| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Five Principles of Effective Communication
The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred. George Bernard Shaw I'm sure this has happened to you: a colleague has just done the exact opposite of what you wanted him to do. How can that be, you ask yourself. I told him exactly what I wanted. Yes, maybe you told him but did you check that he was listening, that he understood, that he agreed and that he would carry out the required action? Obviously not. The first principle of effective communication is to get appropriate feedback. The second principle of effective communications is to really connect with your audience. It is a fallacy that the mere sending out of information is a communicative act. It isn't, especially in the current climate where everybody is drowning in information that overwhelms on us all fronts. To connect with your audience you need to address their different needs as partners because communication is a two-way process. You have to decide what you want the outcome of your communication to be: are you trying to inform, persuade, shock, praise, criticize, shame, please, inspire? Whatever your aim you need to plan your message, and the medium for the message, to trigger the emotional and cognitive responses that will ensure you engage your audience. And how do you know you've done that? By getting the appropriate feedback of course. I learnt this the hard way. As part of the induction for new staff, I used to produce a manual containing all the operational information they needed. As time was always short, I would go through the headings with them and tell them to study it at their leisure. But nobody ever did. I was constantly bombarded with simple questions that were addressed in the manual. But it was my own fault. I should have set up a properly interactive session and followed that up with subsequent opportunities to study and discuss the information. The third principle of effective communications is to listen and understand first. Don't send out a message until you know what your audience needs. If you are concerned about the quality of somebody's work, for example, don't jump in and issue an official warning. First find out what the employee's perception is. Use active listening skills to really probe the situation. Reformulate the employee's words, for example, echo the last words of their sentences, invite them to say a little more if they are hesitant. That way, if you discover the family has a seriously sick child or a big financial problem, you will start to understand what is behind the poor performance. You can then decide on the appropriate action. The fourth principle is to understand that communication is more than the surface meaning of words. You need to be able to interpret other people's messages. This is just another form of feedback. Let's say you make an announcement and your group is discussing the information with you. They may feel inhibited about disagreeing openly, but read the signs because you don't have to be openly aggressive to show disagreement: note the body language, the kinds of words they use, the tone of voice. Somebody who is receptive will give you eye contact, will lean forward and will participate by asking questions, or offering to assist in some way. Those who are not in favour will look elsewhere, maybe fold their arms, use vague language instead of precise terms. The fifth principle is respect. I don't want to go over the top here because you may well ask who is she to question the behaviour of the world's leaders? But it seems to me that many of the international political problems we experience are the result of lack of respect for the other party. Sure, it would be great if other nations didn't want to develop nuclear weapons, if they had democratic governments, if they weren't religious fanatics. But we don't produce good outcomes by taking the view that western leaders know best. To communicate with those we want to persuade, we need to respect them. Just because they don't agree with us, doesn't make them inferior or wrong. They have cultural backgrounds and histories that have led them to a particular course of action. Only by respecting that hinterland can we expect to make progress towards cooperation. To translate that to the workplace, you will only gain the cooperation of employees if they know you respect them. If you base your communications on lies, if you try to mislead people, if you ignore their needs and rights, they will see that you don't respect them and they will lose respect for you. So where does all this lead us? Simply to the point that if you are having communications problems, you can now start analyzing where you are going wrong. What sort of feedback do you allow for? Do you understand how to appeal to people's emotions, their reasoning powers? Do you understand what makes your audience tick? Have you tried to find out about their real lives and what is important to them? And are you showing lack of respect by trying to hoodwink them? By addressing these questions as fully as possible you will go a long way towards improving the outcomes of your communications. Brenda Townsend Hall is a writer and communications trainer and an associate member of the ITAP International Alliance (http://www.itapintl.com). She will shortly launching a website with a partner: http://www.euroconsulting.co.uk
MORE RESOURCES:
Management - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Conflict at 36,000 ft This was supposed to be one of those sleepy flights that leaves late, crosses two time zones, and arrives at 11:00 p.m. How to Coach Your Emplyees and Increase Motivation It is easy to spot the difference between a work team that is "motivated" and one that just goes through the motions. The motivated team produces at or above the level expected by top management, has only occasional absences or tardiness, and low employee turnover. Innovation Management - Six Crucial Steps Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Why Training Fails Sometimes when I conduct my workshop on Effective Meetings, one of the participants will ask, "Where's my boss?"And I say, "Your boss claimed to be an expert on holding effective meetings."Then the person laughs. Four Employee Behaviors That Can Kill Your Business I found it important to clarify for employees what "deal-breaker" behavior was at my company. These are the things I insisted would not be tolerated and would lead to immediate or ultimate termination, depending on the nature of the infraction of these hard and fast rules. Inspiring Loyalty and Contentment in Your Workforce One of the first things I look at when I take over a new department or division is the attitudes of the managers and /or supervisors.I ask myself the following questions;Do they inspire loyalty in their staff?If not, why not?If they do, how do they do it?The workforce of any company is normally the lifeblood of the business, the oil that lubricates the machinery. Leaning Toward Change Seduced by the publicity surrounding the impact of Lean on organizations, it's no surprise that people new to Lean, upon hearing or reading such information, are anxious to implement a continuous improvement initiative in their organizations.What has received little publicity, however, and often frustrates Lean implementation, are the employees on whom Lean is often inflicted, albeit unwittingly. The Silent Assassin - What to Do When They Visit You? IntroductionThere are a group of people in the community that will some time in their career visit your business; the silent assassin.The silent assassin displays all the qualities of a serial killer as they silently wreck havoc in your business through unrest, sabotage, bullying and non-productivity. Diversity Training: The Worst Possible Reasons to Request Executive Funding You're on your organization's diversity committee. You have the best of intentions. The Punitive Approach to Marginal Performers MANAGING A MARGINAL PERFORMER: Often a marginal performer, even after therapeutic counseling, may not understand that his or her work is seen as substandard. The manager will have to ask the employee directly how the performance could be improved. Climb out of the Box - How to Hold Effective Meetings Out of the box thinking is a popular fad today. And yet, in order to leave a box, you have to realize that you are in one. Performance Reviews That Actually Improve Performance Employee performance reviews are one of the most dreaded tasks by most managers. It is hard to win here - you can never say enough good things, and one word of criticism is generally the only thing they will remember. How to Keep a Good Employee: Look, Listen, Learn Recently a client told me a wonderful story about how a change of attitude helped her to keep a valued employee.Angry and grumbling about one of the provisions in the company policy, the employee asked for a private meeting with my client, the owner of a small sales company, and began to tell her in direct terms what was wrong. Does Your State Like To Keep Your Workers Compensation Secrets Hidden? Workers compensation secrets are hidden deep within piles and piles of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. They are sometimes used as high priced paper weights for over worked government workers who may or may not be totally interested in seeing that you find the exact information that you are looking for. OJT - On The Job Training IntroductionManagers have two powerful ways of improving the performance and productivity of their subordinates, which are counseling and on the job training.Counseling is the process of helping a subordinate define and resolve personal problems that effect performance or in order to develop a good attitude to work. Problem Solving - Think Cleopatras Ass Picture the scene. Anthony pops down to the guardhouse, partly because he wants a break with the lads, but also because he has a problem. Innovation Management - how does the user benefit? Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Prepare A Winning CV There is every chance that elements of this article may not be appropriate for everyone in every situation - and that's precisely the point! Every situation is different. No two projects are the same. Have You Fixed the Broken Window? Left alone it doesn't take long for a building with a single broken window to rapidly become a building with many broken windows. Fixing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems. Using an Appraisal to Benefit Your Organization PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS BENEFIT THE ORGANIZATION:Appraisals help spot employees with potential for advancement. Appraisals bring attention to the so-called high-potentials - people who have both the will and the ability to excel in the organization.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
