by John J. Walters

Alright, we’re back from our little “hiatus” promoting the site’s beta launch.  Now it’s back to the real content.  I had promised a second post about effective communication last week, and it’s time to deliver on that promise.

We have all heard that good communication starts with attentive listening.  That idea is practically a cliché at this point, but just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  As Shakespeare once said, I’m sure, “It doth taketh two to tango.”  Even the most effective orator will have a hard time getting his message across if his listeners aren’t paying attention.

I gave a very brief rundown on a few ways to listen more effectively, as well as why you should care enough to do so.  So you already have some stuff to practice in your daily life, both at home and at work.  We are asked to spend a lot of time every day listening, and this doesn’t decrease with rank.  When we become bosses and managers we’ll be asked to listen to endless reports and summaries of the company’s activities, and our ability to retain and process that information is what will determine our success.

The trick is, we won’t ever get to be the boss if we can’t communicate to others that we know what we’re talking about.  As with the deceptively simple skill of listening, communicating is highly nuanced and subtle art.  I say “communication” instead of “speaking” as we are asked to communicate in a variety of different ways these days, each with its own set of complications.

There is some disagreement about the exact percentage, but I think the general consensus is that communication is only 15% about the words we choose.  The rest is elsewhere — in our tone, our pacing, our body language, or the context of the conversation.  This gives us a good amount to consider before we even open our mouths.  Sadly, we often don’t.

TechRepublic has a nice article by Steven A. Watson about how to maximize managerial success with good communication practices.  The best part is by far the example story he tells, in which a new employee enthusiastically begins laying the groundwork for a revised LAN setup.  When support lags and disappears entirely she is both surprised and frustrated.  Then she realizes that she forgot to get to know the team and their thoughts, experiences, and needs before implementation.

That’s where listening comes in — but once you’ve got your listening skills down, you need to be able to show others that you understand and that you can help.  Enter the “Four C’s of Communication” as explained by Isabelle Albanese.  In a nutshell, these involve making sure your audience trusts you, understands you, has common ground with you, and remembers your message after you’re finished.

Each of these things is extremely valuable in a business setting: Trust, understanding, camaraderie, and being remembered.  Since meetings are often the place where the most communication goes on in a business, effective communication becomes exceedingly important during meetings.  Honing your listening and your communication skills could be your ticket to increased productivity — or even the corner office.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Hints and Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.