Effective communication will reduce frustration in the workplace and help you advance your career. Effective communication skills can and should be learned and practiced. We have seen here some general points. We will discuss some more specific examples in the section below.
12.3 Communication in the Scientific and Medical Community
In the previous section, we discussed general principles of effective communication. We focused on communication between two or more people engaged in a conversation. However, these lessons can apply beyond simple conversations to written communications or various sorts of group communication. In this final section, we will examine some situations that are especially relevant to those in the scientific and/or medical community.
12.3.1 Written Communications
One of the major forms of communication in the scientific community is through publications. You will likely communicate via formal written communication − papers and posters, for example − throughout your career. In order to communicate effectively, you must apply the tenets of effective communication above to your writing. This includes clarity, honesty, and brevity in preparing scientific papers. You must ensure that your papers effectively communicate the message without overstating your findings. A number of chapters deal with the specifics of how to achieve these goals in the various parts of the formal scientific paper.
Other important written communications are less formal. Among the most common are email and text message communications. You will likely communicate daily with colleagues through email. Again, you can refer to the general description of effective communication above. There are, however, a few points that relate specifically to email communication. When writing an email or text, you must consider the context and the status of the person you are writing to. For example, while informal greetings and words may be appropriate when communicating with peers at the same level, communication with a supervisor or with the head of a department (or any time you do not know the person well) should be more formal. For those communications, it is important to make sure you have used correct grammar and spelling and an appropriate title (e.g. Dr. Smith versus Joe). You should also avoid greetings such as “Hey” or “Hi” unless the person is a close peer. Finally, you should avoid abbreviations of words such as “u” for “you” or “2” for “to” in these more formal email communications. Once again, in these types of communication you must consider the audience and your relationship to them.
Email communication is instant and thus allows us more interaction with people than ever before. General guidelines for response times include 24–48 hours during the business week. On weekends or during holidays, you should be understanding if a response takes longer.
12.3.2 Informal Meetings
During the course of your career, you will often attend informal meetings. These may be lab meetings, for example, that gather members of the wider research team to present data and discuss issues in their research. The goal of these meetings is to practice effective communication of ideas and to suggest alternative strategies to achieve goals. However, these meetings can often be the scenes of hostile interactions. It is important to practice active listening and tolerance of others' viewpoints in these meetings. Respect for the other person's hard work will prevent feelings of defensiveness. On the other hand, if you are the target of criticism, you should attempt to listen to the critique of your work without becoming overly emotional and defensive. Consider the person's thoughts and ideas. If you still disagree with their analysis, express this idea assertively, but without the use of insults or speech that can escalate the situation.
Setting a positive tone is important to prevent the development of an idea that a meeting that takes place on a weekly basis is not useful. If that happens, people will come to the meeting with an idea that this is a waste of their time, already setting the stage for ineffective communication. If you are in the position as head of a lab, keeping the meeting to a scheduled time, making sure everyone has the opportunity to talk and express their ideas, and intervening in situations where conversations become too heated will ensure that a negative feeling is not associated with these meetings.
Finally, we also saw that physical conditions can influence how effective communication is. If you are able, try to schedule meetings in a comfortable place and monitor the overall temperature and other controllable physical conditions in the room where the meeting is taking place.
References
1 Gordon, T. (2003). Teacher Effectiveness Training. First Revised Edition. New York: Three Rivers Press.
2 Ioannidou, F. and Konstantikaki, V. (2008). Empathy and emotional intelligence: what is it really about? International Journal of Caring Sciences 1 (3): 118–123.
3 Mikoluk K (2014) Principles of Communication: 7 Pillars of Business Communication. Udemy https://blog.udemy.com/principles-of-communication/.
4 Pfeiffer JW (1998) Conditions that Hinder Effective Communication.
5 Salovey, P. and Mayer, J. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality 9 (3): 185–211.
6 Waugh, J. (2014). Real Dialogue Require Tolerance: Hostility Is the Antithesis of Effective Communication. The Daily of the University of Washington.
13 Learning Charisma
R. Shane Tubbs
Seattle Science Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA
13.1 Introduction
The often enigmatic term charisma is important in influencing others and in that regard, useful in such endeavors as business, relationships, leadership, parenting, and academics. One might consider this characteristic as an external projection of one's internal security and confidence. As this is an important quality in a productive and elevated career in academia, the following chapter will define and give methods for developing and improving charisma.
13.2 What Is Charisma?
Charisma comes from the Greek word χ
Werrell (2013) stated that charisma is the rare quality that makes people like you, even when they don't