CHAPTER 5

Communications

I know that you believe you understand what I said, but, I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.¹ This statement sums it all; communication is and can be a problem for nearly everyone and at every level in all organizations. In many positions, you may find yourself writing or preparing items for the boss. You may produce work for the boss to sign and move forward. As an exemplary follower, you need to do your absolute best to master this skill, as communication may very well be the key to all of the other skills necessary to succeed.

First, think about why we communicate. The answer to this seemingly complex question is very simple. Human communication has no other purpose than to cause some action of some type: to direct, to inform, to challenge, and to persuade; for example:

• Stand over there.

• I just sent you a text.

• Where’s my cell phone?

• This is a great car, you should buy it.²

If communication is going to take place there must be six components present: a sender, a message, a channel, a receiver, feedback, and the environment.³ The sender is the source, the person sending the message. The message is the heart of the discussion and should be clear. The channel or the medium is how the information is transmitted to the receiver. The receiver is the other person to whom the sender is directing the message in whatever form it takes. Communication cannot take place unless there is a sender and a receiver.

Caring

Regardless of the process of communication and how the message is transmitted, the message must display a caring attitude about the circumstances of the message. You must demonstrate that the information is valuable to both yourself and to the receiver. This can be accomplished in many ways. First, in the case of face-to-face communication, your body language and facial expressions can demonstrate your position, whether it is attentive or indifferent. Caring communication is friendly, open, and honest. There are no hidden insults or passive-aggressive tones. Keep your reader’s viewpoint in mind, and be empathetic to their needs. Here is an example of an uncaring e-mail:⁴

Jeff,

I wanted to let you know that I do not appreciate how your team always monopolizes the discussion at our weekly meetings. I have many projects, and I really need time to get my team’s progress discussed as well. So far, thanks to your department, I haven’t been able to do that. Can you make sure they make time for me and my team next week?

Thanks,

Phil

Well, that is hardly courteous! Messages like this can potentially start office-wide fights. So this e-mail does nothing but create bad feelings, and lower productivity and morale. A little bit of caring can go a long way.

Here is a more caring approach:

Hi Jeff,

I wanted to write you a quick note to ask a favor. During our weekly meetings, your team does an excellent job of highlighting their progress. But this uses some of the time available for my team to highlight theirs. I’d really appreciate it if you could give my team a little extra time each week to fully cover their progress reports.

Thanks so much, and please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you!

Best,

Phil

Concise

When you are concise in communication, stick to the point and keep it brief. Your audience does not want to read six sentences when three sentences would do just fine.⁵

• Are there any adjectives or filler words that you can delete? You can often eliminate words like “for instance,” “you see,” “definitely,” “kind of,” “literally,” “basically,” or “I mean.”

• Are there any unnecessary sentences?

• Have you repeated the point many times, in different ways?

Bad Example

Hi Matt,

I wanted to touch base with you about the e-mail marketing campaign we kind of sketched out last Thursday. I really think that our target market is definitely going to want to see the company’s philanthropic efforts. I think that could make a big impact, and it would stay in their minds longer than a sales pitch.

For instance, if we talk about the company’s efforts to become sustainable, as well as the charity work we’re doing in local schools, then the people that we want to attract are going to remember our message longer. The impact will just be greater.

What do you think?

Jessica

This e-mail is too long! There’s repetition, and there’s plenty of filler taking up space.

Good Example

Watch what happens when we’re concise and take out the filler words:

Hi Matt,

I wanted to quickly discuss the e-mail marketing campaign that we analyzed last Thursday. Our target market will want to know about the company’s philanthropic efforts, especially our goals to become sustainable and help local schools.

This would make a far greater impact, and it would stay in their minds longer than a traditional sales pitch.

What do you think?

Jessica

Straightforward⁶

A straightforward person chooses words carefully in their communication. Words used while talking to a child is different from the words used while talking to an adult. Similarly, usage and choice of words also depends on the gender, geography, education level, and personality. Straightforward people think before they speak, pick words so that the information is exchanged without hurting the other party.

Listening, politeness, and a positive attitude are all traits of straight forwardness. Many think that having good communication skills is speaking well with right words, but you should also remember that listening is yet another element of communication that sometimes speaks more than words. A straightforward customer service executive will listen to all issues from the customer without interrupting. A straightforward person would replace negative words with positive words. All it takes is a little planning and organization of thoughts before uttering the words. Use of positive or neutral words without altering the essence of the message is trait of good conversationalists. Straightforwardness means being polite too. The sound of the language makes a big difference while speaking. A list of interesting tones of the language would include, polite, friendly, kind, courteous, considerate, civil, well-mannered, gracious, and chivalrous.

Truthful

The advantage of telling the truth is that you do not have to remember what you said.

—Mark Twain

Your communications should be truthful, based upon what you know the truth to be. This means that your communications should not be designed to deceive or mislead those with whom you are communicating for or with. As Mark Twain has said, it is far easier to tell the truth, as you do not have to remember what lies you told to which people. As you can see effective communication is very important. The next step is to be able to take the initiative to get things done.