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Why Communicate? Imagine that you’re applying for a job and you…
Why Communicate?
Imagine that you’re applying for a job and you are convinced that you are the best candidate for the position. What would happen if your application letter and resume were badly organized and poorly written? You would probably not even be selected for an interview. Most human resources managers toss application letters with spelling and grammar mistakes into the “circular file” ~ also known as the garbage bin.
An important life lesson: always remember to edit your work and to use spell check and grammar check
Now imagine that you’re working for a company and you come up with a great idea that could help the company make a lot of money. What would happen if you couldn’t properly communicate your money-making idea to the boss? Again, you’d be out of luck.
Oral and written communication skills are an integral component of every managerial and leadership position today. Effective communication allows managers to successfully conclude negotiations for new contracts and finalize sales. It also allows managers to properly train workers, and most importantly, it allows managers to keep customers informed and happy.
Typically, job advertisements for high-ranking, high-paying positions in both the private and public sector state that the ideal candidate should have “strong interpersonal skills” or “strong group presentation skills” or be able to “articulate ideas effectively, orally and in writing”.
You may have the required technical skills to enter a career in business, but you will need to be able to communicate effectively to let others know of your talent and open the door to leadership success.
Benefits of Effective Communication
Both managers and employees use communication to make good ideas become reality. They also use communication to avoid potential problems and solve current problems. By communicating effectively, both managers and employees can make informed decisions and gain a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of their co-workers. This results in a more cooperative and healthy work environment, which in turn results in a reduction in stress, absenteeism, and health problems, and an increase in employee morale.
By communicating effectively, a company can gain a better understanding of the needs and wants of all their employees . . . and then respond to meet them. This results in a positive and supportive work environment.
The Communication Process
Whether you are communicating at work, at home, with friends or with strangers, on the phone or on the computer, every form of communication involves five elements. How well you understand and utilize these five elements will determine whether you are an effective or non-effective communicator. The five elements are displayed in the following diagram.
Start with a Message
The communication process begins when the sender formulates an idea in their head. This idea can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the person’s environment, mood, cultural background, or the situation the person is in.
For example: Imagine it’s a Saturday night. You are going to watch your favourite show on Netflix, and you are hungry. You think about a pizza, so you have to decide which restaurant to order it from, and which toppings you want to put on your pizza. Now you must communicate that idea to the restaurant.
Sender Encodes the Message
Once you, the sender, decide on the idea, your brain encodes, or converts, the idea into words and/or gestures. These words and/or gestures will give meaning to the thoughts you wish to convey. At this stage, you need to encode your message in a way the receiver or audience can understand. In other words, the content of your message must be consistent with:
The receiver’s knowledge and experience
Your relationship with the receiver
How the receiver is likely to respond to the message
For example: You phone in your pizza order. The person who answers the phone at the restaurant expects an order and knows how to process it. You have also done this before and know what to say and when to say it. You want the pizza delivered, so you provide your address clearly. You also give your phone number . . . just in case there is a delivery problem. The person who answered the phone spoke in English, so you continued to order in English. This is all part of the encoding.
Consider how you might go about ordering fast food in another country ~ say in Peru or parts of China. Would there be quite different concepts of “fast food”, take-out, or delivery? Do these terms mean the same thing in the country you are staying in as they do in Ontario? Perhaps they use a completely different system, with different procedures and rules. You would need to encode your message in different ways. For example, you may have to speak in another language or perhaps use a specific app. When you encode your message, you must remember that it needs to be decoded by your audience.
The Message is Encoded
All messages travel over a medium* ~ and it is important that the right type of medium is used. For example, how successful would a marriage proposal be if it were sent by text message? Would an engineer use the phone to communicate the detailed technical specifications of a modern jet aircraft? In both cases, the message is likely to be rejected or misunderstood because the medium does not fit the nature of the message.
In order to be effective, the medium has to be appropriate to both the content and meaning of the message. Regardless of how well thought out your idea is; you will not be able to communicate it effectively if you use the wrong medium.
*Definition of the word Medium as it is used in business: when the word “medium” is used in business, it is referring to the way a company gets their marketing messages (and advertisements) to their customers. The common mediums include: social media websites, radio, TV, magazines, newspaper, telephone, email, billboards, and even the mail.
In the pizza example: You used the phone (probably a cell phone) as the medium to place your pizza order. You could have also walked into the restaurant and ordered in person, or perhaps you could have used an online system to send in your order. You certainly wouldn’t have sent a letter (you wanted your pizza tonight, not next week!), or a fax (most pizza restaurants do not have fax machines these days).
Receiver Decodes the Message
Once the message is received, it is decoded, or interpreted, by the receiver. Communication is successful if the receiver decodes the message in the same way that the sender encoded it. In other words, the sender and receiver have to be operating on the same premise; otherwise, the full message has not been properly received.
The Receiver Sends Feedback to the Sender
Feedback tells the sender how well the message was received. Feedback can be either direct, in the form of a return message, or indirect, in the form of facial expressions, gestures, and other forms of “body language”. Silence or failure to respond to a message can also be considered feedback; it may be a very clear indication of what the receiver thinks of the message.
For example, if during a lecture, the speaker notices members of the audience talking to each other,
watching the clock, falling asleep, or spending all their time on their smartphones . . . the speaker has a strong indication that the audience is not interested in what is being said.
In the case of the pizza example: your feedback should be that the pizza arrives in a reasonable amount of time, the way you ordered it. If it does, you know the communication was successful. If it doesn’t (you got anchovies instead of the pepperoni you ordered, for example), you know that there has been an error in communication. The mistake in the order serves as feedback to you that, for whatever reason, your communication with the restaurant was not successful.
Barriers to Effective Communication
Even if the message is well conceived, and the receiver is interested in its content, various factors can stand in the way of a message effectively completing the five steps of the communication process. These barriers to effective communication are:
Distractions
Restrictive environments
Encoding problems
Media problems
Decoding problems
Lack of feedback
Distractions
Go back to the example of the writer of the online courses. How effectively would the writer be able to do their job if the lights and air conditioning in the office went out? And would the writer still be able to think and type at normal speed if, while writing, they were having an argument with someone over the phone?
Physical distractions can exist in the environment where you work, or they can be associated with the medium you are using. For example, it is difficult to have a normal conversation with someone over the phone if there is static on the line or the volume is too low.
Emotional distractions, or having something else on your mind, can also impact on the way you decode the message and can result in your giving inappropriate feedback. Imagine trying to convey a detailed message to somebody who is angry or upset.
Restrictive Environments
In the workplace, information must easily move up and down the chain of command in order for communication to be effective. If people don’t pass on information for fear they will get into trouble, or because they believe that management is not interested in the information, the information will not reach the people who would best be able to deal with it. If information about potential problems does not reach the decision makers, their decisions will not be as informed as they should be.
Encoding Problems
If your communication contains errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar, it can send a different message than the one you intended. The unintended message is that you are uneducated, unintelligent, lazy, or careless. A poorly phrased message will carry poor impressions of you along with it. In addition, errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar can actually change the meaning of your communication.
Sometimes you may not know how to encode a message correctly. If the message is to be encoded in a foreign language, for example, use a professional translator. When Clairol introduced its Mist Stick, a curling iron, in Germany, the company was unaware that mist in German means manure. A professional translator would have been helpful.
If you are writing a special letter, the style and format you use can have important implications. There are several Web sites you can turn to for help with composing the perfect piece. If you are using the Internet, you can Google: how to write a letter of resignation; how to write a letter of recommendation; how to write a letter of complaint, etc.
Media Problems
A medium is supposed to carry the message to the intended audience. The major problem with many mediums is that the sender cannot be sure that the medium will work. Advertisers know their commercials and ads will fail to reach millions of consumers simply because those consumers don’t watch the specific show or read the particular magazine in which the advertising is featured. Even your phone call to the pizza restaurant might, on a busy night, produce a busy signal; very few media work perfectly one hundred percent of the time.
Decoding Problems
The decoder must understand the code. For example, a Canadian ordering a coffee in Australia might not foresee any problems, since both Canadians and Australians speak English. But Australians make all their coffees with an espresso base and name them differently than Canadians do. Australian coffee shops offer a “flat white” or a “long black” and their employees would probably have no idea what a Canadian means by a “regular” or a “double-double”.
Lack of Feedback
You may remember a time when you got a gift and forgot to thank the sender for it. As a result of your lack of feedback, the sender probably worried that you didn’t get the gift or that you did get it but didn’t like it. If you do not give feedback to people who attempt to communicate with you, those senders can misinterpret your silence in many different ways.
Always try to acknowledge receipt of important communication in some way. If you don’t understand what has been said in class, ask the teacher for clarification. Tell the sender when your computer program will not open their computer file. Thank your grandmother for the mittens. And tell the pizza restaurant that they sent you a pizza with pineapple instead of pepperoni. If you don’t, you may end up sitting through classes you don’t understand, getting computer files you can’t open, upsetting your grandmother, and needing to develop a taste for pineapple on pizza!
Choosing the Proper Medium
When should you deliver a message by e-mail and when should you use a more formal letter format?
If a problem arises in the office and you need to speak to someone, should you talk in person or over the phone?
Once you are familiar with a particular work environment, you usually have a gut feeling about what method of communication would be most appropriate to a particular situation. However, there are some basic guidelines that you should consider before you choose the medium that is best for a particular message. (Refer to the table below for more information)
Importance of the Message
Are you suggesting a major change in policy or is your communication something routine? Could the message seriously affect your career or somebody else’s? Does the message contain confidential information? The more serious the message, the more formal the medium should be. Use text messaging only for casual communication. Use memos and emails for most everyday communication. Use a formal report, contract, or letter for items that will have a major impact on an individual or an organization.
Level of Formality Required Have you ever noticed how your speaking style changes on the telephone, depending on who’s on the other end of the phone? You speak to your best friend differently than you would speak to your boss, for example. That’s because the conversation with your boss is a lot more formal than the call to your friend. Formal communication has a lot more rules attached to it than informal communication does. Formal communication often needs to be in writing and may require a formal, written response. Generally speaking, matters that may have legal consequences are normally required to be presented in writing and signed. For example, a job application or resignation is normally not considered official until it is received in writing.
Type and Urgency of Feedback
Before you send the message, ask yourself what type of feedback you are expecting and when you expect it. If you need an answer right away, you should probably send a verbal message either by phone or in person. If, on the other hand, you are communicating a large amount of data, you should probably send it using some form of writing or electronic format.
Rules for Effective Communication
Effective communication is never an accident. Good communicators spend a great deal of time creating the right piece. A beautiful poem, an informative newspaper article, and even a great lecture do not occur by chance; they are composed carefully, using rules specific to the medium. The following are some of the rules that will help you become an effective communicator:
Consider your audience
Use correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar
Keep the message simple
Make sure the message looks good
Consider Your Audience
Imagine sharing the Google Classroom for this course with an average Grade 5 student. The student would probably have difficulty relating to the language, terminology, and format because this course has not been written with that age group in mind.
Your success and effectiveness as a communicator will depend on how effectively you adopt and apply the audience-centered approach. You should always encode your message with the intended receiver of the message in mind. Likewise, you should always formulate and deliver feedback with the originator of the message in mind.
Begin by asking yourself the following questions:
Does my message take into account the age, education level, opinions, and social status of my target audience?
Does my message take into account the technical knowledge of the audience or will I have to simplify my message?
Is there a possibility that my audience will react negatively to my message and, if so, have I given proper consideration to their concerns?
This approach will help you avoid the barriers to effective communication you learned about earlier. By making your message appropriate to your audience, you will minimize the number of possible distractions. By making the message pertinent and easy to understand, you are able to draw the audience in. and by drawing your audience into your message, you will encourage useful feedback and foster an open communication environment.
Feedback is an essential part of the audience-centered approach, and you can make the feedback process easier by being open and sympathetic to your audience’s responses. For example, ask your audience specific questions whenever possible. This will help you understand the extent to which they understood your message, as well as their reaction to it.
Using Correct Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Poor grammar, improper punctuation, and misspellings can ruin a piece of writing. For one thing, they are distrackting, and focus the readers atentshun on the wrog thing! For another, they present the writer in an unflattering light.
These kinds of errors can also foster miscommunication. It’s not just the addition or lack of commas that can change the meaning. The following example shows how the placement of punctuation, such as periods, commas, and question marks, can turn something that seems loving and innocent into something more sinister:
Now let’s see how those same words read with the punctuation in different places:
Use spell check regularly, and, if the communication is especially important, have other people read it over and assist you with it. A second set of eyes can be very helpful in creating a good piece of communication.
Remember that spell check will not catch words that are incorrectly used but correctly spelled. For example, if you use the word fill instead of full, a spell check won’t pick that up. Software applications such as Grammarly, scans your work and corrects grammar mistakes ~ and will even explain what mistake you made (if you want to read it).
Remember that editing is key to any work that you do. Always read and reread your messages multiple times before you send anything to an employer or an employee. Everyone makes mistakes and it is important that you take the time to catch your mistakes before they go out in a professional setting.
The first period changes everything
Keep the Message Simple
Make sure your message contains the essential details. Provide names, dates, places, times, and other relevant details, but avoid adding personal information or chatty stories. When writing a memo or e-mail, you do not need to use paragraphs or add a conclusion . . . simply convey the details briefly.
When writing a business letter, make sure it contains at least three paragraphs:
An opening paragraph that explains the reason for the letter.
One or more body paragraphs that outline the details.
A concluding paragraph that thanks the reader and provides contact information about the sender.
Make Sure the Message Looks Good
The appearance of a document also communicates to the reader. A well-laid-out letter gives the reader the impression that you are a careful, meticulous person who cares about details. A letter with wrinkles, stains, or poor design will give the reader the opposite impression. Take care when you are crafting your communication to make it look good.
Use good quality paper, a tidy layout, and appropriate spacing, alignment, and margins. If you are writing a report using form templates can help you to produce an attractive piece of work. Templates are available in most word-processing packages and on the internet. That way, you will look good as well.
Avoid Funny (or Explicit) Email Addresses
When you communicate with business colleagues, suppliers customers, and supervisors, use an email address that sounds professional and serious. If your address is s..t@gmail.com, p..l@yahoo.ca, or l..y@gmail.com, you may want to change it or get a second address for business purposes. Consider using an email address that incorporates your name, so your audience will remember it and will be able to search for it within their own email system.
Non-Verbal Communication
How much can you say by not saying anything? What would you think if the person you were speaking to (your audience) was constantly looking at the clock or out of the window or kept yawning? What would you think of a presenter who while giving a presentation, was constantly fidgeting? When you communicate verbally, you actually communicate on two levels. The most obvious level is through your words. But your message can be helped or hindered, reinforced or contradicted by a second, non-verbal level: through your facial expression, your level of eye contact, your stance, your dress, and your gestures.
Be aware of your facial expression. By squinting, biting your lips, twitching, smiling, or opening your eyes wide (the deer-in-the-headlights look), you may unintentionally express what you are truly thinkingin spite of what you are saying.
Always maintain eye contact with your audience. In North American culture, good eye contact is seen as a sign of confidence and sincerity, while poor eye contact is associated with insincerity and lying.
Watch what you wear. If you are clean, conservatively dressed, and well groomed, you communicate to others that you are serious about your work and your message. Overly glamorous or brightly coloured clothing is inappropriate for meetings, presentations, or other business communication opportunities; you don’t want your audience to be distracted by what you are wearing. Conservative styles and colours (such as black, navy and grey) are always safe. You can add colour with accessories. Make sure that your business clothing is clean and wrinkle-free (as much as possible).
If you are making a speech or presentation, practise delivering it a number of times to commit it to memory; avoid reading it to your audience. To help you remember the key points, especially when you’re nervous, write them on index cards in large print (if you hold up a sheaf of papers with your text, you may distract the audience). Practise your speech in front of a mirror so you can get a feel as to how effective your delivery actually is. Ensure that you speak slowly and distinctly, and change the tone of your voice often. Sound interested in what you are saying; your audience will follow your lead.
Communication across Cultures
Culture can be defined as the attitudes, values, beliefs, and expectations shared by members of a society. You learn what makes up your own culture from your parents, teachers, media sources, and those with whom you interact. It is through these influences that you learn how to make appropriate decisions and to discern the acceptable rules of right from wrong based on the traditions and accepted norms of your own cultural influences.
Consider what obstacles you may encounter if you were communicating with someone from another culture . . . what happens when you are communicating interculturally with people who may or may not share your values and beliefs? Words, gestures, compliments, and negotiating styles that may be perfectly acceptable to North Americans may be seen by members of other cultures as unprofessional, insincere, or even rude.
Even if you and your business contacts from another culture speak the same language, you may communicate in different ways. How you enter the room, how you shake hands, how you greet (or take your leave of) people, and how you begin negotiations all have the potential to ruin a business relationship.
In Canada, it is often considered acceptable to greet a business partner you know by his or her first name. In Germany, on the other hand, people use formal titles such as “Herr” and “Frau”, even if they already know the person. In China, people may consider some small talk before a meeting appropriate, whereas in the Netherlands, people will normally want to get straight to the matter at hand. In Canada, people prefer meetings to be calm and orderly, whereas in France, meetings are often loud and confrontational.
Many cultures have rules regarding non-verbal communication, as well. Failing to bow, sitting down without permission, shaking hands – even smiling – can be inappropriate gestures that offend foreign hosts.
International deals have been lost, and enemies have been created by people’s misreading of non-verbal communication in other cultures.
For example, if you are asked to show the way toward a specific hotel in your city, you’d probably point the way, using your index finger. But German people would point with their little fingers, and Japanese people would use their entire hand to point, while most Asians would consider pointing with the index finger to be rude.
You can learn to overcome cultural barriers by recognizing that differences among cultures do exist and that there is no “right” way to communicate in business. When you look at other cultures, don’t be too quick to come to conclusions; all cultures are complex in different ways.
Click this link to watch a video on some business etiquettes from around the world that are different from etiquettes in Canada.
7 Unusual* Business Etiquettes from Around the World
* A Note from your Teacher: I feel that I have to say something here . . . I don’t like the choice of the word “Unusual” here, but it is the title of the video so I have to use it. These etiquette customs are not unusual but simply different then customs many Canadians are used to using. To the country of origin, they are rooted in tradition and are accepted norms ~ not different at all. The word unusual, unfortunately, makes some people immediately think of negative words like “strange, odd, weird, bizarre, or somehow wrong”.
please read the text above and answer the activity.
Activity: Writing Task
Answer each of the following questions based on your opinions, thoughts, ideas, or personal reflections. Provide thoughtful and well-articulated responses that include examples from your own experiences, those of others you know, or hypothetical situations that you can envision occurring.
Note: These responses are in your own words so you can use phrases such as “I think” or “I feel”
In your own words, describe the ways in which a lack of business communication skills (of any type) could potentially limit your career growth or even lock you out of specific careers.
Do you think that high school English courses should focus a little more on the less “formal” mediums used in business communication instead of the more formal structure of academic papers and structured essays? Explain your answer.
Communicating via Email
Increasingly, universities and colleges are emphasizing the development of communication skills. In addition to discipline-specific knowledge, employers also expect post-secondary graduates to have strong written and oral communication skills.
Writing emails in the workplace requires a specific set of skills. Learning conventions related to structure and style will enable you to convey your message to your audience professionally.
Email is one of many available communication technologies in the workplace, but it is not always the most appropriate one. In general, email is good for positive or neutral news and sharing information.
Emails have long been a core tool for business communications, with the average business person receiving around 121 emails each day. A recent survey found that they often caused tension, confusion, or other negative consequences for 64% of working professionals. Learning how to write emails that are clear, concise, and get noticed is an important skill.
Follow these simple rules to get your emails noticed and acted upon:
Don’t over communicate by email
Make good use of subject lines
Keep messages clear and brief
Be polite
Check your tone
Proofread
Activity: New Branch Location
Imagine that you are the Business Leader (and the owner) of a company that designs and constructs a high end line of wood furniture for homes (or cottages) in the Kingston area. Your company specializes in 100% Reclaimed and Recycled Solid Wooden Irish Coast Furniture. Your best sellers are solid wood bunk beds, living and dining furniture as well as outdoor furniture.
The company has 20 employees.
Write a professional business email to all of your employees letting them know that you will be out of town for two days next week and three days the following week to look at a new company branch location, approximately 250 km away in Orillia, Ontario. In the email, reassure your employees that the Kingston location will not be affected by the addition of the new location. (no lost jobs or reduction in work, etc.).
