Effective Communications and Soft Skills

Deborah Tannen addresses a range of communications issues that men and women encounter in the workplace and that are largely rooted in gender differences. These communications issues lies within every organization and the questions to most organization is how can we create a more equality for men and women? Communication is key factor for a strong business and working environment. There are many opportunities for poor communication and gender differences within every organization. Deborah Tannen, a linguistic scholar stresses the differences in communication styles between genders; I will like to cover some of them.

Communication Styles: Nonverbal communication and verbal communication are two known types of communication. Nonverbal communication refers to those actions that are distinct from speech. Example: In non-verbal behavior women will nod their head to show that they are listening but men leave the conversation thinking that a head nod means agreement and of course the man would be surprised to find out that the woman didn’t agree at all. Women are consider to be more nonverbally warmer than men with a tendency to smile and lean towards others during conversation. We all know that nonverbal communication includes facial expression, hand and arm movement, posture, position and other movements of the body, legs, or feet. Women and man posture differ in that women tends to keep arms next to their bodies and cross their legs while men often have an open wider posture arms away from their body and legs apart.

How about the way that we process information, when women have to make a decision they will often process and look at options out loud. Men tend to process internally until they come up with a solution. Women often think that the man is being unresponsive to suggestions because of this and men often think that women are looking for approval when they process out loud or don’t know what they are doing; some men think that a woman’s way of processing is a...