Communication Channels

have you ever had an argument over email
that just seemed to get worse and worse
well how did that work out for you you
may have decided to choose a different
channel of communication to resolve that
problem in this video we're going to
talk about communication channels and
why the channel of your choice really
matters so let's get into the details
[Music]
hello there and welcome back friends and
if this is the first time we're meeting
I'm Alex Lian and this channel
communication coach is here for your
professional development as an emerging
leader as someone who's trying to bring
out the best and the most excellence for
all the people that you are working with
and today we're talking about
communication channels and how that can
affect the kinds of messages you're
choosing to express and through what
channels so let's define this really
quickly communication channel is the
pathway through which you are
communicating the conduit the message is
traveling through from point A to point
B and the choice of channel matters
they're not all made equal and you can't
accomplish all the same kinds of things
through any communication channel so
let's start with the standard I am going
to go on the record and say that
face-to-face communication is and always
will be the standard against that every
other communication channel is judged
against because it's going to be with us
it's never going away it's been with us
throughout history and here's why it
involves not just visual communication
not just this auditory sound of our
voice not just the kinesthetic touch
part of it but it also has this
immediacy where you see the other person
has a whole person they are right in
front of you a live in-person human
being and there's a ton of sensory
information that helps us read into
little behaviors and figure out whether
other person's coming from and read the
atmosphere in that conversation and
that's why face-to-face communication
and you know it could be one-on-one
group even a presentation that's why
it's considered this standard and it's
great for teaching and learning for
problem solving and collaborating it's
good for all those
of sophisticated and complicated
interactions it's wonderful for that
it's not good at everything though as
you'll see in a moment now the next
level is video now video has almost all
the features of live face-to-face
communication but it has a few
differences first of all it could be
live it also could be recorded and of
course you can't reach out and touch
people but most of the other aspects of
face-to-face communication are preserved
through video for example you could be
video chatting with someone live in real
time and that can feel very personal
that's why video is awesome for teaching
and learning things anytime I want to
learn how to fix something around the
house I go onto YouTube I watch a couple
of videos on plumbing or whatever it is
and then I can go do it be very hard for
examples for me to learn anything about
plumbing just by reading a book just by
reading text very hard but because of
the visual nature of video it's very
powerful and the next level is the voice
any kind of audio only communication
channel so that could be a voice mail it
could be a podcast for example or it
could be a phone call a live phone call
now we still have many of the humanizing
elements of in-person and face-to-face
and video but you lose some so you still
have the warmth of the person's voice
you still have the timing of the
conversation and you can still
communicate a lot of emotion just by
hearing the voice that's why when you
really want to connect with someone you
don't just text them you call them it's
a more personal interaction and it's
also a little bit more of a demanding
interaction takes a little more time to
have a good conversation that it does to
send a simple text now the next level
down is social media and I'm not going
to argue too much about why I'm placing
it here but social media is good in a
lot of ways because it can be multimedia
right could be images or video or text
but this is really good in a way because
it helps you connect with a group of
like-minded people it's a social network
it's great for networking and connecting
with people possibly around the world
that you never would have met before
now the conversations are only going to
get so personal connected because if
you're in real trouble they can't come
over to your house it
not that deep of a connection in a way
but it can be very personal and
satisfying but social media and any kind
of network to communication is great for
developing what you might call a online
community and I'll put that quotations
because it's a community but it's online
it's not like a community in your
neighborhood but it's really powerful
for meeting people that you would never
otherwise meet who have the same
interest the same passion the same
beliefs and it can be very satisfying in
that way and then the last level we'll
talk about is text-based communication
this can be an actual text you're
sending on your phone it can be an email
I suppose it could be a telegraph if
anybody uses those anymore
but this is a way this is one of the
channels of communication that is
overused if you think about it have have
you ever really needed to talk to
someone face-to-face but instead you
just sent a text and then it went
sideways it went all wrong or you have
this argument over email I was talking
about someone I know and who's a mentor
to me I was about to have a little
conflict over email with them and
instead of letting it escalate he just
says you know it sounds like we should
talk in person and then we skipped all
the email arguing and just talking to
person and it was worked out within a
couple of minutes because face-to-face
is humanizing but text-based
communication only that channel is
dehumanizing you don't have to look them
in the eye you don't have to hear the
sound of their voice you're not looking
at images of them with their family it
can be dehumanizing so text-based
communication is not typically the best
choice now how does this matter for us
well if we are in the professional world
if we are leaders or emerging leaders we
have to be deliberate about choosing the
best communication channel for the job
we're trying to accomplish if you need
to work something out relationally you
really need to get face to face but if
you just need to transmit data to remind
somebody of something to send them a
date to give them some kind of file then
of course you can use email text or some
kind of other text-based communication
possibly even social media but if you
really want to move forward and
collaborate
deepen relationships you have to start
moving toward face-to-face communication
for that most important step so I want
to invite you to download a free
resource that I've created one of the
topics that we often hit on this channel
is presentation skills a really
important communication skill and I
created a downloadable PDF with seven
tips to help make you a more confident
and compose presenter so what you do is
you click on the link that's in the
description below and I'll also pin it
as the first comment below the video you
enter your email and then I send you
this PDF downloadable quick guide on
email these are the kinds of things that
most presenters struggle with but with
this guide I'll help move you in that
direction of confident and compose
presenting right away so thanks for
tuning in I look forward to see you in
the next video
god bless