1. Building your career success with communication skills

2. The Importance of Communication Skills to Your Career
Communication skills are critical to job placement, performance, career advancement, and organizational success.

3. Succeeding in the Changing World of Work
Trends in the new world of work emphasize the importance of communication skills.
Today’s employees must contribute to improving productivity and profitability.

4. Business Trends Illustrate the Importance of Excellent Communication Skills
Flattened management hierarchies
More participatory management
Increased emphasis on self-directed work groups and virtual teams
Heightened global competition
Innovative communication technologies
New work environments
Focus on information and knowledge as corporate assets

5. Developing Better Listening Skills

6. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

7. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers: hearing disabilities, poor acoustics, noisy surroundings, illness, tiredness, worry, uncomfortable feeling
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

8. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers: different set of cultural, ethical, and personal values
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

9. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems: unfamiliar words
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

10. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions: unusual clothing, speech mannerisms, body twitches, radical hairstyle
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

11. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed: listeners process thoughts faster than speakers can say them, they can become bored and allow their minds to wander
Faking attention
Grandstanding

12. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding

13. Barriers to Effective Listening
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Language problems
Nonverbal distractions
Thought speed
Faking attention
Grandstanding: fail to listen carefully because we’re just waiting politely for the next pause, so that we can have our turn to speak

14. Active Listener Tips Stop talking Control your surroundings
Establish a receptive mind-set
Keep an open mind
Listen for main points
Capitalize on lag time: reviewing speaker’s points (keep focusing) and anticipating what’s coming next. Don’t allow yourself to daydream!

15. Active Listener Tips
Listen between the lines: Focus both on what is spoken as well as what is unspoken.
Judge ideas, not appearances: concentrate on the content of the message, not on its delivery.
Hold your fire: force yourself to listen to the speaker’s entire argument or message before reacting.
Take selective notes
Provide feedback: let the speaker know that you are listening by using eye contact, nod your head, ask questions

16. Nonverbal Communication Skills Can Send Silent Messages
Eye contact
Facial expression
Posture and gestures
Time: length of time spending in communication
Space: furniture arrangement or design around us
Territory: zones of privacy in which we feel comfortable
Appearance of business document: how neat in paper works
Personal appearance

17. Tips for Improving Nonverbal Skills
Establish and maintain eye contact to show your interest, attentiveness, strength, and credibility
Use posture to show interest
Improve your decoding skills
Probe for more information
Avoid assigning nonverbal meanings out of context: don’t interpret nonverbal behavior if you don’t understand situation or culture
Associate with people from diverse cultures
Appreciate the power of appearance
Observe yourself on videotape
Enlist friends and family: ask them to monitor you

18. How Culture Affects Communication
Comparing Key Cultural Values
Individualism
Formality
Communication Style
Time Orientation

19. Comparing Key Cultural Values: Individualism
Group or Team
Individual action
Self-reliance
Personal responsibility
Independence
Freedom from control
Membership in org., group, and team
Group values, duties, and decisions
While North Americans value individualism and personal responsibility, other cultures emphasize group-and team- oriented values.

20. Comparing Key Cultural Values: Formality
Informality and Directness
Tradition and Indirectness
Less emphasis on tradition, ceremony, and social rules such as casual dressing or a first name basis w/ others
Lack of formality: directness i.e. in business, they will come to the point immediately
Emphasis on tradition, ceremony, and social rules
Formality
Although North Americans value informality and directness, other cultures may value tradition and indirectness.

21. Comparing Key Cultural Values: Communication Style
Straightforwardness
Indirectness
Straightforward: they tend to suspicious of evasiveness and distrust people who might have hidden agenda They tend to be uncomfortable with silence and impatient with delays.
Indirectness
Silence and delays are common
North Americans tend to be direct and to understand words literally.

22. Comparing Key Cultural Values: Time Orientation
Patience
Consider time a precious commodity to be conserved. Keeping people waiting for business appointments wastes time and is also rude!
Punctuality
Consider time as unlimited and never ending resource to be enjoyed
Being late for an appointment is not a grievous sin
North Americans correlate time with productivity, efficiency, and money.

23. Communication Across Cultures
Comparison of Cultural Values Ranked by Priority
U.S. American
Japanese
Arabs
1. Freedom
1. Belonging
1. Family security
2. Independence
2. Group harmony
2. Family harmony
3. Self-reliance
3. Collectiveness
3. Parental guidance
4. Equality
4. Age/Seniority
4. Age
5. Individualism
5. Group consensus
5. Authority
6. Competition
6. Cooperation
6. Compromise
7. Efficiency
7. Quality
7. Devotion
8. Time
8. Patience
9. Directness
9. Indirectness
10. Openness
10. Go-between
10. Hospitality

24. Controlling Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
Stereotypes
Tolerance
The belief in the superiority of one’s own culture and group
An oversimplified behavioral pattern or characteristic applied to entire group, which may not accurately describe cultural norms
Having sympathy for and appreciating beliefs and practices different from our own by practicing empathy, being nonjudgmental, and being patient

25. Tips for Effective Communication with Diverse Workplace Audiences
Understand the value of differences
Don’t expect conformity (agreement): differences can be positive
Create zero tolerance for bias and stereotypes
Practice focused, thoughtful, and open-minded listening
Invite, use, and give feedback
Make fewer assumptions: don’t think for the others
Learn about your cultural self
Learn about other cultures and identity groups
Seek common ground: mutual goals or similar values

26. Tips for Minimizing Oral Miscommunication Among Cross-Cultural Audiences
Use simple English
Speak slowly and enunciate (announce) clearly
Encourage accurate feedback: ask probing questions and encourage the listener to paraphrase what you say
Check frequently for comprehension: avoid waiting until you finish a long explanation to request feedback. Instead, make one point at a time, pausing to check for comprehension.
Accept blame: if a misunderstanding results, graciously accept the blame for not making your meaning clear.
Observe eye messages: Be alert to a glazed expression or wandering eyes. These tell you the listener is lost.
Listen without interrupting
Remember to smile
Follow up in writing: After conversations or oral negotiations, confirm the results and agreements with follow up letters. For proposals and contracts, engage a translator to prepare copies in local language.

27. Tips for Minimizing Written Miscommunication Among Cross-Cultural Audiences
Consider local styles: learn how documents are formatted and how letters are addressed in each country
Consider hiring translator: if your document is important, or will be distributed to many readers, or must be persuasive
Use short sentences and short paragraphs: for most readable (sentences: fewer than 20 words/ paragraphs: fewer than 8 lines)
Avoid ambiguous wording: avoid idioms, slang, acronyms, abbreviations, jargon. Instead, use action specific verbs (purchase rather than get).
Cite numbers carefully

28. Reference
Essentials of Business Communication, Mary Allen Guffey’s, 2007, Thomson South-Western.