Tips on communication with people in the workplace

Effective interpersonal communication isn’t just speaking – it’s listening, writing, demonstrating, observing AND remember that communication isn’t a one way street. An essential management skill is in ensuring two way organizational communication – employees to management and management to employees.

Your effective performance as a manager requires communication styles and techniques appropriate for different people and appropriate styles for different occasions. Only by employing a range of communication skills will workplace communication and workplace relations be optimized.

You’ll communicate very differently with the manager who only started on the job yesterday compared to a manager who started with the organization last year.

You’ll certainly communicate very differently with the guy on the team who always needs convincing, compared with the guy who’s an enthusiast and always ready to try a new idea.

In today’s diverse workplace, effective business communication in a key skill for supervisors and managers and particularly if conflict resolution is involved.

You almost need (and probably actually do need) a different style of communication for every person with whom you interact. I guess we all have many more styles than all the people we know because we communicate in a variety of ways with each person, depending on what the communication is about.

Human interaction is subtle, intricate and very complex. We all know that there is a huge range of styles of interpersonal communication with a spouse or close friend.

In the workplace effective communication is essentail all the time and by all methods -verbal and non-verbal, formal reports, letters and e-mail .

Plan ahead is a good rule for interpersonal communication at work. We plan ahead without conscious effort most of the time. “When I get to work, I must go see Joe about xxx and I’d better pick my moment if he’s busy so maybe I’ll take that diagram with me when I go to see him”.

Wherever you want to communicate an idea or give information successfully, the idea or information is best communicated in a logical sequence with an introductory sentence, a beginning, a middle, an end and a summary

An introductory clue at the outset about where you’re leading is very helpful so an employee can tune in. People find it much harder to actively listen when they have no idea where a conversation is going because our minds hunt around, trying to compute the words and signals in order to tune in and settle to what’s being said.

Use clear and concise vocabulary, particularly at the beginning of a conversation or training session. Don’t begin with similes or parables or anecdotes or any confusing vocabulary which may have a couple of meanings.

With co-workers, use an appropriate level of jargon. It’s not clever to show you’re an “old hand” by talking to new employees in incomprehensible acronyms. If you’re inducting staff and you’re going to use jargon and acronyms, say the names or words in full first and then add the acronym. Be sure you have the understanding of your listeners.

Writing reports is an essential skill in effective communication. Short sentences are recommended and also bullet points. An image or graphics can be very useful. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but too many images make it difficult to sustain a flow and are a distraction.

Test understanding and be sure a group with whom you’re communicating really get what you’ve said. Ask for feedback – don’t ask “Do you understand?” …..people will simply say “yes” and you have no idea whether or not they have understood.

Instead, ask appropriate questions… “So where shall we begin?” or “What do you think our first action should be?” etc to test understanding.

Email is a communication method which has become vexing. It’s a great tool which can improve the speed of organizational communication but it must be efficient and effective rather than a burden.

Appropriate is the key in communication – be sure it’s appropriate.

• Don’t be casual when you should be formal.
• Don’t be formal when you should be casual.
• Don’t be verbose when you should be brief.
• Don’t be brief when a lecture is what is needed.
• Don’t use jargon at an induction session.
• Use jargon in a meeting of old hands.
• Don’t use anecdotes in a finance meeting.
• Use anecdotes at a team member’s pre-wedding party.

Plan, be clear and concise and use images and diagrams appropriately. Use short sentences, short paragraphs and bullet points appropriately.

Appropriate, appropriate, appropriate

• 1:1 with People
• Meetings & Presentations
• Motivation