The Importance of Face-to-Face Communication

In today’s digital age the importance of face-to-face communication seems to be fading, as one can
go almost an entire day without actually interacting with people. People rely heavily on the
convenience of emails, text messages, and social media.
While it is impossible to deny the importance of these platforms and the way that they have
revolutionized communication, it is important to balance these online interactions with face-to-face
communication.

The Digital Dilemma

One issue with digital forms of communication is that they tend to be impersonal. Moreover, trying to
make your digital communications seem more friendly or personalized runs the risk of being
misinterpreted or viewed as unprofessional.
Miscommunication is one of the major causes of inefficiency and work-place conflicts. Many of these
issues can be attributed digital communications and the various ways they can be interpreted.
“When we assume that other people know what we’re thinking, and what we are expecting of
them, we do them a real disservice. Assuming that we’ve been clear about what we wanted,
we blame them when things don’t go as planned.” – Heidi Grant Halvorson, Forbes.

Face-to-Face Advantages
Non-Verbal Cues
You can gauge how interested someone is in what you are talking about by reading their body
language. If you are in a meeting and your colleagues are fiddling with their pens, or checking their
watches, you know that you have to:

1. adjust the tone of your voice or

2. use more exciting language to capture their attention.

Likewise, if colleagues and partners are actively nodding their heads and smiling, it is clear that they
are engaged with you and your message.

Effectiveness
Face-to-face communication and in-person meetings can boost efficiency. Instead of spending an
entire day e-mailing back and forth, you can hash out all of the details of a project in one go. These
meeting can also boost creativity as the overall energy will be higher so you can brainstorm and solve
a multitude of problems at one time.
Face-to-face communication can also be much more effective for those who may struggle with written
communication. Everyone has their own unique set of skills, and some people are much more fluid
and clear with verbal communication.
A Personal Touch
Adding the “personal touch” of face-to-face communication is much more important to those dealing
with outside clients and stakeholders. A sense of community comes with the ability to interact and
socialize. This sets the foundation for trust, and ultimately creates a better working relationship
While face-to-face communication is not always an option due to distance or conflicting schedules, it
is important that you do not forget about it completely. Whenever possible, take the time to interact
with your colleagues face-to-face and enjoy the benefits.
Face-To-Face Communication: 6 Reasons to Lead
in Person

That’s why when something is important, nothing compares to face-to-face communication. When a
leader needs to inspire people—or move them to action—the best way to do it is to look people in the eye
and tell them exactly what they need to know.

Communicating face-to-face sends a message before you say a word. People will not only hear what you
are saying, they will perceive the greater meaning of your tone, voice inflection, emotion and body
language. Taking the time to meet and chat with employees is an important way to emphasis key
messages as well as reiterate and expand upon ideas expressed in other channels. 

Here are six good reasons for leaders to make the time to communicate
face to face:

1. Demonstrate importance

Being there in person tells your audience they are important to you and the issue you are discussing
is worth your time and theirs. Your focus will get people’s attention and increase the potential for your
message to be heard. While clearly a positive aspect of face-to face communication, this is also one
of the reasons strategic focus should be placed on which topics to include on the agenda.

2. Interpret thoughts and feelings

When you are face to face, you can see and respond to people’s reactions – like facial expressions
and body language – as well as their tone of voice. Leaders have the chance to show they care by
asking probing questions and actively listening to understand the audience’s perspective. This is
especially critical when you need employees to adopt new behaviors to advance your goals, such as
in times of change.

3. Enhance credibility and trust

Leaders need to build employee trust to be effective. Face-to-face interaction allows you to share
your strategy, explain it clearly, and answer questions honestly. Employees see how actions align
with words, which enhances leaders’ credibility and trust. These sessions also create opportunities to
tell stories about how a particular strategy is being “lived” by employees and recognize employees
for positive actions.

4. Build relationships

Interacting directly with other leaders, managers and employees expands your network and
establishes shared experience that can enhance future communication. The activities needed to
build agendas and presentations build greater comfort with messaging; generally, if you need to
share information with someone else, you need to understand it yourself first. It also helps create
camaraderie that is the basis of cooperation and success across the organization.

5. Gather feedback

Meeting in person helps employees feel valued and gives them a chance to contribute input to
organizational strategies and communication. It gives the leader a chance to confirm people’s
understanding of key issues, identify gaps and encourage ongoing feedback and engagement.
Consider using interactive technology to gather “live” data.
 6. Address sensitive issues

Finally, one of the biggest benefits of face-to-face communication is demonstrating respect for
employees and a commitment to a successful outcome when you deal with a sensitive issue face to
face. Whether you are providing specific feedback to increase their success or delivering a tough
message, focus on your desired outcome and prepare by understanding the employee’s mindset
and possible reactions. Ultimately your involvement means a lot and taking the time to meet can help
turn a challenging conversation into a trust-building interaction. Don’t forget to follow-up on issues
discussed in future meetings and/or other channels to avoid diminishing the credibility you’ve
created.

For these reasons and more, face-to-face communication can be a very valuable tool for internal
communications. It can often be the antidote to our fast paced digital age. Be sure to keep open the
possibilities to leverage this tried and true channel to its fullest advantage in your future efforts.

What is face-to-face conversation? Advantages and disadvantages

MEANING OF FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION

Conversation means the informal discussion among the people. When one person
discusses his views, opinion to another person and exchanges their views in the presence
of both then it is called face to face conversation. It also includes the face-to-face
discussion on a particular issue. In this method, both the information receiver and sender
can exchange their views freely and fairly.

So, face-to-face conversation is an informal discussion through spoken language and

words on a particular issue among the people to exchange their views freely and fairly
weighs each other.

ADVANTAGES OF FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION:

In modern society, with the rapid development of technology, people have more choices
ways to communicate each other such as face-to-face, letters, emails or telephones.
However, I believe that face-to-face communication is much better than other types of
communication, such as a letter, email or telephone calls. The advantages of face-to-face
communication are described as below:

1. Responses immediately: When people communicate each other in person, they

can get a response immediately without misunderstanding. During the
conversation, people can not only hear a response from others, also see how they
are feeling; people can guest what will take place next, how the conversation is
about, which is very important to have a successful talk.
2. Express of feelings: Using face-to-face communication helps people express their
feelings, ideas much better. Instead of using words only when people choose
letters, emails or phone for communication, people can use eye contact, verbal
language in order to show their opinions. Scientists show that more than seventy
 percent people use body or verbal language in communicating; thus, it’s very
important for people use actions to express views.
3. Suitable for respect: Face-to-face communication enjoys yet another distracts
advantage, the message being communicated also gets the assistance of facial
expressions and gestures.
4. Suitable for discussion: Face-to-face communication is particularly suitable for
discussion, for there is immediate feedback from the listener. Face-to-face
communication provides the speaker with a much better opportunity for
adjustment. A twist of the lips, a frown on the forehead, a contraction of the facial
muscles point out that the message is not welcomed, then changes of tone or
sympathetically looking is to be needed. These adjustments are possible only in
face-to-face communication.
5. Conversation to learn: We learn a great deal via conversation, including
conversations with ourselves. We learn highly valuable life lessons.
6. Conversation to coordinate: Coordinating our action in ways that are mutually
beneficial. Anytime we negotiate one favor for another, we use conversation to
reach an agreement to transact.
7. Collaborate: Coordination of action assumes relatively clear goals, but many
times social interaction involves the negotiation of goals. Conversation is a requisite
for agreeing on goals, as well as for agreeing upon and coordinating our actions.

DISADVANTAGES OF FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION

The limitations of face-to-face communication are given below:

1. Difficult to practice in a large-sized organization: Face-to-face communication is

extremely difficult to practice in large-sized organizations, particularly if their
various units or departments are situated at different places.
2. Not effective in large gatherings: It is very difficult to get a message across to
large gatherings. Even though the speaker is addressing them face-to-face, the vital
 personal touch is missing. In the absence of a satisfactory feedback, his speech
lapse into a monologue.
3. Ineffective if the listener is not attentive: A limitation which the face-to-face
communication shares with oral communication is that its effectiveness is closely
linked with the listener’s attentiveness. Since human beings can listen to grasp the
message faster than the speed at which they are delivered, they will easily get
delivered thus making communication ineffective.

What is Face to Face Communication?

Characteristics
What is Face to Face Communication, What is Face to Face Conversation, Face to face
communication is an important medium of oral communication. Everyday people exchange
their ideas and opinions through Face to face communication whenever they get chance. It
is a widely used technique of oral but informal communication. Definition of face to face
communication, Meaning of face to face communication, Face to face communication
definition below here-

What is Face to Face Communication

So, “when a small group of people or only two persons involve them in informal talking
when they come to face to face, it is called face to face Communication.”

In other word, “when two or more persons talk to each other and see each other
physically, it can be termed as face to face Communication. It is one kind of two-way oral
communication as both the parties are involved here in conversation.” Business
Communication
Hence, all the informal talks that place when people come to face to face are considered
as face to face conversations. However, telephone conversation cannot be termed as face
to face conversation, though it is an oral communication.

But the presidents of two countries greeting each other with a smile and shaking hands
warmly are engaged in face to face conversation, though their communication is not oral
due to lack of uniqueness in language.

Characteristics of Face to Face Communication

Face to face communication is an informal oral communication technique. It has some

unique characteristics that are not found in other communication methods. The important
characteristics of face- to- face conversation are discussed below-

 Straight Communication: The important feature of Face to face communication is

that it is very much direct or straight. The parties involved in Face to face
communication exchange message directly without using any media. No other
communication technique is as direct as it is.
 Informal: Face to face communication is very informal. Under this method the
sender and the receiver exchange message freely and openly. No formalities are
maintained here.
 Mutual Relation: Face to face communication depends on the mutual relationship
between the sender and receiver of the message. Nobody can interfere in such type of
communication.
 No Cost Communication: Face to face communication is a no cost communication
in nature as it does not require any instrumental arrangements.
 Widely Used: In most of the cases, communication takes place in the form of face
to face conversation. Because of its inherent nature, it is widely used in every sphere
of life.
 Word of Mouth Effect: Another important characteristic of Face to face
communication is that it produces huge word of mouth effect. It helps to spread the
negative and positive news about anything of the message.
 No Legal Base: Face to face communication or communication does not have any
legal acceptability as it is not written. Face to face communication is almost like
invisible communication.
 Spread of Rumor: Face to face communication often helps to spread rumor that may
create negative image of the organization.
 Effect of Facial Expression: Another important characteristic of Face to face
communication or communication is that here the facial expression of the sender and
the receiver has immense effect of the entire communication or conversation process.
 Instant Feedback: An important nature of face to face communication is that it
produces instant and quick feedback.