Verbal Communications And Facilitation

MGT330

Verbal Communications and Facilitation

In today's fast paced, high tech global market place, no business can exist and survive without communications inside its own boundaries or without interaction with third party businesses outside its doors. In order to accomplish its mission and to communicate strategic initiatives and directives to all employees, top management communicates to middle and first line managers, who in turn disseminate the information to each employee in the organization. Increased global competition, pressures to stay profitable as a company, and being able to make rapid changes in a product line or service offered, requires fast and timely communication.

To be successful as a manager or business, one must possess, among many other skills, excellent communication skills. Whether it's planning, organizing, leading, or controlling, just about anything a manager does requires a form of communication. Let's explore a few of the communication skills today's managers need. To keep informed of the latest changes and developments in their field, managers must read various trade magazines as well as write letters as part of the formal business communication. Often managers find themselves in meetings, where they can use good listening skills during a presentation as well as watch the body language of the attending people while giving a presentation. As a direct result of the information explosion and the Internet, managers today also communicate heavily using electronic communication. Some managers spend up to 40% of their time every day communicating by e-mail.

It is no wonder that managers today invest long hours of their time at work communicating with their employees. Therefore, it is important for managers to become effective communicators. Communicating in itself posse's great difficulties, especially in today's fast-paced world. One of the most challenging and frequent forms of communication used by managers is verbal communication. Managers communicate verbally with employees one on one, during group meetings or on the phone. Since this form of communication is used so frequently and is easily affected by external factors we have determined that is critical for a manager to become a master in verbal communications.

As a manager communicates verbally with their employees several things can be accomplished and some advantages are apparent over other methods of communication. Verbal communication occurs when a manager communicates with subordinates to plan or promote an activity, provide them with important information or to praise or reprimand them. One of the advantages of selecting verbal communication is that it promotes social interaction needed to maintain a positive work environment in the work place. It is also a quick way to make decisions, obtain feedback or resolve a problem. Managers that maintain effective communications with their employees, including an open door policy, are more likely to be informed and to obtain instant feedback from their employees when issues arise. Verbally communicating with employees presents a variety of opportunities for managers to praise and empower employees, providing an easy and accessible way to bust self-esteem in those that work under his/her supervision.

Oral communication can be beneficial as it could be equally risky. Verbal communication can be tough for many reasons, thus managers have to be aware of things that can affect it and develop methods to overcome the challenges of verbal communication. When two people are engaged in a conversation, one talks and hopefully the other listens. The lack of listening skills of other people can affect your effectiveness as a verbal communicator; therefore, it is good practice for managers to ask for feedback after they had a conversation with employees. Simple open ended questions or request employees opinion on what was said should be sufficient to gauge their understanding of what was communicated. Another risk of communicating verbally exists when managers interact face-to-face with their employees. Factors like the choice of words, tone of voice and body language can affect the intended message. A clear message with a well-managed body language will ensure better understanding of the information. When managers ignore the effects of poor or non-existing listening skills of others or do not pay attention to aggregated factors of their communication they fail to communicate.

As difficult as verbal communication can be, sometimes it cannot be substituted by an e-mail or a letter. Managers who are working on building effective communication skills must develop not only a good way of sending a message to others but they should also develop their listening skills. Covey, in The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, highlights the need of seeking to understand others before seeking to be understood. This is a good rule to use as managers work on developing good verbal communication skills. Managers who master effective verbal communication are more likely to be able to generate enthusiasm and commitment in their team. Excellent communication skills are not the only important skill managers need, among all other skills today's managers must have effective conflict resolution skills.

Today, properly managing people is paramount to the success of any business. The constantly changing corporate environment requires companies to operate at optimal levels of efficiency in order to stay competitive and profitable. High levels of efficiency can only be achieved if all members of a team are cooperating and working together harmoniously. When people work together, conflict is inevitable. It is not whether

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