It is no rocket science if I say that Communication really matters a lot. I am sure each one of us can blindly believe that being good at communicating things can lead you to the heights in professional as well as in your personal life. It is not about “Communicating”, it is about communicating in Good or even in the Great way. Let me illustrate it with a story of a blind man and a Great Communicator!:
" Once there was a blind man sitting on a road side with a sign board in his hand saying- ‘Blind Man, Please help’ and an empty dented bowl. Many passerby looked at the scene but none was donating a single penny. This was observed by a young chap sitting on a bench nearby. He then went to the blind man, took his sign board, flip it back, rewrote the statement and rest was just unimaginable. Each passerby was giving something or the few in bowl. When bowl suddenly went overflow Blind man asked the young chap about what was written on his sign board. Young chap replied, ‘It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot’. "
After reading this story we can definitely depict that communicating in a good way is unimaginably advantageous. Just a subtle shift in communication skills can a have dramatic results like more sales more clients more appreciation and of course more happiness!
As we know in professional life, we are communicating in two ways either in oral or in written and both are equally important. Effective communication plays a vital role in your professional growth and a good news is one can make his/her communication skills better and even best by improvising minute alteration in the activity. To make it great one should always think of below 5 questions to oneself while communicating:
- Am i talking relevant?
- Am i Clear in what i am communicating?
- Am i responding properly?
- Is my way comfortable for the other one to accept?
- Am i audible or legible to other one?
Below are some of the most essential hints to make your day-to-day professional communication a perfect stepping stone to success.
Tip 1 - Keep your ears to the ground
It simply means one should be attentive enough to listen each and every nook and corner of the speech of the opposite person. We must listen to have a reasonable arguments and replies. If you will not listen or if communication is in written form then if you will not read it properly, it is impossible to answer and tackle the situation in the way it should be. I have a very recent example of not listening properly and losing an opportunity. I called up a candidate who has applied for certain job in my company and after he found to be OK in the telephonic round I scheduled his technical round at IST 18:00 hrs to IST 19:30 hrs(after confirming availability of concerned panel). The candidate failed to listen “IST 18:00 Hrs to” and came at 19:30 hrs thinking the time to be 19:30 hrs only which was actually the time of winding up of the interview. Thus failing in listening may cause failing in grabbing the opportunity.
Tip 2 - Action speaks louder than words, So craft it well
A very huge and important volume of pie occupied in communication is by the Non- Verbal expression that takes place while the activity. This indeed is as applicable in written communication as in verbal one. Here unwritten or written in wrong ways plays a role of “unspoken expression”. Writing everything in capital letters shows aggression and seems like shouting. Likewise having first letter in lower case can annoy the other person of being ignorant about common writing rule of english. When it comes to Face-to-Face conversation then it is your body-language or paralanguage that contributes to the big success. This includes your intonation, speaking speed, pauses and sighs, facial expressions and your attire too.
Tip 3 - Be Firm Not Aggressive
Keeping your point and being aggressive have a thin line difference. While it sometimes becomes mandatory to be assertive you should control your tone from being aggressive at the same time. Being a human we often gets irritated and which affects our paralanguage and our choice of words but ultimately it will spoil your nicely cooked food. Better is to appreciate others view and keeping your point in a way that anybody can be convinced. Be confident and straightforward but talk calm,clear and with cooperative tone.
Tip 4 - Maintain the discipline
Communication can make your image as well as can spoil your image. Thus to maintain the consistency one should have a disciplined communication habits. If someone has sent you an email or have pop up in the internal chat program of the company and you have read it already then you should respond in the quickest form even if it is the most minor matter. Likewise if you are the one other person is speaking to then you should be disciplined enough to be attentive and responsive to the talk even it is the most boring and irrelevant for you. Also if you are talking to someone in the corporate you should have to the point, concise and precise version of talk and you should never beat around the bush be it an email communication or verbal communication.
Tip 5 - Get Rid of distraction
While communicating to anybody one should focus on that only rather than getting engaged in other activities. If there are any external disturbance like noise, phone calls, unwanted people etc then it should be eradicated first before starting communication. Distraction while conversing invites less effectiveness and more miscommunication. Also it gives an image that talk is not that important. Similarly while sending an email, it may happen that if any distraction like colleague calls you for some work or you are on phone while typing an email can move you towards committing biggest blunder ever like sending email without subject line or sending confidential email to somebody else etc. Also try to limit your subject and one should never talk about many things at a time.
Tip 6 - Tailor your content according to your audience
It is very important how you showcase your words in front of whom. To be extremely formal may gives reverse result if the person opposite is quite friendly. One should be clever enough to understand the scenario and tailor his/her word accordingly, be it in email.
Tip 7 - Closing the loop
Finally, you need to ensure that you close your conversation with proper closing statement. Weird and vague statements leads to failure of whole conversation. For example, it sometime happens with me that I find a candidate perfect fit for organization. Thus just to know his commitment for future if I ask for the minimum tenure he has planned to work with my organization and if he in confusion ask me to give him/her a time to think and call me later and the conversation has not ended from interviewee’s end, somehow it happens that as i am in dilemma about his/her decision I take a decision to recruit someone else.
Thus one can be a skilled communicator if he/she really wants to be. Just a little effort and you are there. Use these tips and enhance your communication today.
Dear readers as Diwali is just at the verge of its arrival, i would like to wish each one of you a Very Happy Diwali and a really good communication which will lead you to the Success! See you soon with even more informative HR hacks soon.