Q4. “Self confidence is an essential interpersonal variable for effective communication”- discuss?

Self Confidence is an essential interpersonal variable for effective communication.

Lack of self confidence can be critical barrier to effective communication. A person must have the self confidence to communicate his achievements, his personal capabilities and his prospects. The communicator must build and develop himself a justifiable self confidence. The feelings of anxiety and worry are closely associated with the low self confidence. A person with such feelings perceives himself unable to communicate with the people in any situation. He feels difficult to face the different faces in practical life.

Self confidence is a belief and faith in one’s own ability to speak. The manager when he is communicating a piece of information gives in the belief that he is transmitting messages in such a way that the receiver receives it and understands the message. In other words, the communicator must have a great deal of trust in oneself’ or in one’s own power of communication. Oral communication is more than a physical process. It has also psychological aspects like establishing justification, developing confidence, etc.

Mental qualities find their highest manifestation in self-confidence. With trust and belief a person can communicate more effectively. The old proverb says, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Similarly, where there is self-confidence, there would be good communication. It is an art and craft which can be perfected by experience and practice but cannot be fully taught.

The process of building up of self-confidence consists efforts of mental exercise and situation dealings that have to be undergone before a person may hope to acquire the full control over his self or over his will. If the self and the will are strong fanned by the desired goals, the way is generally open to him, the way of all the tenacity and perseverance that a person has. It is, therefore, not easy to have a determined belief or trust outright. One has to experience in various interpersonal situations of communication and work for it with all efforts availing opportunities and one has to develop and grow self-confidence gradually and steadily. Analysis of interpersonal communication situations reveals that one good interaction everyday adds to his self-confidence as one every work will eat into it and hamper its development.

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It is not always easy to cultivate one’s self-confidence without proper feedback. Managers just occupying positions or beginners may have tempera-mental capabilities and in these formative periods of interactions, one can make or unmake one’s self-confidence. Experience, practical situations are not yet fully set and there is enormous scope for improvement of self-confidence. Statements can be confusing. Feedback from Listener provides clarification. Here are some ways to ensure proper feedback:

Ask the listener general questions “did I explain myself clearly? “or am I making this easy to follow”

Ask the listener specific questions to ensure the listener understands what you are saying.

Offer further explanation to correct a misinterpretation

M.P. Wolf had suggested maintaining a personal achievement journal. They suggested recording particulars of success, failures, experiences which can help to “learn, improve and achieve. “From those summaries, write quarterly and yearly accounting for yourself. By reviewing your achievement journal, you will give yourself an ongoing personal inventory of self-insight, performance, and future direction. You will have relevant data for documenting the development of your career. And you will have a communication aid for constantly developing justifiable confidence in yourself.”

M.P. Wolf and others have suggested the following fundamental steps for self-confidence:

(1) First rehearse alone

(2) Rehearse in front of try-out group. Self-confidence is related to interpersonal communication. One can experience trust when his relationship with another person is characterized by various situational contexts. According to Rossiter and Pearce, the following are much situationalContext: (1) Contingency: “Contingency” means a situation in which the results of another person’s actions significantly affect.

(2) Predictability: “Predictability” means the degree of confidence that one may have in his expectations about the other person’s behavior or intentions.

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Establishing self-confidence neither happens by magic nor there technical, manual or readymade guide which specifies the steps to be followed to make self-confidence. In fact there is no sure way to make self-confidence. Developing self-confidence sometimes encourages convincing others in interpersonal communication. This, trusting one’s own strength, however, almost always will make others to distrust the speaker.

Another technique for building goodwill among an audience is to make the listeners to feel important. Due importance should be given to the listeners. The purpose of speech is to make them to understand the message.

This can be achieved by showing appreciation for listeners and by taking a personal interest in listening to them and clarifying their doubts. It is an art and tact of the speaker to make them feel important.

Does not answer questions with questions.  Do not dominate the conversation. Never become preoccupied with one's

own thoughts when others talk.  Use open ended questions. Ask questions that cannot be easily answered

“yes” or “no”. Ask for or get feedback to know how successful you have been in

communicating and getting your ideas across. This will help make you even better at good communication in the future

Listeners’ goodwill is a major object of oral communication. If one lack confidence, he probably will try hard at making himself feel comfortable. Take the focus off oneself and make others comfortable by complimenting them, listening, and smiling. Indicating acceptance of suggestions by the listeners will go a long way towards achieving a successful speech. Indicating attention and acknowledgement of what is being suggested will produce positive and favorable reaction from listeners. It will create a friendly confident feeling towards the communicator. Much of interpersonal communication depends on how one is definite in dealing with a situation.

One must appraise his interaction with others’ in terms of his self-esteem. With high Esteem one will believe that what he is saying has meaning and value, and so will confidently express his thought and opinions. Low esteem communication is often muddy and ineffective.

Every person communicating has to endeavor to overcome stage fright. Stage fright is a misdirected awareness on the part of the communicator. When the sender of a message or speaker lacks self-confidence, one may sense nervousness,

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a tensing of muscles, a quivering voice, etc. In any case, self-confidence is more important which creates a positive outlook in the person. Below are the ways to gain confidence over stage fright:

Concentrate on your subject: Many speakers lack confidence because they think too much about themselves.

Put oh a happy face: If you are upbeat, your audience will be too. Likewise if you are depressed, they will pick upon that.

Remember to be the boss: the manthra is “I know what am talking about. That is why they asked me to be the speaker”. Trust in your own ability. If you trust yourself, the audience will too.

See the audience as non threatening: Forge a link between the audiences and yourself. The more complete your audience analysis, the more likely you are to see them as friendly.

A successful manager always endeavors to establish self-confidence among the subordinates. Stanley Coppersmith has suggested three conditions relating to self-confidence. They are:

(1) Managers have to make total acceptance of his subordinates. Whether a jobfaces a technical problem, interpersonal conflicts or lacks organisational support,effective managers use their technical, interpersonal or political skills to instil confidence in team members so that the tasks get done and the job is moved forward

(2) To have clearly defined and enforced limits.

(3) To have managerial respect for individual action within the defined limits.

It is the motivation and encouragement of his subordinates which promotes free flow of communication within the organization in turn building up a right self-confidence among the people working in the organization. This not only establishes good formal relations but also informal relationships which are conducive to effective communication.

The below, if followed logically, one can achieve self-confidence:

(1) Message preparation. Avoid forgetfulness, which results in stage fright.

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Don’t memorize the speech; memorize the main ideas. Memorizing your speech word for word keeps you locked in a rigid mental pattern that makes every word out of your mouth dependent on remembering the word before it. What if you don’t remember a sentence, or skip a whole paragraph? Forget a line or lose your place and you could wind up stammering nonsensically and feeling like a fool while you try founderingly to get yourself back on track. And if you bring a printed copy of their speech up there with you, then you only wind up squinting and fumbling around through your text to find where you left off and what comes next.Instead, just memorize the main ideas of your speech. Learn the material you’re speaking about, not so much the words you’ve scripted to discuss them. Instead of carrying a printed speech up to the podium with you, carry a bunch of numbered index cards, with one single main idea on each. This way, you project a confidence in your material and a natural, personable, comfort and ease of manner in talking about it that comes from letting the words pour out of your mouth naturally, conversationally, as you broach each new main idea in turn

(2) Practice aloud, rehearse more times, and imagine audience. The choice of words used also has an impact on your level of confidence

(3) To hear one’s own voice by tape recorder. Not to memorize talk.

(4) Dressing and looking sharp can make a person feel better and more confident about themselves. By looking good and taking care of personal appearance, it will affect the way you act and communicate with others

(5) Think about your audience, but not about yourself.

(6) Begin slowly; stage fright disappears after starting.

(7) Smile more often. Smiling sends the signal to your brain that you’re happy and things are going well & under control. What a great way to start feeling more confident.

(8) Speak as often as you can. The more the practice, the easier it is to speak with confidence. (9) Adopt a powerful, confident posture. This will usually be standing upright, head facing slightly up, chest pushed forward and breathing fully and deeply.

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(10) What and where you focus on while talking can impact your confidence levels. Looking down, on the floor, on the road and on the steps you are taking will not do much good for your confidence. Keeping eye contact with the other person will help keep your attention on them. It also stops your mind from wandering

(11) Vocal: You will learn how to keep under control oral, spoken, uttered and eloquent words and vocal cords properly relaxed so that the voice is projected without any distortion.

(12) Self-control and Resistance: Being in control shall enable you to check your involuntary movements such as excessive hand gesturing, shifting from one foot to another, swaying, head ducking and trembling and develop the ability to recognize and resist the impulse to rush ahead, instead of pacing yourself with control and awareness

Some people hold the belief that you can be a good speaker if you just believe in yourself and mentally prepare yourself beforehand. This theory states that confidence and poise are just a matter of will power. But, in fact, confidence and poise are two things, which are the result of painstaking and conscious efforts made to harness such skills. For example, it is impossible for you to drive your car in heavy city traffic, just on the basis of your confidence and without having any previous training or experience of driving. Obviously, in the absence of such training you are bound to hurt others or get hurt yourself. Therefore, wisdom demands that you pick up the driving skills slowly and systematically through training. Similarly, the moment you venture out for a public speaking or presentation without possessing the requisite skills, howsoever hard you may try to convince yourself that you can speak well in public without training, you are sure to find your throat dry, your heart beating fast and your memory deserting you even at the cost of your effort.

A systematic self-training will make you learn how to control physical nervousness and how to make positive use of the underlying pressure within your body that causes such symptoms. For example, a heartbeat that is faster than the usual can be a sign of fear, but when it is kept under control, the same faster heartbeat can convert into energy, enthusiasm, vitality and drive you to deliver and invigorating and enthusiastic speech.

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Q1. Your company‘s product is facing competition from rival product introduced recently. You have been asked to visit the southern zone and investigate the matter. Prepare a report containing your findings to be submitted to the chairman.

Ans.

Our product XYZ is facing huge competition in the market recently due to following:

Price:

There seems to be a price war in the market.

Many of our competitors have priced their products lower than ours, especially the new firms perhaps with point of view of penetrating into the market. This has blinded the customers.

Some of the competitors are using psychological pricing technique. i.e it is the practice of setting products at odd prices like Rs.199 or 99.

Some of the competitors are selling their products lower than list price for temporary period. They call it special event pricing.

Some competitors are providing quantity discounts (price reduction to buyers who buy in large quantities), seasonal discount (Price reduction to buyers who buy during off seasons).

Some of the competitors provide rebate and allowances. Rebate is deduction from the quoted price. It is designed to compensate claims like delayed delivery, deterioration in quality of products etc. Some also provide allowances like trade in allowances i.e price reduction granted for turning in old item when buying new one.

Promotion:

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Consumer Promotion, dealer promotion and sales force promotion are being encouraged by our competitors.

Consumer promotions are those incentives which are intended to inform the customer and at the same time stimulate the sale. Some Example are as follows:

1. Free samples are given to customers at the hyper markets. This gives customers to use the product before making the buying decision.

2. Sometimes more than 1 item is packed and made available at reduced price.

3. “Price off” label is printed on the package.

4. Sweepstakes are some sort of lottery. Customer who buys the product is given a coupon. A lucky draw is conducted and winners are given gifts.

5. Consumer contests are held by some companies, wherein individuals are invited to compete on the basis of creative skills. These kind of contests popularizes the product/brand in the society.

Trade promotions are incentives which are offered to wholesalers, distributors, and retailers etc to motivate them to push the particular brand in the market. The dealer thus keeps a large stock of the particular brand.

Some of our rivals are paying the dealer display allowances i.e allowances are being paid to the dealers for displaying & advertising their goods.

Some competitors are also giving few goods free of cost to the middlemen.

Sales force promotion are promoted within some companies to motivate their sales team to increase their sales productivity. Some of the methods are as below:

1. Awards are given to those who achieve more than a specific percentage of their sales quota performance

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2. Awards are given on account of special achievements.

3. Commission is given based on sales done in annual basis

4. Sales contest is held. It is a competition among sales members of the firm.

Competitors are using many advertising media for persuading and reminding consumers. The various types of advertising strategies followed are as below:

Indoor Advertising:

Products are illustrated in magazines & newspapers.

Radio advertising is also very common. Radio advertising consists of 2 methods: Spot announcement and Sponsored programs.

Film advertising is also very common. It is also of 2 types. One way is films contain advertisement of products. Other way is advertisements are shown in the theatres before the start of the movie or during the interval.

Advertisement thru television is a powerful medium. TV combines all the elements of communication like illustration, audio , video etc.

Outdoor Advertising:

Posters or placards displayed on public places like street corners, railways station etc

The advertising Board is displayed at focal point of big cities where the potential buyers are expected.

Electronic and Neon signs. These are glass tubes or signs lighted with attractive colored lights and so attract the attention of the people.

Sandwitch board advertising: These are two advertisements boards connected at the top having space in the middle. A fan with fancy dress carries the boards and attracts the attention of people sitting or walking .

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Sticker advertisement is also used on big buses etc

Direct Mail advertising: Sending out circulars, letters, pricelist, catalogue, gifts etc directly to consumers brining about a more personal touch.

Promotional advertising is also used by many firms. Displays are made in the shops in show cases & show boxes. It makes easier for customers to select. Exhibitions are also conducted to demonstrate to the public its uses and merit.

Product:

We are selling our good in loose and it lacks proper packaging and labeling.

Packaging and labeling of some of our rival products seems to act like “silent salesman” encouraging impulse buying. Packages are made very attractive describing in detail the product features giving consumer’s confidence. Some of our competitors have very attractive containers. Many people buy the products for the sake of getting the containers. While in the possession of the customer, it induces the customer to reorder the same brand and thus stimulate “repeat sale”. Label is a guarantee for the standard of the product. Hence it raises the prestige of the product.

Product warranty is being incorporated by many of our rivals. Warranty creates confidence in buyers. It is a promise to the customer that the product is average saleble quality, will do what the product is normally expressed to do and will last a responsible period of time.

After sales services is also stressed upon by some of our rivals. It includes maintenance & repairs at low charges as well as quick access to spare parts and accessories at reasonable prices.

Distribution

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In order to ensure that the right quantity is available at the right price at the right place, our competitors involve a large number of intermediaries/middlemen in the distribution of goods.

The wholesalers and retailers perform a number of functions such as sorting out, accumulation, allocation and assorting. The wholesaler more specifically performs the functions which can be broadly grouped under market coverage function; sales contact function, inventory holding function, market information function (Whole sellers are close to customers geographically and so they know about the customers requirements and expectations), credit and finance function. The retailer is the ultimate connecting link between the wholesaler and the consumer. He takes possession of merchandise from the wholesaler, provides inventory facility etc.

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