behind cognitive dissonance theory is that people do not like to have dissonant cognitions. In fact, many people argue that the desire to have consonant cognitions is as strong as our basic desires for food and shelter. As a result, when someone does experience two or more dissonant cognitions (or conflicting thoughts), they will attempt to do away with the dissonance. There are several key ways in which people attempt to overcome, or do away with, cognitive dissonance. One is by ignoring or eliminating the dissonant cognitions. By pretending that ice cream is not bad for me, I can have my cake and eat it too, so to speak. Ignoring the dissonant cognition allows us to do things we might otherwise view as wrong or inappropriate.Another way to overcome cognitive dissonance is to alter the importance (or lack thereof) of certain cognitions. By either deciding that ice cream is extremely good (I can't do without it) or that losing weight isn't that important (I look good anyway), the problem of dissonance can be lessened. If one of the dissonant cognitions outweighs the other in importance, the mind has less difficulty dealing with the dissonance -- and the result means that I can eat my ice cream and not feel bad about it.Yet another way that people react to cognitive dissonance is by adding or creating new cognitions. By creating or emphasizing new cognitions, I can overwhelm the fact that I know ice cream is bad for my weight loss. For instance, I can emphasize new cognitions such as "I exercise three times a week" or "I need calcium and dairy products" or "I had a small dinner," etc. These new cognitions allow for the lessening of dissonance, as I now have multiple cognitions that say ice cream is okay, and only one, which says I shouldn't eat it.Finally, perhaps the most important way people deal with cognitive dissonance is to prevent it in the first place. If someone is presented with information that is dissonant from what they already know, the easiest way to deal with this new information is to ignore it, refuse to accept it, or simply avoid that type of information in general. Thus, a new study that says ice cream is more fattening than originally thought would be easily dealt with by ignoring it. Further, future problems can be prevented by simply avoiding that type of information -- simply refusing to read studies on ice cream, health magazines, etc.
Allow time for participants to read cartoon and make observations.
Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others.We listen to obtain information.We listen to understand.We listen for enjoyment.We listen to learn.Given all this listening we do, you would think we'd be good at it!In fact most of us are not, and research suggests that we remember between 25 percent and 50 percent of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they pay attention to less than half of the conversation. This is dismal!Turn it around and it reveals that when you are receiving directions or being presented with information, you aren't hearing the whole message either. You hope the important parts are captured in your 25-50 percent, but what if they're not?Clearly, listening is a skill that we can all benefit from improving. By becoming a better listener, you will improve your productivity, as well as your ability to influence, persuade and negotiate. What's more, you'll avoid conflict and misunderstandings. All of these are necessary for workplace success!The way to become a better listener is to practice "active listening." This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent.In order to do this you must pay attention to the other person very carefully.You cannot allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around you, or by forming counter arguments that you'll make when the other person stops speaking. Nor can you allow yourself to get bored, and lose focus on what the other person is saying. All of these contribute to a lack of listening and understanding.
Howard Giles In-Groups and Out-Groups: Reflects attraction to groups to which we are not members and creation of our group boundaries and disassociation/exclusion of others. Premise: Communicators adjust their speech styles (change vocal characteristics- -accent, language, dialect, rate, volume, etc.) with others as a means of expressing values, attitudes, and intentions. Impact: An individual’s perception of another’s speech determines his or her behavioral and evaluative response. Convergence: Movement toward another’s communication style because of a conscious or unconscious desire for social integration, seeking or showing approval, identification, or communication effectiveness with another. Participants might display mutual, symmetrical convergences. (Status difference) Divergence: Occurs when speakers wish to maintain social distance from others. Occurs toward undesirable groups. May accentuate differences. Over-accommodation: Overdoing accommodation—patronizing Sensory Over-accommodation (adapting to physical limits) Dependency Over-accommodation (treat others as lower status) Intergroup Over-accommodation (treats others stereotypically)
Everyone wants to be heard and understoodUnderstanding another’s viewpoint, especially one that is the opposite of yours, takes empathy and listening skills. Empathy means the ability to understand another viewpoint so well, you could just about walk in their shoes, regardless of whether you agree with them or not.Counselors often describe a mental approach called ‘unconditional positive regard’. This is where you suspend judgment and your ego needs in order to pay full attention to the other person.You start by communicating your intention to understand their position. “I can see you are upset. Help me understand why you are upset.” And then let them tell their story without interrupting or being defensive. As they talk, you need to communicate your understanding. “That must be so frustrating for you” or “I can see now why that would annoy you.” These responses must be genuine, of course.Although empathy is intangible, its effects can be surprisingly real. I have seen an upset person do a 360 degree turn and become accommodating and co-operative once they realize I understood their position and did not judge them for their feelings.On the downside, some people can mistake your empathy for the unconditional support of their viewpoint. Just because you understand someone’s viewpoint, you don’t have to agree with it or even like it. That remains your prerogative.Everyone wants to feel valued and includedThe best way to build inclusiveness is to show your respect. Ask for feedback and opinions, value everything you hear and show your appreciation. Talk to and listen to everyone on the project. Start with the intention that everyone has something to offer.I once had to work with someone who insisted everything was a mess. I persisted in involving him in all discussions. I often asked him in private why he thought a particular issue was unsolvable. Funnily enough, most of the time, he did have something valuable to say. Over time, his abrasive demenor abated as he realized I actually cared about what he was contributing.
Bring ethics into school conversationAvoid controversy by advocating for the inclusion of an ethical dimension to school conversations or dialoguesConversations are then governed by reasonParticipants provide evidence for their viewpointParticipants are more open to persuasionDialogue presumes that all participants are open for persuasionJudging information and views must be left outAdvances value and trust among stakeholders.
Close with quote Empower the new principals with the desire to become effective communicatorsEncourage follow up
Thank them for their attendanceGive my contact information