by John J. Walters<\/p>\n
Alright, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back from our little \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hiatus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d promoting the site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beta launch<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back to the real content.\u00c2\u00a0 I had promised a second post about effective communication last week<\/a>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to deliver on that promise.<\/p>\n We have all heard that good communication starts with attentive listening<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 That idea is practically a clich\u00c3\u00a9 at this point, but just because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clich\u00c3\u00a9 doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true.\u00c2\u00a0 As Shakespeare once said, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It doth taketh two to tango.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Even the most effective orator will have a hard time getting his message across if his listeners aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t paying attention.<\/p>\n I gave a very brief rundown<\/a> on a few ways to listen more effectively, as well as why you should care enough to do so.\u00c2\u00a0 So you already have some stuff to practice in your daily life, both at home and at work.\u00c2\u00a0 We are asked to spend a lot of time every day listening, and this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t decrease with rank.\u00c2\u00a0 When we become bosses and managers we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be asked to listen to endless reports and summaries of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s activities, and our ability to retain and process that information is what will determine our success.<\/p>\n The trick is, we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever get to be the boss if we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t communicate to others that we know what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about.\u00c2\u00a0 As with the deceptively simple skill of listening, communicating is highly nuanced and subtle art.\u00c2\u00a0 I say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153communication\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speaking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as we are asked to communicate in a variety of different ways these days, each with its own set of complications.<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest is elsewhere — in our tone, our pacing, our body language, or the context of the conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 This gives us a good amount to consider before we even open our mouths.\u00c2\u00a0 Sadly, we often don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n TechRepublic has a nice article<\/a> by Steven A. Watson<\/a> about how to maximize managerial success with good communication practices.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 When support lags and disappears entirely she is both surprised and frustrated.\u00c2\u00a0 Then she realizes that she forgot to get to know the team and their thoughts, experiences, and needs before implementation.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where listening comes in — but once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got your listening skills down, you need to be able to show others that you understand and that you can help.\u00c2\u00a0 Enter the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Four C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s of Communication<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as explained by Isabelle Albanese<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 In a nutshell, these involve making sure your audience trusts you, understands you, has common ground with you, and remembers your message after you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re finished.<\/p>\n Each of these things is extremely valuable in a business setting: Trust, understanding, camaraderie, and being remembered. \u00c2\u00a0Since meetings are often the place where the most communication goes on in a business, effective communication becomes exceedingly important during meetings.\u00c2\u00a0 Honing your listening and your communication skills could be your ticket to increased productivity — or even the corner office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by John J. Walters Alright, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back from our little \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hiatus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d promoting the site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beta launch.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back to the real content.\u00c2\u00a0 I had promised a second post about effective communication last week, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to deliver on that promise. We have all heard that good communication starts with attentive listening.\u00c2\u00a0 That idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}