Title: Effective Communication in Business Setting

Media Advocacy Campaign

In business, interpersonal skills is the ability that an individual must have. Because
being a good communicator does not only helps you attract consumers and investors
but it will also make your business established. Moreover, you will build a better
relationships with your employees, colleagues and clients. Other than boosting
engagement, effective communication can boost team buy-in and encourage creative
thinking.

The lack of an atmosphere of kindness, proper emotional reactions and mutual respect
in an organization can cause an individual to be viewed by superiors and colleagues as
selfish, reserved, and unfriendly. Sound interpersonal skill facilitate advancement up
the career ladder without the risk of dismissal for one’s inability to collaborate with
fellow employees (Tucker, 2017)

Considering the current globalized world, intercultural communication capability can

accord corporations a sound competitive advantage. Effective communication skills
are undoubtedly challenging to apply to the current global environment.
Misunderstandings may, for example, crop up even where both entities share a
common language but hail from two different cultural communities. Hence, it is
imperative to understand how globalization impacts intercultural communication in
enterprises striving to gain an edge over local as well as global competitors. Sound
communication aids firms in better, and more concisely, explaining to clients the
fortes of one's services and products when compared with those of rival companies
(Kei & Yazdanifard, 2015).

Here are some effective business communication techniques;

Adapt the message to your audience

One of the first things you should do for effective communication is learn how to
adapt your communication (style and messaging) for different audiences. If you’re
talking to your safety team about a new policy, they’re probably already aware of the
problem, so you can get deeper in the weeds of execution details. But when you roll
out the same policy to frontline employees, adjust your message. Most likely, you’ll
take a broader approach. Explain the purpose of the policy and how it should be
physically carried out in their day to day.

The same is true for any situation. You would address a group of kindergartners, tech
entrepreneurs, cattle farmers and fitness professionals differently based on the topic,
what you’re trying to convey and where the discussion is taking place.
Prepare for the message delivery

How are you standing? Is your body language open and inviting? Are you making lots
of eye contact or looking at a screen?

Before any communication, whether it’s a one-on-one meeting or major speech,

prepare yourself. You might spend a few minutes taking deep breaths before a
presentation or review a meeting agenda before a huddle.

Be authentic as you communicate

According to a post from Quantified Communications, authentic leaders are 50%

more passionate, with messages that are 29% clearer. They exude warmth and
openness. When talking to colleagues and subordinates, they have a sense of
immediacy and are fully present in the conversation.

People also want to work more with authentic leaders and communicators. Being
trustworthy and reliable ultimately makes your job easier because people will want to
collaborate with you.

Be enthusiastic and engaged when speaking

People are more receptive to positive stimuli. Smiling and showing your enthusiasm
are top strategies for better communication. By using these techniques, you make
people more likely to listen to you and buy into what you’re saying.

Manage nonverbal signals to control the message

According to body language researcher Albert Mehrabian, 55% of communication is

nonverbal and 38% is vocal, while only 7% consists of spoken words.

This means it’s incredibly important to manage your nonverbal signals. If you’re
constantly glancing at the clock with your feet pointed toward the door, your audience
will think you aren’t interested in the conversation. For better communication, your
nonverbal signals and spoken words must be in sync.

Practice active listening when people respond to you

Active listening isn’t just hearing what someone says. It involves showing your
engagement with the discussion by asking questions and caring about what they say.
By being an active listener, you demonstrate your interest in the other person’s
message and build a stronger relationship with them. It also helps you remember
details from the conversation.

You know those people who never forget a name? They’re probably active listeners.
One tactic is repeating the person’s name back to them during an introduction. But
you can also do this on projects by repeating directions or rephrasing what someone
has said to make sure you fully understand. Nodding, making eye contact and leaning
forward also show you’re engaged.
Ask for feedback from team members

One of the most effective and efficient ways to improve your communication is to ask
for feedback. After all, most of us learn and grow through change.

Start by creating a process for giving feedback. This could be a brief, post-meeting
survey or an in-person discussion. Also, implement an open-door policy so employees
feel like they can approach you with any of their problems.

Probe for understanding to confirm you’re being heard

Asking questions shows the speaker how engaged you are in the conversation. It also
gives you more information and a natural opportunity to practice active listening.

Handle conflicts respectfully

You won’t always agree with your team members, bosses and subordinates. Even if
you won’t see eye to eye on everything, you do need to communicate in a respectful
way if you want to keep your working relationship going. As a general rule, never say
anything in anger you would want to take back once you calm down.

Use the right tools

Sometimes, the best tip for effective communication is figuring out which tool to use.
There is a time and place for tools like email and Slack

 Email: People use email communication for simple updates and questions. If you
want a group discussion or need to address a complex topic, email can quickly
spiral out of control.

 Slack: Slack is efficient for all types of conversations because you can do

individual and group chats across different channels. It integrates with more than
2,000 apps like nTask, Time Doctor, Dropbox, Drift and Trello, so your teams can
work in their other tools simultaneously without needing to switch contexts. Send
a file in one project channel, give quick feedback in another or launch a meeting
right in the chat.
These are some ways in order to prevent it:

1. Internal upward communication

Internal upward business communication is communication that comes from a

subordinate to a manager or an individual up the organizational hierarchy. Every
leader should enable information to flow upwards in order to have a true
understanding of the company’s operations.

Internal upward communications usually include surveys, feedback, forms and

reports that employees deliver to their managers or team leaders.

For example, a marketing report may include statistics such as total website visitors,
social media engagement or total leads generated.

2. Internal downward communication

Internal downward communication flows from a superior to one or more

subordinates. This type of communication might be in the form of a letter, a memo or
a verbal directive.

When communicating with employees, leaders should keep communication

professional and clear. An example of this type of communication may include a
memo regarding a new company operations procedure such as safety requirements
and new regulations.

3. Internal lateral communication

Internal lateral business communication happens among employees in the

workplace. Today, there are many different ways employees can communicate: chats,
messaging, email, employees communication software solutions.

This type of communication can be within or among departments and it happens more
regularly than other types of business communication. Moreover, frequent
communication among employees plays a crucial role in employee engagement and
productivity.

4. External communication

External business communication is any communication that happens with external

parties such as customers, prospects, vendors or partners.

Unlike all the internal business communications types, external communications

happen on a less regular basis.
5. Improves inter-departmental communications

Without a proper communications strategy, it is very hard to keep effective

interdepartmental communications within companies.

For employees to be more productive, they need to communicate and collaborate

easily.

For example, your research department needs to be on the same page as your
marketing team, and your business office has to be in sync with the IT department.

Besides communication itself, here are a few more tips for improving

interdepartmental team collaboration.

6. Improves communication with remote workers

Remote teams are the future of work. The Global Mobile Workforce Forecast
Update has estimated that over 40% of the world’s working population will be
mobile by 2022. Moreover, in developed countries such as the US, the figures could
soon reach 75%.

This means a new kind of communications, leadership and management approach is

required. Coordinating across time zones, information silos and overcoming language
and cultural barriers are just a few communication challenges remote teams face. In
addition, distance often makes it harder for team members to feel like a team.

Better internal business communications can have a significant positive impact on

how remote teams collaborate and feel.

7. Reduces employee turnover

Companies with more engaged and satisfied employees enjoy much lower turnover
rates. To attract and keep Millennials and younger generations in the workplace,
employers have to make sure to keep their employees informed about what’s relevant
to their jobs.

On the other side, too much irrelevant information often leads to stress,
disengagement, frustration and, with that, lower employee retention.

8. Improves knowledge sharing efforts

One of the main goals companies are trying to achieve by investing in internal
communications is to improve knowledge sharing best practices.
In a world where employees are constantly growing and learning new things,
employers need to enable easy knowledge sharing within their organizations.

Without a well-set internal business communications strategy, knowledge sharing

and organizational knowledge suffer.

9. Increases employee advocacy

When employers know how to communicate with their employees effectively, they
are much more successful in turning them into brand ambassadors.

Brand ambassadorship is not as hard to achieve as many companies believe. In fact,

happy employees would love to contribute to brand ambassadorship programs.

10. Improves customer satisfaction and retention

Better business communication also means better customer satisfaction. If there’s

poor communication within an organization, two things happen when it comes to
customer service and satisfaction.

First, employees in customer-facing roles won’t have the information they need.
Second, customers will sense the low employee morale and have a negative
experience.

In fact, one study found that employee attitude has a significant impact on customer

satisfaction, which then results in an increase in revenue.

11. Builds a better company culture

Finally, a proper business communications strategy is crucial for building a better

company culture and workplace environment.

Companies that communicate in a transparent and open way have a much healthier
work atmosphere, employee motivation and satisfaction.

On the other side, organizations that neglect business communications as a means for
improving the workplace culture, suffer from low engagement, high turnover rates
and low employee and customer satisfaction rates.
As we all know, millennials, as well as gen Z employees, are tech-savvy and mobile-
oriented. Therefore, if you want these generations to engage with your business
communications content, you need to adjust your communication efforts to their
habits and mobile-first preferences.

This way, business communications becomes much easier, faster and more
streamlined.