Career Worth Living For!
Communicate to Succeed
How strong are your communication skills?
In this day and age in which technology is abundant, the way that we communicate with one another has evolved within the business world. While face-to-face communication is still important, learning how to communicate using digital technology is also crucial when entering the work force. To succeed in your career, seek to master your communication face-to-face, within a group, over the telephone and through email.
Face-to-Face Communication
There will be numerous opportunities for you to communicate with co-workers and superiors within your chosen career. There are a few things to keep in mind when working to display strong communication skills, including:
> Always make eye contact with the individual speaking to you
> Turn off all other electronic devices within a meeting to eliminate distractions
> Actively listen- seeking to understand what the speaker is saying by asking probing and clarifying questions as needed. Use statements like, “I may be wrong but what you are saying is …”
> Sit up straight and model your body language to match that of the person speaking to you (this established rapport)
> We unconsciously like people who are similar to ourselves. And a very easy work to establish rapport with someone is to behave like them through matching or mirroring body language, voice tone, tempo and pitch of speech.
Group Meeting Communication
In most organizations, group meetings are commonplace. You may be required to attend conferences, staff meetings or training sessions throughout your service within an organization. Follow these tips to increase your communication skills when within a group setting:
- > Sit near the front of the group or near the speaker
- > Take notes to show the speaker that you are engaged in what they are saying
- > Remain focused on the meeting’s objective(s)
- > Hold all questions until the designated question and answer session; refrain from interrupting the speaker
- > Use questions to clarify a point or communciate a point
- > If your question would benefit the group as a whole, ask it at the appropriate time
- > If your question is more individual in nature, speak with the speaker privately
- > To increase your credibility even if you don’t have a question, formulate a question that would show insight and attention to the subject matter and ask it during the question and answer portion of the presentation
Teleconference Communication
A growing number of organizations are using teleconferencing (sometimes called “conference calls”) or even webcasts to communicate messages to a large corporate audience. If you are on a teleconference, be sure to adhere to the following etiquette:
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> Place your phone on mute to eliminate any background noise while on the call
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> Participate in the call from a landline, not a cell phone to reduce interference or background noise or dropping from the call
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> Take notes to refer to after the call as well as to note any questions you have about the material being covered
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> Some teleconference call systems allows recording for retrieval and reference later. You can check with the teleconference organisor for information on this.
Email Communication
Email is the standard of communication in most organizations. Whether you are a student or professional, you should set aside time each day to handle emails. Here are some quick tips on communicating through emails:
- > Always proofread emails prior to sending them
- > Spell and grammar check all emails prior to sending them
- > Emails are made up by only words which lacks the necessary tone and body language to construct the intended meaning. Hence, use email sparingly to have conversations instead as the nature of an email can often be misconstrued and misinterpreted. Instead, schedule a phone call, teleconference or face-to-face meetings to discuss issues and matters.
- > When using emails at the workplace, avoid including personal comments or opinions (especially negative ones) as emails are hard records which can be forwarded (whether intentionally or not) or referenced.
- > Always review the “reply all” function to ensure that material is being sent to the correct parties. Be cautious when forwarding or replying an email to all or a distribution list as the content of one email may contain sensitive or private information not suitable for unintended recipients.
By working to master communication in each of these media, you will be improving your overall corporate communication.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Ethan Pang on January 21, 2009 at 4:17 pm, and is filed under Communication Skills, Life skills. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
It is very important to master the communication skills in our daily life, essentially communication at the workplace. To minimize misinterpretation, we can improve our corporate communication via practicing and mastering communication skills mentioned in the article.
However, I believe that critical thinking and strong common sense are the core components of communication to succeed.
When we can understand the messages from the sender, critical thinking and common sense can help in analyzing situation, identifying our strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats, seeking solution or alleviation. If we merely focus on communication skills but overlook importance of critical thinking and common sense, we may not be able to analyze and contribute to the discussion, hence to the organization as well.