The communicator aims to accomplish objectives and maintain credibility with their audience. Objectives should be specific, such as wanting 10 customers to purchase a product that month by describing its top three features. The appropriate style depends on whether the communicator simply informs, persuades, consults, or collaborates with the audience. Tone also matters and should fit the topic, objective, and audience. Credibility refers to how the audience perceives the communicator based on their position, relationships, expertise, image, and values. Techniques can enhance initial and acquired credibility.
2. The Communicator
• The communicator is a person who
communicates, especially one skilled at
conveying information.
• The person with ideas or information to
communicate.
• The communicator is one of the variables in the
communication model.
3. An effective communicator is concerned about
two important parameters:
• Objectives: What is to be accomplished?
• Credibility: How does the audience perceive
the communicator?
4. What is to be accomplished?
• State your communication objectives
• Choose the appropriate style
• Select the required tone
5. State your communication
objectives
• A communicator needs to specify
o the desired response from audience
o Specific means by which he plans to achieve that
response
• Vague notion of objective is not enough
• Specific definition will save time and make message
more effective.
• Start with general goals and define your
communication objectives.
6. Example
Instead of saying
“I want to tell my potential customers all great
features of this product”
They need to specify the desired response
“I want ten customers to purchase this product this
month”
And the means to achieve that response
“I will describe the three features my potential
customers will find most attractive”
8. Tell & Sell Style
1-Tell Style
• Here you try to explain or instruct
• Often used in upward communication
• Used in external communication while explaining policies
• 2-Sell Style
• Here you try to get your audience to do something differently
• You know the answer, and want persuade the audience
Use Tell & Sell style when you
• Have all the information
• Can understand info without any help
• Are concerned with a logical orderly quick decision
9. Confer & Join Styles
3-Confer
• Appropriate when you are trying to consult or interact with your
audience
• You do not know the answer and want to learn
4-Join
• Here you need and want high audience involvement
• Both you and audience act together
• Both collaborate and brainstorm to discover the answer
Use Confer & Join Style when you
• Need more information
• Need critical evaluation, opinions and ideas
• Are concerned about people feeling involved and carrying out decision
effectively
10. Tone
• Tone is difficult to define. It can be felt by the
audience when they listen to you or when they read
your written communication.
• The various tones commonly found in communication
are placid, agitated, playful, somber, modest, proud,
thankful, bitter, whimsical, factual, pleading, ordering,
fanciful, realistic, humorous, rapturous, indifferent,
threatening, angry, raging etc.
11. • Your tone varies with your subject and
objective. You might be serious about one
topic, humorous about another. Extremely
worried about one objective, less concerned
about another.
• All these variations make it impossible to
develop an absolutely right or wrong tone. In
business world you develop an appropriate
or inappropriate tone.
12. Example
You were trying to communicate the necessity
for keeping a certain work area clean.
• You can adopt a light tone:
“Lets all pitch in & get rid of the garbage we’ve
all been wading through in the work area”
• You can adopt a formal tone:
“This is to inform you that anyone found leaving
in the work area will be stopped one hour’s pay.
13. Select the required tone
• None of the previous mentioned tones is the right or wrong one
in any absolute sense; their appropriateness is based on your
analysis of the situation.
• The way your speaking or writing sounds, the feeling it
conveys, the mood you set is based on your tone.
• Tone varies as per the personality
• Tone varies as per the audience and relations with them
• Three guidelines for appropriate tone
• Base your tone on your communication strategy
• Base your tone on sound
• Base your tone on a positive attitude
• Sometime a humorous tone is also advised
14. Credibility
• Credibility is the audience’s perception of the
communicator.
• It means the perception your audience will
have about you when you communicate with
them.
• It involves their faith, belief, confidence,
reliability and trust in you.
15. Factors affecting Credibility
• Position or rank/status
• Goodwill or personal relationship
• Expertise or competence
• Image or attractiveness and dynamism
• Morality and fairness or values, objectivity and
sincerity
16. Initial Credibility
• Initial credibility is the audience’s perception of the
communication before the communication itself
takes places.
• The initial credibility is based on the audience’s
perception of who you are, what you represent or
what previous relationship you have with them.
17. Techniques for enhancing Initial
Credibility
• Rank: Emphasize your title or job position / status.
• Goodwill: Stress on the personal relationship you
have with the audience.
• Expertise: Use a resume short biography or list of
experiences/achievements.
• Image: Emphasize attributes of your organization
mention your association with organizations or
persons that are identifiable your audience.
• Fairness: Mention specific values you and your
audience share.
19. Techniques for increasing Acquired
Credibility:
• Rank: Associate yourself with a high-ranked person
and get introduced by him/her.
• Goodwill: Emphasize benefits or ideas that match
your audience’s goals and needs.
• Expertise: Associate yourself with an expert known
to the audience or quote from a well-known expert
or publication.
• Image: Identify yourself with the benefits or ideas
that match your audience’s goal or needs.
• Fairness: Mention values you share with your
audience.