The importance of good communication skills in
business
Good Communication Means Good Business:
Communication plays a part in almost
every aspect of your business, so being able to communicate well can boost your
overall performance.
Good communication is essential to
building a cohesive and effective team. Good communication skills are essential
to managing the performance of your team members, and if you know how to
communicate well to large groups you can minimize the risk of industrial
problems developing in your workplace.
Communication skills can be
particularly important during times of higher workplace stress, for example
during downsizing, where good communication is an essential part of change
management.
You also need to communicate well to
build and maintain effective relationships with your suppliers and clients.
Communication skills are crucial to dealing with customer complaints
effectively and limiting any negative word-of-mouth about your business. You
can draw on communication skills when you assess the effectiveness of your
marketing campaigns.
The first step in good communication
is to listen effectively. Today’s trend is away from top-down management, where
decisions and policies are proclaimed from above. Good managers now consult a
lot with their teams, using them as a resource for information and suggestions.
Consultation is not only a good way
to get ideas on business strategy, it is also a way of making sure that when
you do decide on policies, everyone feels like they have been involved. Your
team will be able to implement policies more effectively if they have been
involved in their formulation. They will be more familiar with the issues – you
will have dealt first-hand with any misgivings they may have.
Effective listening is based on
having the trust of the people you are speaking to. People may not offer their
true opinions when they are wary about how they will be received. So being a
good communicator means winning the trust of those around you. It also means
being able to foster a work environment where people treat each other fairly,
where they respect each other’s opinions and where there is a minimum of
anti-social behaviour such as backbiting or rumour mongering. Bullying or
harassment of any kind will build walls in a workplace. It will stunt
communication, shut down co-operation and hurt efficiency.
Good communication skills are a key
part of managing individual employee performance. If you have good
communication skills, you will know how to give clear feedback on performance
while not denting people’s self-esteem. Good communication skills will enable
you to work more closely with your team members, determine personal goals that
will suit them and help them to work towards those goals.
As a good communicator, you will
know the difference between being assertive and aggressive (aggression merely
gets peoples’ backs up). You will be able to keep a professional and impersonal
tone in the face of provocation and this will help you deal with conflict situations.
It will also help you set clear boundaries for acceptable behaviour, counsel
those who overstep them and, if necessary, fire people while minimising the
risk of getting involved in litigation.
Good communication skills also help
when you are dealing with suppliers and clients. Business operations are
becoming very finely tuned, thanks to trends such as just-in-time manufacturing
or retailing, where goods are delivered precisely at the right time and place.
This means you need to be able to
maintain close contact with your supply chain. You need to be able to clearly
explain any concerns you have and negotiate issues with a minimum of friction.
Your business partners also need to feel confident that they can raise issues
with you and that you will be responsive to them.
Being a good communicator will also
help with your marketing. While you may not get closely involved with the
design of your marketing materials you will want to assess them. Honing your
communication skills will help you determine which materials are appropriate
and they will enable you to give clearer briefs.
Team morale tends to be higher in a
workplace where communication is good. People feel more in control when they
have all the relevant facts and they are warned of issues well in advance. They
are likely to feel more confident and secure when they know where an
organisation is headed, where they have the information to plan their medium
and long-term future. The more people feel in control, the lower their stress
levels tend to be.
Good communication generally means
being open. It’s useful to keep everyone updated on such issues as production,
finance, important new contracts or company performance against health and
safety benchmarks. Some employers like to ration such information, as it
sometimes contains bad news. However, it’s often better to have bad news out in
the open. It’s generally better for you to provide bad news, rather than having
it leak out at an inopportune time and in a way that is distorted by rumour.
Being open, of course, does not mean
being indiscreet. Where information is particularly sensitive, good
communication involves identifying how to distribute information effectively on
a need-to-know basis and deciding who needs to sign confidentiality agreements.
It also means being realistic about
what can be kept under wraps. Public companies need to provide a lot of
information as a condition of being listed. Private companies need to divulge
less information publicly, but quite a lot of information seems to leak out
through informal channels. For example, how much information have you picked up
on your competitors through informal sources?
Good communication skills thus
involve good PR skills. Knowing when and how to release information is an
important way of maintaining your image with your team members, your clients
and the market in general.
Basically, your skills as a
communicator are felt in nearly all of your business dealings. If you and your
team communicate well, you maximize efficiency. You find out about issues
earlier and can deal with them without adding further complications or
misunderstandings. Having good communications skills is like having a good IT
system – information flows faster and this saves you money.
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