Transcript Building your career success with communication skills

BUILDING YOUR CAREER
SUCCESS WITH
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The Importance of Communication Skills
to Your Career
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Communication skills are critical to job placement,
performance, career advancement, and
organizational success.
Succeeding in the Changing World of
Work
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Trends in the new world of work emphasize the
importance of communication skills.
Today’s employees must contribute to improving
productivity and profitability.
Business Trends Illustrate the Importance of
Excellent Communication Skills
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Flattened management hierarchies
More participatory management
Increased emphasis on self-directed work groups
and virtual teams
Heightened global competition
Innovative communication technologies
New work environments
Focus on information and knowledge as corporate
assets
Developing Better Listening Skills
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers: hearing disabilities, poor acoustics,
noisy surroundings, illness, tiredness, worry,
uncomfortable feeling
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers: different set of cultural,
ethical, and personal values
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
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Language problems: unfamiliar words
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Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
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Nonverbal distractions: unusual clothing, speech
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mannerisms, body twitches, radical hairstyle
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Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed: listeners process thoughts faster
than speakers can say them, they can become bored
and allow their minds to wander
Faking attention
Grandstanding
Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
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Faking attention
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Grandstanding
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Barriers to Effective Listening
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Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding: fail to listen carefully because we’re
just waiting politely for the next pause, so that we can
have our turn to speak
Active Listener Tips
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Stop talking
Control your surroundings
Establish a receptive mind-set
Keep an open mind
Listen for main points
Capitalize on lag time: reviewing speaker’s points
(keep focusing) and anticipating what’s coming next.
Don’t allow yourself to daydream!
Active Listener Tips
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Listen between the lines: Focus both on what is
spoken as well as what is unspoken.
Judge ideas, not appearances: concentrate on the
content of the message, not on its delivery.
Hold your fire: force yourself to listen to the
speaker’s entire argument or message before
reacting.
Take selective notes
Provide feedback: let the speaker know that you are
listening by using eye contact, nod your head, ask
questions
Nonverbal Communication Skills Can
Send Silent Messages
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Eye contact
Facial expression
Posture and gestures
Time: length of time spending in communication
Space: furniture arrangement or design around us
Territory: zones of privacy in which we feel
comfortable
Appearance of business document: how neat in paper
works
Personal appearance
Tips for Improving Nonverbal Skills
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Establish and maintain eye contact to show your interest,
attentiveness, strength, and credibility
Use posture to show interest
Improve your decoding skills
Probe for more information
Avoid assigning nonverbal meanings out of context: don’t
interpret nonverbal behavior if you don’t understand
situation or culture
Associate with people from diverse cultures
Appreciate the power of appearance
Observe yourself on videotape
Enlist friends and family: ask them to monitor you
How Culture Affects Communication
Comparing Key Cultural Values
1.
Individualism
2.
Formality
3.
Communication Style
4.
Time Orientation
Comparing Key Cultural Values:
Individualism
Individualism
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Individual action
Self-reliance
Personal responsibility
Independence
Freedom from control
Group or Team
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Membership in org.,
group, and team
Group values, duties,
and decisions
While North Americans value individualism and personal responsibility,
other cultures emphasize group-and team- oriented values.
Comparing Key Cultural Values:
Formality
Informality and Directness
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Less emphasis on
tradition, ceremony,
and social rules such as
casual dressing or a first
name basis w/ others
Lack of formality:
directness i.e. in
business, they will come
to the point immediately
Tradition and Indirectness
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Emphasis on tradition,
ceremony, and social
rules
Formality
Although North Americans value informality and directness, other cultures
may value tradition and indirectness.
Comparing Key Cultural Values:
Communication Style
Straightforwardness
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Straightforward: they
tend to suspicious of
evasiveness and distrust
people who might have
hidden agenda.
They tend to be
uncomfortable with
silence and impatient
with delays.
Indirectness
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Indirectness
Silence and delays are
common
North Americans tend to be direct and to understand words literally.
Comparing Key Cultural Values:
Time Orientation
Time
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Patience
Consider time a
precious commodity to
be conserved. Keeping
people waiting for
business appointments
wastes time and is also
rude!
Punctuality
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Consider time as unlimited
and never ending resource
to be enjoyed
Being late for an
appointment is not a
grievous sin
North Americans correlate time with productivity, efficiency, and money.
Communication Across Cultures
Comparison of Cultural Values Ranked by Priority
U.S. American
Japanese
Arabs
1. Freedom
1. Belonging
1. Family security
2. Independence
2. Group harmony
2. Family harmony
3. Self-reliance
3. Collectiveness
3. Parental guidance
4. Equality
4. Age/Seniority
4. Age
5. Individualism
5. Group consensus
5. Authority
6. Competition
6. Cooperation
6. Compromise
7. Efficiency
7. Quality
7. Devotion
8. Time
8. Patience
8. Patience
9. Directness
9. Indirectness
9. Indirectness
10. Openness
10. Go-between
10. Hospitality
Controlling Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
Ethnocentrism
The belief in the
superiority of one’s
own culture and
group
Stereotypes
An oversimplified
behavioral pattern
or characteristic
applied to entire
group, which may
not accurately
describe cultural
norms
Tolerance
Having sympathy
for and
appreciating beliefs
and practices
different from our
own by practicing
empathy, being
nonjudgmental,
and being patient
Tips for Effective Communication with
Diverse Workplace Audiences
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Understand the value of differences
Don’t expect conformity (agreement): differences can
be positive
Create zero tolerance for bias and stereotypes
Practice focused, thoughtful, and open-minded
listening
Invite, use, and give feedback
Make fewer assumptions: don’t think for the others
Learn about your cultural self
Learn about other cultures and identity groups
Seek common ground: mutual goals or similar values
Tips for Minimizing Oral Miscommunication
Among Cross-Cultural Audiences
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Use simple English
Speak slowly and enunciate (announce) clearly
Encourage accurate feedback: ask probing questions and encourage the listener to
paraphrase what you say
Check frequently for comprehension: avoid waiting until you finish a long
explanation to request feedback. Instead, make one point at a time, pausing to
check for comprehension.
Accept blame: if a misunderstanding results, graciously accept the blame for not
making your meaning clear.
Observe eye messages: Be alert to a glazed expression or wandering eyes. These
tell you the listener is lost.
Listen without interrupting
Remember to smile
Follow up in writing: After conversations or oral negotiations, confirm the results
and agreements with follow up letters. For proposals and contracts, engage a
translator to prepare copies in local language.
Tips for Minimizing Written Miscommunication
Among Cross-Cultural Audiences
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Consider local styles: learn how documents are formatted
and how letters are addressed in each country
Consider hiring translator: if your document is important, or
will be distributed to many readers, or must be persuasive
Use short sentences and short paragraphs: for most
readable (sentences: fewer than 20 words/ paragraphs:
fewer than 8 lines)
Avoid ambiguous wording: avoid idioms, slang, acronyms,
abbreviations, jargon. Instead, use action specific verbs
(purchase rather than get).
Cite numbers carefully
Reference
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Essentials of Business Communication, Mary Allen
Guffey’s, 2007, Thomson South-Western.