Business Communication

[Jessica]

Improving Your Listening Skills

Effective listening

• Strengthens organizational relationships
• Enhances product delivery
• Alerts the organization to opportunities for innovation
• Allows the organization to manage growing diversity
• Gives you a competitive edge
• Enhances your performance and influence within your company and industry

Recognizing Various Types of Listening

You will become a more effective listener by learning to use several methods of listening:

• Content listening emphasizes information and understanding, not agreement or approval.
• Critical listening emphasizes evaluating the meaning of the speaker’s message on several levels (logic of the argument, strength of evidence, validity of conclusions, implications of the message, intentions of the speaker, and omission of any important or relevant points).
• Empathic listening emphasizes understanding a speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants (without advising or judging).
• Active listening means making a conscious effort to turn off their own filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other party is saying.

Understanding the Listening Process

Most people aren’t very good listeners—in general, people

• Listen at or below a 25 percent efficiency rate
• Remember only about half of what has been said in a 10-minute conversation
• Forget half of that within 48 hours
• Mix up the facts when questioned about material they've just heard

The listening process involves five separate steps:

• Receiving
• Decoding
• Remembering
• Evaluating
• Responding

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening

Good listeners look for ways to overcome potential barriers.

Selective listening is one of the most common barriers to effective listening.

Defensive listening—protecting your ego by tuning out anything that doesn't confirm your beliefs or your view of yourself—is even worse.

To become a good listener, recognize and overcome potential barriers throughout the listening process:

• Avoid interrupting or creating nonverbal distractions that make it hard for others to pay attention.
• Avoid selective listening, in which you pay attention only to those topics in which you have an interest.
• Focus on the speaker (because people think faster than they speak, their minds tend to wander).
• Avoid prejudgment, and listen with an open mind.
• ;Avoid misinterpreting messages because of the lack of common ground.
• Don’t rely on your memory.

To remember material, you must first capture it in short-term memory, than successfully transfer it to long-term memory.

Use four techniques to store information in long-term memory:

• Associate new information with something closely related
• Categorize new information into logical groups
• Visualize words and ideas as pictures
• Create mnemonics

[Jessica]

Improving Your Nonverbal Communication Skills

Nonverbal communication is the interpersonal process of sending and receiving information, both intentionally and unintentionally, without using written or spoken language.

Nonverbal cues affect communication in three ways:

• Strengthen a verbal message
• Weaken a verbal message
• Replace a verbal message

Recognizing Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication can be grouped into six general categories:

• Facial expression
• Gesture and posture
• Vocal characteristics
• Personal appearance
• Touch
• Time and space

Using Nonverbal Communication Effectively

To be a better speaker and listener, pay closer attention to nonverbal cues in every situation:

• Be aware of the cues you send when you’re talking.
• Be aware of the cues you send when you’re not talking (through clothing, posture, and so on).
• Be aware of the cues you receive when you’re listening.

If something doesn't feel right, ask the speaker an honest and respectful question.

[Jessica]

Developing Your Business Etiquette

Etiquette is now considered an essential business skill.

Poor etiquette can

• Destroy morale and drain productivity
• Drive away customers, investors, and other critical audiences
• Limit your career potential

Business Etiquette in the Workplace

Workplace etiquette includes a variety of behaviors, habits, and aspects of nonverbal communication.

Personal appearance may be thought of as an element of etiquette and sends a strong signal to managers, colleagues, and customers.

Personal appearance guidelines include

• Matching your style of dress to the situation
• Dressing modestly and simply
• Paying close attention to cleanliness and avoid using products with powerful scents
• Following company policy regarding hairstyle
• Smiling genuinely at appropriate times

Mobile phones can be disruptive, and some employers have banned or restricted their use.

Your phone habits say a lot about how much respect you have for the people around you.

Disrespectful choices that will reflect negatively on you:

• Selecting obnoxious ring tones
• Talking loudly in open offices or public places
• Using your phone right next to someone else
• Making excessive or unnecessary personal calls during work hours
• Invading someone’s privacy by using your camera phone without permission
• Taking or making calls in restrooms and other inappropriate places
• Texting while someone is talking to you
• Allowing incoming calls to interrupt meetings or discussions

Business Etiquette in Social Settings

When meeting people, learn about their cultural customs beforehand.

When introducing yourself, include a brief description of your role in the company.

When introducing two other people, remember to

• Speak both their first and last names clearly
• Offer some information to help them ease into a conversation
• Introduce the lower-ranking person to the senior-ranking person

When conducting business over a meal, be sure that you

• Choose foods that are easy to eat
• Avoid ordering alcoholic beverages or save them until after business is concluded
• Leave business papers under your chair until entrée plates have been removed
• Avoid using your cell phone in public
• Choose topics of conversation carefully (avoid politics, religion, other emotional topics)
• Avoid going overboard when chatting about personal interests
• Don’t complain about work
• Avoid profanity
• Avoid deeply personal questions
• Be careful with humor

Business Etiquette Online

Learn the basics of professional online behavior to avoid mistakes that could hurt your company or your career. Here are some guidelines to follow:

• Avoid personal attacks
• Stay focused on the original topic; don’t hijack threads
• Don’t present opinions as facts, and support facts with evidence
• Follow basic expectations of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization
• Use virus protection and keep it up to date
• Ask if this is a good time for an IM chat
• Watch your language and keep your emotions under control
• Avoid multitasking while using IM and other tools
• Never assume privacy
• Don’t use “reply all” in email unless everyone can benefit from your reply
• Don’t waste others’ time with sloppy, confusing, or incomplete messages
• Respect boundaries of time and virtual space