The importance of good communication skills in
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 minimise 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 maximise
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.
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 minimise 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 maximise
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.
