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Effective Communication

Human Resources Management and Supervision

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Communication

Define communication- Process by which information is exchanged

Forms of communication: talking, listening, body language, writing

Supervisors need to be good at communication in order to be effective

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Effective Communication

Verbal The message itself, the words you say

Vocal Element of your voice: the intonation, projection and

resonance of the voice that carries those words.

Visual What people see: your face and your body

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Verbal-Vocal-Visual

Most effective communication:

Verbal 7%

Vocal 38%

Visual 55%

Total 100%

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Nine Behavioral Skills

1. Eye Communication

2. Posture/Movement

3. Gestures/Facial Expression

4. Dress/Appearance

5. Voice/Vocal Variety

6. Language/Non-Words

7. Listener-Involvement

8. Humor

9. The Natural Self

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Types of Business Communication

Downward communication: the passage of information from an organization’s higher levels to its lower levels.

Upward communication: the passage of information from an organization’s lower levels to its higher levels.

Lateral communication – the passage of information between peers, or members of the same level.

Customer communication – the passage of information from the organization to customers and client

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Types of Business Communication continued

Downward communication: Necessary to execute decisions and to give

employees information about the organization

Examples: company and department newsletters

Email

Recorded messages

Reports

Booklets

Meetings

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Types of Business Communication continued

Upward communication: Initiated by employees who seek to inform or

influence those who are higher up in the organizations hierarchy.

When supervisors have a good relationship with their employees, and when two-way communication between levels of the organization flows freely, upward communication is very powerful.

Examples: employee suggestion boxes, open employee meetings, focus groups, one on one sessions with supervisors/management

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Types of Business Communication continued

Lateral communication: Occurs daily in all operations between employees and

managers, before and after the employee is ‘on the clock’ Predominantly informal Examples include:

Business conversation to achieve the requirements of their positions

Mentoring or ‘on the job’ training between employees

Friendly exchange of information: conversations, breaks, etc.

Gossip, rumors and ‘grapevine’ communication

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Types of Business Communication continued

Customer communication: Occurs continuously The customer can be internal or external

Internal customers are people you work with

Examples include: department meetings, across department lines (back of the house to front of the hours), phone, email

External customers are your guests or clients

Examples include: Customer service, phone, email, annual reports, marketing, menu

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Communication MythsOften create misconceptions and misunderstandings and become

obstacles to communicating effectively.

“We communicate only when we want to communicate.”

“Words mean the same to me and to you.”

“We communicate chiefly with words.”

“Nonverbal communication is silent communication.”

“The best communication is a one-way message—from me to you.”

“The message I communicate is the message that you receive.”

“There is no such thing as too much information.”

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Some facts about Communication

You need feedback

It can be formal or informal (i.e. grapevine)

It needs to be meaningful, and have a purpose if it is to be remembered

You need to understand the role of emotion, appearance, and prejudice

You need to understand the role of the “status quo”

You need to concentrate in order to truly listen

You need to use language that is appropriate and understood

Listening and writing skills can be improved

continued

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Facts continued

Timing is important

Listening and writing skills can be improved

If the communication is fact finding (i.e. an interview) you need to use open ended questions

You need to summarize long discussions

You need to understand body language overrules talk

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Barriers to Effective Communication

In addition to misconceptions about the communication process, there exist barriers that can decrease your ability to communication effectively.

Distractions

Cultural differences

Poor timing

Emotions

Personality differences

Prejudices and perceptions

Differences in knowledge and assumptions

Stress

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A Model of Interpersonal Communications

Speaker begins by: Thinking about the message her or she is about to send

The speaker sorts and selects from: Knowledge, Past Experience, Feelings, Attitudes Emotions

The speaker puts the message into: Words, Actions,Signs, & Symbols

The speaker sends the message to the listener by:Speaking, ActingWriting

The listener:Receives the message

The speaker:Receives feedback from the listener

The listener sends feedback to the speaker by:Speaking, ActingWriting

The listener puts the message and his or her reaction into:Words, Actions,Signs, & Symbols

The listener sorts & selects from:Knowledge, Past Experience, Feelings, Attitudes Emotions

The listener begins by:Thinking about the message and reacting to it

Speaker begins again by: Thinking about the message her or she receives from the listener

The speaker sorts and selects from: Knowledge, Past Experience, Feelings, Attitudes Emotions

The speaker responds to feedback from the listener by putting a message into: Words, Actions,Signs, & Symbols

The speaker sends the message to the listener by:Speaking, ActingWriting

The listener:Receives the response from the sender

The speaker:Receives the listener’s response

The listener responds to the speaker by:Speaking, ActingWriting

The listener responds to feedback from the speaker by putting his or her reaction into:Words, Actions,Signs, & Symbols

The listener sorts & selects from:Knowledge, Past Experience, Feelings, Attitudes Emotions

The listener again begins by:Thinking about the response to his or her feedback

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Speaking Skills

Effective speaking, whether before a group or in a conversation with an individual, generally contains an introduction, main body and conclusion.

The introduction should: Get the listeners attention

Obtain the listener’s interest

Communicate your purpose for speaking

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Speaking Skills continued

Main body: Present key points in a logical manner

Use spoken cues to tell your listener what’s important

Ask questions of listener to make sure they understand

Conclusion Summarize your message

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Speaking Skills continued

Other things can also impact how your message is heard and perceived:

Volume, pitch, tone and pace all impact your speaking skills

You should try to vary your speech

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Listening Skills

Daily we face sounds and communication of every kind, coming from all directions

To decipher the sounds, we hear selectively (we notice some sounds while tuning others out)

Hearing is largely passive, in other words we don’t have to work at it.

Listening is not the same as hearing, we have to become involved.

Learning to listen well will enhance your communication with others.

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Obstacles to Listening

Obstacles to listening are created by many of the listener’s own bad habits.

Mind wanders

Tuning out

Distractions

Prejudices

Too many notes

You must become actively involved in listening.

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Four Stages in Active Listening

1. Focusing

2. Interpreting

3. Evaluating

4. Responding

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Active Listening Skills

· Mirroring—repeating exactly some of the speaker’s key words

· Paraphrasing—using your own words to restate the speaker’s feelings or meaning

· Summarizing—condensing and stressing the speaker’s important points

· Self-disclosure—showing how you feel about what the speaker said

· Questioning/clarifying—asking questions to ensure understanding

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Open-Ended Questions

Ask open-ended questions to:

· Begin a discussion—“What do you think about …”

· Understand the speaker’s ideas—“Can you tell me …”

· Examine a touchy subject—“How do you feel about …”

· Avoid influencing an answer—“Tell me more about …”

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Specific Questions – Information Seeking

Ask specific (or closed-ended) questions to get details:

· Who

· What

· Where

· When

· Why

· Which

· How many

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Keeping the Speaker Speaking

· “I understand.”

· “Tell me more.”

· “Let’s talk about it.”

· “I see.”

· “This seems very important to you.”

· “I’d like to hear your point of view.”

· “Really.”

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Non-Verbal Communication

Nonverbal communication, or body language, is also important in day-to-day interactions. As a supervisor, you will interpret the physical signals that employees, peers, and managers send when interacting with you or with others. The spoken word is not the only means of human expression! We communicate with:

Facial expression

Eyes

Posture

Gestures

Body movement

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Forms of Business Communication

Management-by-walking-around (MBWA) Hands on approach; listening, observing, learning, communicating

Upward communication: Originates with the organization’s lower levels and filters to its higher levels.

Downward communication: Information that begins at some point in the organizational structure and cascades

down the chain of command to inform or influence others

Formal communication: memos, reports, suggestion boxes, employee newsletters or bulletin boards

Employee Grapevine: rumors and gossip Provides useful, off-the-record feedback from employees Managers must be prepared to listen, understand and interpret the information

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Business Writing Tips

Good writing clearly communicates information or ideas, as briefly as possible, to intended readers. At the same time, it obeys certain rules of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation.

Before you begin to write:

Have a specific reader or audience in mind

Know your objective

Decide which essential information to include

Determine how to present the information

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Business Writing Tips continued

Use an Outline:

Introduce your topic

List significant points Keep to your objective and sort all points into logical

order that supports your objective

Use plain English and short sentences

Summarize and Conclusion

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Business Writing Tips continued

Before you distribute your written communication, take a final look:

Is it organized well?

Is it clear?

Is it concise?

Is it accurate?

Is it courteous, friendly, professional?

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Business Writing Tips continued

Today’s communication includes substantial written communication in email. Remember these simple tips:

Mind Your Manners: Think of the basic rules you learned growing up, like saying please and thank you. Address people you don't know as Mr., Mrs., or Dr. Only address someone by first name if they imply it's okay to do so.

Watch Your Tone: It is very difficult to express tone in writing. You want to come across as respectful, friendly, and approachable. You don't want to sound curt or demanding. Never type in CAPITALS – this generally denotes SHOUTING!

Be Concise: Get to the point of your email as quickly as possible, but don't leave out important details that will help your recipient answer your query.

Be Professional: This means, stay away from abbreviations and don't use emoticons (those little smiley faces). Don't use a cute or suggestive email address for business communications.

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Business Writing Tips continued

Use Correct Spelling and Proper Grammar: Use a dictionary or a spell checker — whichever works better for you. While you can write in a conversational tone (contractions are okay), pay attention to basic rules of grammar.

Add disclaimers to your emails. It is important to add disclaimers to your internal and external mails, since this can help protect your company from liability.

Read the email before you send it. A lot of people don't bother to read an email before they send it out, as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.

Do not use an email to discuss confidential information. Sending an email is like sending a postcard. If you don’t want the information to be displayed on a bulletin board, don’t send it. An email can altered, copied, and forwarded. Be careful what you email!

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Key Terms

Downward communication: The passage of information from an organization’s higher levels to lower levels

Empathy: The ability to see circumstances from the other’s viewpoint or to understand the other’s feelings

Feedback: The reaction of a listener or reader to the verbal or non-verbal communication of a speaker or writer. Feedback may evaluate something the speaker/writer said or did, and may provide corrective information.

Lateral communication: The passage of information between peers or members within the same organizational level.

Mirroring: Exactly repeating a speaker’s key words to show the speaker how a key word or phrase sounds. It indicates the listeners' interest in the speakers’ words and desire to understand them. Mirroring helps both you and the speaker determine the importance of any words the speaker uses. Also called ‘restating’.

Nonverbal Communication: The gestures and body movements a person uses, including facial expression, eye contact or movement, and posture. Our body language may contradict our words or reveal information we don’t intend to reveal. We can hear certain types of nonverbal communication, such as laughter, weeping, whistling or tone of voice.

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Key Terms continued

Open-ended questions: Questions that permit the applicant to respond in a free, unstructured way. Such questions are broad and ask for responses of more than just a few words.

Outline: a list of significant points someone makes before starting to write a memo, letter, or report. It helps the writer organize his or her thoughts before actually starting to write.

Paraphrasing: Using your own words to restate what a speaker is saying, or to reflect the content of the sender’s message as well as the feelings behind the content. Paraphrasing helps to clarify what the speaker is saying. It also helps the speaker, because a paraphrase reveals how the speaker's message sounds to others.

Summarizing statements: Statements that condense parts of what the speaker said and stress important points. Use them to focus attention on a certain topic, to show that you agree on specific points, to guide the speaker to another part of the subject, and to reach agreement on specific points in order to end the conversation.

Topic sentence: A sentence that contains the main point of a paragraph and shows what a paragraph is about. Using a topic sentence as a guideline, the writer logically developes the rest of the paragraph.

Upward communication: The passage of information from an organization’s lower levels to its higher levels.