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Of course a proper conversation should involve an equal amount of listening to speaking and many people are actually not good listeners. This can be coached and most managersshould consider attending such a course at some time to improve that part of their skill set.
If you think of relationships between colleagues a manager must establish himself/herself asAvailable to listen and especially to bad news your direct reports should not be afraid torelay bad news or indeed critique your advice if the team is to flourish and develop.
Business growth is built on partnerships with customers at one level or another and goodcommunication must be at the heart of the relationship be that B2B or end-users. Yourdistributors need constant reassurance and guidance (particularly at the start of thepartnership) and you need to be fully informed of the “road ahead” to avoid surprises. If youAre selling to end-users, then you must be seen to be available for feedback and to provideAssistance at all times. The ability to do this hasincreased exponentially with the arrival of social mediaplatforms and leading companies are already fully usingthe potential to maintain an open conversation with customers that can influence all aspects of the businessfrom R&D to repeat sales and marketing.
There are somedangers though which I will deal with shortly. The best form of communication is undoubtedly face-to-face conversation because up to 90 per cent of the message is transmitted non-verbally through body language, tone etc. Therefore, when we choose to communicate remotely we are taking a risk that part of ourintended message will not be understood correctly. It used to be the case that the defaultremote method was to telephone but today it seems that people avoid to call contactspreferring often to email or text. This seems especially true if it is bad news that needs tobe conveyed.
A written message particularly in brief format such as an email will inevitably be interpretedfrom the point of view of the reader. The tone of the message will be superimposed by thereader in-line with their preconceived opinions about the writer or the topic which often willbe far from reality. This can lead to breakdowns in negotiations or a hardening of positionsin dispute resolution.
I would always counsel people to meet or at least telephone whendealing with such tricky scenarios. Often complicated issues require written documents butthe sending of such materials must always be followed up quickly with a call or ideally ameeting to ensure proper understanding of your position. Negotiation and dispute resolution both require complete understanding of both parties points of view and this demands a strong element of listening. Success will be achieved when both sides feel they gained concessions win: win. And finally, where a written response is required it is advisable to avoid immediately sending the email or textespecially if the topic is contentious. Walk away and come back to it at a later time to rereadit.
Read on to find out more about communication benefits.
Perhaps the most critical form of communication in business is crisis management. The rulehere is to “get out in front of the story”. That implies aquick initial response to the situation and continuedupdates as it develops. The communication must be seento be clear, concise and accurate to convey the impressionthat the company is concerned and is dealing with thesituation in an open and honest manner. Often the mediais involved and written statements will be required but itis again best to have spokespeople face-to-face with reporters to transmit the sentiments inA human fashion.
If Im selling to you, I speak your language. If Imbuying, dann mssen Sie Deutsch sprechen, Willy Brandt, a former German Chancellor once said. This quote illustrates perfectly that sales success and indeed success in any form ofbusiness communication abroad will be increased significantly when the message istransmitted in the local language. Language skills are very poor in the UK and the reasonAlways trotted out in our defence is that English is spoken or at least understood across the world. That may be case but when your competitor arrives to your foreign client speakingtheir language who do you think will make a better impression A translated text addseven further risk of misinterpretation to the situation.
So we come to an evaluation of the impact of technology in communication. Here therehave been some extremely positive developments that have improved our ability tocommunicate including; social media that has expanded immensely the options forinteraction with end-users; video conferencing that allows for calls to be enhanced becauseyou regain at least some of the non-verbal content of a conversation; and mobilephones/email that mean that people are much more contactable and communication isfaster than before.
However, as mentioned, people tend to use email too often when aphone call or meeting would be better; video conferencing should not be used to replacebusiness travel as a general rule because whilst an improvement on a phone call it cannot
replace the personal visit to country; and the immediate contact offered by messenger appscan lead to a confusion between what is “effective communication‘ as opposed to “simplychatter”. There is a lot still to be said for the considered response.
I began this piece by saying that to communicate is to be human and that we should alwaystry to transmit messages in a human fashion. Managers should be considerate and open inthe manner that they communicate with staff; businesses should try to be conciliatory indiscussions with partners; and we must always strive to listen and respond to our customersin order to constantly improve their experience with our product or service.
Andrew Low, who has 26 years in the Agri-business sector,is managing director of JE InvestAnd the ownerof DiscussingBusiness.com.
With reference from great leaders such as Jack Welch, Steve Jobs and Ross Perot, JE Invest’s managing director, Andrew Low, unveils five hiring tactics that could be helping the competition especially if you don’t know.
