Effective communication for business and personal success

LEVASANA DOUGLAS Eastern University

Continued from June 25

A company must define and communicate its overall vision to each department and member of the organization in order for individuals to understand and appreciate their role in the organization. Without this effort, individuals feel disconnected from the larger organization.

Communicating vision helps to enlarge the viewpoint of individuals to help them understand how their contributions are linked to the overall purpose and success of the company. Next teams must be given the opportunity to understand and define how their work links to and provides value to the vision of the organization.

If teams are given the opportunity to participate in defining and setting their own roles, goals, standards and norms, they will be empowered to put into action the answers to how they can help the overall company meet its vision.

These communication strategies will then give individuals the opportunity to expand beyond the basic task of their individual job requirements, giving them the opportunity to express and develop more independently while still meeting the needs of the overall organization, and decrease dependency and conflict.

Successful workplace communication:

* Improving poor communication is one of the most challenging problems in the workplace.

* It is ironic that with all the different ways of communicating we have available to us, the less effectively we actually communicate.

* This seems to be true...Be honest, do you or your employees spend a significant amount of time communicating by email or instant messaging.

* Sometimes a message, such as email or texts, can be misunderstood and cause confusion because you cannot hear the tone of someone's voice. If you have to send a message back to clarify, you may be wasting time and adding to your frustration because you have to wait for the reply.

* Personal contact is important - and not just to avoid misunderstandings. People simply relate to one another better face-to-face.

* You can have eye contact, read each other's body language and feel the energy the connection creates.

* If it's not possible to meet face-to-face, the next best way is talking of the phone because you can hear the emotion in the other person's tone of voice.

* Take time today to meet face-to-face when you need to communicate at work, and experience the difference it makes.

How to enjoy your business relationships

To feel good being in business, you want to have pleasant interactions with people. Rare is the person who truly enjoys working in an atmosphere of indifference, isolation or confrontation.

How can you help your staff, prospects, clients and vendors feel that way with you? Here are a few ideas:

* Express clearly how you understand their problems in your conversations or marketing copy

* Be genuine and manipulation-free in your dealings

* Act consistently with your values

* Treat everyone with respect including yourself (that means having clear boundaries)

* Be generous in acknowledging everyone's value while not losing sight of your own

* Protect the long-term relationships rather than the short-term profits (while acknowledging that you must be profitable to stay in business)

* Refuse the zero-sum mindset and instead work together to create a bigger pie.

Communication in any area of life is an essential basic. In business, effective communication can make the difference between closing a deal or not getting your message across to the other party.

So when in a business environment it is important that firstly the subject matter that you intend to communicate is something that you genuinely believe or are passionate about. This may be difficult if you are trying to sell a product that does not inspire you and yet you must find inspiration here if you are to communicate effectively.

Other than changing careers or scrapping the project, if there is no passion in what you are trying to portray then you need to find the passion and emotion from another source. It may be the bonus you will get by closing this deal or the personal satisfaction of accomplishing a difficult task. It may be the image of relaxing with a drink after the meeting is over. In other words you must find something that will spark YOUR enthusiasm and YOUR emotion.

These two factors are what will create a good communication platform and allow the other members of the meeting to pick up on this vibration spark. Always remember that what you are selling is never the product. What you are selling is how you feel about the product and how the product makes you feel.

Now going beyond selling, effective communication is vital in the actual work place itself amongst the employees. If you are having any difficulty then effective communication is the key. Let us say for example that you have an unwilling employee or one whose ego is out of control.

Your skills in communication can really turn things around. The first step in any situation would be to suspend all judgment and secondly to disengage from the negative aspects of the meeting. Focusing on the negative aspects will only breed further negativity. One needs to flip the situation around by bringing in a positive element.

If there is a negative statement being thrown at you, then start to make statements including phrases like "I want", "we can", "the company likes" and so on. What you are doing is deliberately and systematically turning the flow of the meeting around to one of positively and encouragement. You are emphasizing solution, not problem and you are portraying success, not failure.

These are all simple examples but do not be put off by this. It is amazing to watch a meeting or situation change before your very eyes as you inject this new vibration quality of positively, success and abundance. It is simple, it is effective and it allows you to be an effective communicator. From that point on you can achieve anything.

The following steps highlight the components of a successful organizational communication program.

* Establish multiple routes of communication (e.g., one-on-one meetings, group sessions, newsletters, intranet updates).

* Focus on themes of change and progress by highlighting projects that are going well and action items that are being delivered on time.

* Provide opportunities for employee involvement and feedback.

* Ensure that employees understand there will be problems; give them a commitment that the problems will be identified and addressed as early as possible.