TWO PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION

To provide information and understanding necessary for efficient job performance
 SKILL

TO

WORK

 
To provide desire

and loyalty

necessary

for willing cooperation

 

THE

WILL

TO

WORK
"Better communication

Will obtain

better Job performance".

THE

BEST

WORK

HOW YOU COMMUNICATE 
WORD      VISUALS     ACTION

WORDS

A manager communicates more often with words than by any other means. Other people communicate with him the same way. Words may be spoken or written. Since words are so important, the manager who selects and uses them properly achieves better communication. Proper use of words does not mean just proper grammar. It means the ability to use words to get over to others what you mean.

Most managers feel that they understand and use voids well. But as an experiment, ask any group of managers to give you their definition of some common word such as "conservative" or "sophisticated". Notice the range of meanings. Probably none will conform to the dictionary definition. Ask the members of a group to think of the word "dog". It should not be surprising that for every member of the group a different type dog is pictured. The word "face" has twenty-nine different meanings in the English language. The word "check" has innumerable meanings.

After all, a word is only a symbol. Its value as a communications tool is limited by what it suggests to the listener. As any semanticist knows, a word may mean different things to different people. When using words as a communication tool, keep sentences short and words simple. Write to express not to impress. To convey meaning is far more important than to impress your listener with your brilliance.

Executives should be good communicators. Directness and simplicity are marks of a good communicator.

VISUALS

Visuals are another way to communicate. Visuals include pictures, samples, charts, blueprints, models, etc. They reach the mind through the eye. Visuals can show the relationship of an intricate, complicated mass of data, as in a blueprint or a chart. They often can assist the use of words. They can lend life, color, and interest to words. Furthermore, they can portray aesthetic values which words cannot always do. When used properly, a visual can be worth a thousand words.

Management today tends to express more of its ideas in visuals, such as films, charts, and scale models. Although visuals can be impressive, they are not always effective when used alone. They are, as the term implies, visual aids, and are most effective when used to emphasize, clarify, or sum up a word communication.

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ACTION

The third classification of communication is "action". What you do is a means of communication when it affects others. Smile, sneer, or other facial expression has meaning. Shaking hands has meaning. A promotion has meaning for a man. Failure to act, such as ignoring a situation or person, can also have meaning. The term "action" could also include other activities such as a fire bell or an alarm clock.

People believe action more than words or visuals. If there is a difference between what a manager says and does, people will, in the long run, believe what he does. It is difficult for a manager, over a period of time, to hide his true self.

COMMON MISTAKES IN COMMUNICATING

  • Not soon enough 
  • Objective or purpose not clear 
  • Not uniform at a given level
  • Unnecessarily detailed Includes irrelevant data
  • Obscure
  • Not also written when transmitted orally
  • Invalid or prejudicial content

CHANNELS 0F COMMUNICATION

Ho matter what form of communication Is used, it used to take some path from person to person, These paths or networks sore called channels of communication. There are two systems of communication channels in every organization — the formal and the informal.

FORMAL COMMUNICATION moves within the channels officially established for or required by the business. They usually match the chain of command established through delegated authority and responsibility. The reports which a manager receives* the records he keeps, the orders he receives, and the instruction he gives art all formal communications.

Many managers would like to have only formal communication because they have authority to control it. It can be kept precise and orderly, and turned on and off when necessary.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION results from the social contacts and personal interests of people in an organization. It follows No fixed paths; It Is unstable, and It is impossible to control. It is often called the "grapevine", It carries rumor and gossip, but can carry useful information too. 

Many managers look upon the grapevine as a thorn is their side which usurps their authority and gives them trouble. Some of its characteristics are:

  • It cannot be suppressed or abolished, Ho one can
  • "fire it. If it is held down in one place, it pops out in another.
  • It is fast,, often faster than formal communication.
  • It is influential. It can make or break an employee.
  • undermine a manager, or affect morale.
  • It exists tinier both good and bad managers.
  • It can by-pass managers is the chain of command without difficulty because it is not confined % formal procedures.
  • It is often incorrect. It is difficult for the grapevine participants to distinguish, fact from my1ħu
  • It cannot be held responsible for its "mistakes.
  • It nay be useful when formal communication is inappropriate.

most important characteristic is that the manager cannot suppress or abolish informal communication. You cannot chop down the grapevine.

Therefore you must learn to live with it and use it. A good way to do this is to learn how it works; than, use it to carry correct information by giving it facts to answer the questions it brings up. Since it is always in action, the manager should keep it supplied with useful and interesting information to keep its channels full and crowd out the rumors, Sometime use yew channels of formal communication to the maximum extent so that they are looked to as the source of reliable and factual information.

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION

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One-way communication is a characteristic of a weak organization. The manager gives orders to the employees, but they cannot express their ideas, suggestions, and feelings to the manager. And he cannot really control activities because he has no reports.

There must be a continuous flow of information upward and downward to obtain best job performance.

Universally, managers do not encourage upward communication enough. They get too busy to listen. Or sometimes, they just do not care. Or they think that upward communication will get along by itself. But it does not happen. Experience shows that upward communication must be encouraged; it cannot be left to chance. A leader uses both upward and downward communication.

PRINCIPLE OF TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION — Effective job performance
requires a continuous flow of information, upward and downwards,
in an organization. HOW TO BE A GOOD COMMUNICATOR

HOW TO BE A GOOD COMMUNICATOR

1. Be Informed. If you aren't "in-the-know", you can't tell your people — or your toss. If you hare to go seek answers every time one of your staff or your boas asks you a question, they will soon turn to someone else. Sometime, if you do not know the answer to a question, say "I don't know, but I will find out". When you tell a person something, be sure you understand it yourself.

2. Have a plan. Communication comes at the beginning of a course of action, not at the end of it. No plan of action is ' really complete until its plan for communication has been made. And be sure to tell people about changes in advance.

3. Be honest. Communication is built upon a foundation of confidence. It is especially important in downward communication to workers because of their natural tendency to wonder whether they are getting the whole story, to doubt management's motives, and to misunderstand.

4. Set policy. When you establish good channels of communication, you save time. For example, if letters from the home office are always circulated among the key department managers in a branch, then they will have no anxiety about whether they are "in the know" and they will spend less time trying to get information by some other means.

5. Get the grapevine on your side. The grapevine is a powerful influence for good or evil. Be a reliable source of information, and show a genuine interest in communicating. Then the grapevine will probably support you, rather than undermine you.

6. Be Willing. A desire on your part to communicate creates the desire in others. The effective manager tries to give his employees all the information they think they need* He Knows that they are not informed unless they feel informed. he has a positive communication attitude, often called "the aggressive willingness to communicate".

HOW TO LISTEN

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The art of listening is. a vital managerial skill. It is fundamental to most all executive functions particularly motivating people. It is not easily learned. And because it is contrary to human nature, it never becomes an ingrained habit You have to keep working at it.

Here are guides to help you listen effectively:

1. RECOGNIZE THE BENEFITS — Be aware of the many values that can be gained by listening to everyone. 

2. LOOK FOR USE — Take a positive viewpoint and seek out the other persons ideas which you can use. 

3. CONCENTRATE ON THE CENTRAL THEME — Keep your mind attuned to the major points the other person makes, disregard the usual side comments and irrelevancies common in most speaking. 

4. AVOID DISTRACTIONS — Avoid noise or other distractions, so that you keep your attention focused on what the other person has to say. 

5. AVOID PREJUDICE — Don't let a person's past behavior, appearance, manners, or vay of speaking influence you for or against the ideas he offers. Judge what he says on its ovn merit.

6. Keep CALM — Until the other person has completed his presentation, don't permit yourself to be overexerted for or against his ideas.

7. DON'T LET YOUR MIND WANDER — Beware of the temptation to return to your own thinking vhen the other person speaks some word or phrase which triggers your recall of past people, places, or things.

8. USE A SYSTEM — Have some means, or a variety of them, to record essential notes without delaying or interfering with the other person's speaking.

9. LISTEN HON-DETRACTIVELY — You think four times faster than the other person can talk. Use that time to sift, sort, analyze, and compare the ideas he presents, but permit no direction or conclusion to your thoughts until he has finished and you have all of his ideas for fair evaluation.

10. WORK AT LISTENING — Develop good listening habits. It is natural to be more interested in yourself than others. But it's poor management. Test your listening skill regularly by repeating to the other person the essence of his viewpoint.

 IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION IDEAS

1. Effective job performance depends upon the continuous upward and downward flow of communication.

2. Listen before you speak.

3. An employee can exercise job initiative only 'when he has job understanding and motivation. You can give them to him by communicating.

4. Every plan of managerial action must have a plan for communicating it to those who will be affected.

5. Action speaks louder than words. The action management takes must agree with its communication to personnel.

"COMMUNICATE:  DON'T  DEPEND  ON  MUTUAL  MIND  READING"


 

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