Important Skills To Develop

There are many skills that you need to have in order to be successful in your career.  I’ve mentioned communication skills in blogs discussed prior to this one. Below I will list a short list of skills you must learn and master to succeed in the workplace.

1. Conflict Management

There will be times where you will disagree with your co-workers, supervisors, and boss. When this happens it is important to know how to handle the situation.  There is a book name Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People my management professor suggested that we read it. This book deals with people told in straightforward manner.

Rules

Treat People with Respect- This doesn’t mean you have to love your co-workers and boss’s. Everyone should be treated with respect. Think of it like this, even when you can be right in situations, the other person feel as though they are right as well.

The more you learn how to deal with people, different personalities, and situations the less stress you will have and the happier you will be at work. Nobody wants to work and make six figures but have to leave work to buy a round of shots because people drove you crazy.

Some people may never like you-

Conflict management doesn’t necessarily mean situations also means resolving issues as well. It is imperative that you learn to agree to disagree. Majority of conflicts now are always funny a few months later. What is the point to be depressed and pissed off? Let it go!

Whatever field you may be in, learn to deal with conflict in a positive way. There are many articles out there including the one I’ve attached to this blog that will help and guide you. Be smart, and actually read it. I promise your life will be less stressful.

2. Team Building

This is another skill that you need in order to be successful. You will undoubtedly always have to work in teams. No matter what field you decide to work in, there will be task that requires more than one person to complete it. You need to learn how to work with people to be successful and learn how to build teams if you decide to become a manager.

Team building has its own strengths and weakness I can’t lie. You accomplish things faster and build relationships with others or you’re not working well with others and can’t seem to agree on something important.

Here are a few keys that will improve your effectiveness managing and working in teams. These that I list are skills that you should practice and master.

Listen

Often when there is a problem, nobody wants to listen they just want to be heard. Try to sit down and let the other person speak. You just listen. Don’t interrupt the, don’t even try to correct them even if they say something wrong. Just let them talk, then speak. Most problems are solved when people are venting.

My Management professor calls it “Compassionate Listening”.  You listen to others thoughts without judging, cutting them off, or correcting them. After they are done talking let them know you heard them and understand their frustrations.

Learn to Let Go

Majority of problems are that big of a deal. Sometimes you may have to ask yourself why are you fighting?  Some people say when you go of your thoughts and opinions and let the other person win, you will still be able to focus and do your job with no interruptions. Just like old times. You don’t risk much by letting the other person when most of the time.  You are trying to keep the drama at minimum.

Compromise

Look for places where you agree with others and look for compromises.

Make Deals

It is easier to make deals when working with teams so that everyone works together. On the basketball court, players put their differences aside because they all want to win the game.  Just like the business world, find common goals that every team member agrees on so they put their differences aside. When you find out what those goals are, make a deal with everyone to work together and achieve.

Accept your team

There are slackers, liars, cheaters, backstabbers, and pain in the but people in the business world. Try to accept these people the best way you can so you can focus on the work. You can’t always be friends with everyone.

3. Problem Solving

Don’t run away from problems. As time goes on, problems become more complex.  You will eventually have more responsibilities and challenges.  So, the question would be, how do you deal with problems?

It is said that successful people ask questions out of the norm. But a person who is successful asks the correct questions like “What’s right”?When you have a problem ask yourself this question, “what’s right about this?”

Asking what’s right is trying to come up with a solution. You have a challenging situation before you and whatever positive you can find you want it. Every successful person goes through challenges that they over come. They did not punk out and run away, instead they tackled the issue. The question “what’s right” ask you to think outside the box  to handle the situation.

4. Influencing. Sales & Negotiation

These skills are related to each other. The more you can influence someone the more you can sell. I’m sure you get the picture.  Just because it is not your dream to become a sales person you don’t have to sell. You have to sell yourself at interviews, to co-workers, and ect. You also negotiate all the time. Asking for vacation time, salaries, and bonuses. The level of influence you have over people will determine if you can sale and negotiate with people. It’s simply up to you!

Listed below are links that will help you when your faced with conlict manament.

http://mdbgroup.com/conflict1.html

http://facs.pppst.com/conflictresolution.html

How to make it to the top of any field

In any field you decide to pursue, there will always be a top 10%. The top ten percent are usually the ones who make the decisions and the most money. Isn’t that what we all want? To be the person who makes the most money at our company? Here are a few tips to reach the top 10 percent of your field.

 

1.      Start With The End Mind

You must have goals if you want to succeed. But not just any goals make sure you have realistic goals, goals that will encourage you to reach the next level. Try to stay away from the wish goals and the what if’s.

 

In order to Start With An End Mind

·         Write down 3-10 places you would like to work and the work you want to do

·         Research the salaries you receive working these jobs (salary.com)

·         Research where you will live if you work these jobs (Monster.com)

 

This is simple research. Everything you want to know about your career is online. It doesn’t take hours to know the answers to these questions. You may be reading this and thinking that this is too much or I have plenty of time to figure all this out but don’t wait till the last minute. Everything you want to know is right in front of you. I promise you it will be worth it!

 

Take this time to work out the fields you want to get into and think 10-15 years from now. Ask yourself these important questions below and use the websites that I gave you above to answer these questions:

• How much do people in my field earn after five years?
• Where are the jobs located?
• How much do the top 10% in my field earn after seniority

Then take the next step, find out are people in this field happy? Are they stressed? Are they doing what they wanted to do? Answer these questions using the techniques given before.

 

2.      Be a Warrior Employee

Look at yourself as a warrior. There is no such thing as loyalty with a company anymore. People work and get laid off. Separate you from those get laid off by being a great employee. Do the best job you can. When you do this, always remember that nobody at the company is your friends. They do not owe you anything so try to stay away from getting emotionally attached. The boss has his interest in mind before yours.

 

In order To Be a Warrior Employee:

·         Look for job opportunities while you still have a job.

·         Interview with other employers- You must be secretive about this. But I’m sure if you qualified for other companies they would love to keep it a secret as well to have you apart of their staff.

 

While working at your job you will get a 3% raise, maybe a little more every year. If you plan on making more than 100,000 waiting around for that 3% is not going to get the job done. Seek jobs on a regular, even if it’s the same job maybe you can get a 10-15% raise a year. That a heck of a lot more than 3%. The more you get emotionally attached the harder it is to leave. Many people can never leave their job to better themselves because they are too loyal to friends and employers who in reality don’t care about them. DON’T BE THAT PERSON!

3.      Ask For Help

In order to find out information about where you’re trying to go, simply ask those who already been there and done what you’re trying to do. Research the job you want to work, look up the salary, and if you feel comfortable take the next step to network and talk to people who are doing or has done what you’re trying to do. This is not the time to be afraid. Get their contact information and call them! Explain to them that you are interested in learning more about that job.  A lot of people love talking about what they do. By doing this you will learn the ends and outs of that field. Chances are they will invite you in to sit in or possibly for an interview.

4.      Don’t Limit your Job Search

Try different things.  If you are a student ask your professor if you can sit in their class to learn. No grade, no homework, or anything of that sort. Simply just learn for free. Or maybe you can audit a class as well only to try different things out. The good thing about this is if you don’t like the class just stop going.  I encourage you to do this. Majority of graduates never end up doing what they went to school for. Many students studied many different courses but have no experience.

I encourage you to talk to your professor and tell them that you are interested in the topic that they are teaching and you would love to sit in a few classes. Many colleges allow students to audit classes for free. This may sound like too much work and it could be, but it’s worth it. Audit classes now to save yourself from going to school for four years to get a degree you won’t need once you graduate.  

5.      What Warren Buffet Teaches

If you don’t no Warren Buffet you’re not serious about being a successful individual making six figures a year. Successful people follow those that are successful to try and mirror the things they do on a daily basis. That’s enough of me preaching, I am here to help you learn and guide you down the right path.

Warren Buffet is the country's richest man. He lectures to a group of people who majors in business. During the lecture Buffet made it known that thing students needed the most to be successful is communication skills. No matter what job you decide to work, you will work for a business professional/ organization some day.

The most important thing you must do in school is learn how to communicate your ideas to someone. No matter the job you work, you always have to speak, write letters, or present something of some sort. This is something that cannot be ignored forever. If you havent learned anything from tips 1-4 do know that it is imperative to communicate your ideas, speak, and write effectively and YOU WILL MAKE IT TO THE TOP 10% in any field.

Suggestions

• Take speaking course- this can be scary but do it now while you still can make mistakes
• Participate on debate teams- Test your "mettle"
• Take extensive writing courses- learn to write what you mean and use points to back up what you are saying.
• Take Journalism as a class- here you will write new articles for your school and press releases which will help your writing.

To wrap up what I have been saying, take writing and speaking serious.  This is the most important tool to become successful individual and make it to the top 10% in any field.

 

Below is a link to a quick video where Warren Buffet mentions how important communcation skills are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P1OpahXKjM

Completing Business Messages

Revising Your Message: Evaluating the First Draft

Successful communicators recognize that the first draft is rarely as tight, clear, and compelling as it needs to be. Careful revision can mean the difference between a rambling, unfocused message and lively, direct message that gets results. The third step of the three-step writing process involves four key tasks: revising your message to achieve optimum quality and then producing, proofreading, and distributing. With more complex messages, try to put your draft aside for a day or two before you begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye.

Evaluating Your Content, Organizing, Style, And Tone

When you begin the revision process, focus your attention on content, organization, style, and tone. To evaluate the content of your message, answer these questions:

• Is the information accurate?
• Is the information relevant to the audience?
• Is there enough information to satisfy the reader's needs?
• Is there good balance between general information and specific information? When you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization. Answer another set of questions:

When you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization. Answer another set of questions:

• Are all points covered in the most logical order?
• Do the most important ideas receive the most space, and are they placed in the most prominent positions?
• Would the message be more convincing if it were arranged in another sequence?
• Are there any points repeated unnecessarily?
• Are details grouped together logically, or are some still scattered through the document?

With the content in place and effectively organized, next consider whether you have achieved the right tone for your audience. Is your writing formal enough to meet the audience's expectations?

The beginning and end of a message usually have the greatest impact on your readers, so make sure they are clear, concise, and compelling.

Evaluating, Editing, And Revising The Work Of Others

There will be times in your career when you will be asked to evaluate, edit, or revise the work of others. Whether you're suggesting improvements or actually making the improvements yourself, you can make a contribution by using all the skills ive mentioned to you in the previous post. Evaluating and revising the work of others is an important responsibility. With this in mind, answer the following questions as you evaluate someone else’s Writing:

• What is the purpose of this document or message?
• Who is the target audience?
• What information does the audience need?
• Does the document provide this information in a well-organized way?
• Does the writing demonstrate the "you" attitude toward the audience?
• Is the tone of the writing appropriate for the audience?
• Can the readability be improved?
• Is the writing as concise as it could be?
• Does the design support intend message?

Revising to Improve Readability

After confirming the content, organization, style, and tone of your message, make a second pass to improve readability. Most professionals are inundated with more material than pass to improve readability. Most professionals are inundated with more reading material than they can ever hope to consume, and they'll appreciate your efforts to make your document easier to read. You'll benefit from this too: If you earn a reputation for creating well-crafted documents that respect the audience's time, people will pay more attention to your work. Readability formulas can give you a helpful indication, but they can’t measure everything that affects readability.

Varying Your Sentence Length 

Varying the length of your sentences is a creative way to make your messages interesting and readable. By choosing words and sentence structure with care, you can create a rhythm that emphasizes important points, enlivens your writing style, and makes information more appealing to your reader.

For example, a short sentence that highlights a conclusion at the end of a substantial paragraph of evidence makes your key message stand out. Try for a mixture of sentences that are short, medium, and long. 

Keeping Your Paragraph Short 

Long paragraphs are visually intimidating and can be difficult to read. However, don't go overboard with short paragraphs. In particular, be careful to use one-sentence paragraphs only occasionally and only emphasis. Also, if you need to divide a subject into several pieces in order to keep paragraphs short, be sure to help your readers keep the ideas connected by guiding them with plenty transition elements. 

Using List To Clarify And Emphasize 

List can show the  sequence of your ideas, heighten their impact visually, and increase the likelihood that a reader will find key points. In addition lists help simplify complex subjects, highlight main points, break up a page or screen visually, ease the skimming process for busy readers, and give readers a breather. 

You can separate list items with numbers, letters, or bullets or graphical element that precedes each element. For example, the following three steps need to be performed in the order indicated, and the numbers make that clear:

1. Find out how many would like on site day-care facilities.
2. Determine how much space the day-care center would require.
3. Estimate the cost converting a conference room for the on-site facility.

List are easier to locate and read if the entire numbered or bulleted section is set off by a blank line before and after, as the preceding examples demonstrate . One way to introduce lists is make them apart of the introductory sentence:

The board of directors met to discuss the revised annual budget. To keep expenses in line with declining sales, the directors voted to 

• Cut everyone's pay
• Close the employee cafeteria
• Reduce travel expenses 

Another way to introduce a list to precede it with a complete introductory sentence, followed by a colon:

The decline in company profit is attributing to four factors:

• Slower holiday sales
• Increased transportation and fuel costs 
• Higher employee wages
• Slower inventory turnover

Regardless of the format you choose, the items in a list should be parallel: that is, they should all use the same grammatical pattern. 

Adding Headings And Subheadings:

Use headings and subheadings to show the organization of your material, draw the reader's attention to key points, and show connections between ideas. 

• Organization- Headings show your reader at a glance how the document is organized. They act as labels to group related paragraphs together and organize lengthy material into short sections.
• Attention-Informative, inviting, and in some cases intriguing headings grab the reader's attention, make the text easier to read, and help the reader find the parts he or she needs to read or skip. 
• Connection- Using headings and subheadings together helps readers see the relationship between main ideas and subordinate ones so that they can understand your message more easily. 

Headings fall into two categories, Descriptive headings such as "cost considerations", identify a topic but do little more. Informative headings such as "Redesigning Material Flow to cut production costs", guide readers to think a certain way about the topic. 

Using Technology to Revise Your Message

• Revision marks and commenting features are great ways to track the revision process when multiple reviewers are involved. 
• Spell checkers, grammar checkers, and computerized thesauruses can all help with revision process, but they can’t take the place of good writing and editing skills. 

Producing Your Message

Now its time to put your hard work on display. The production quality of your message- the total effect of page or screen design, graphical elements, typography, and so on- plays an important role in the effectiveness of your message. 

Designing for Readability

Production quality affects readability and audience perceptions of you and your message and document design needs strong nonverbal signals. Make sure they are positive and appropriate signals.  To achieve an effective design, pay attention to the following details:

• Consistency- Be consistent throughout each message with your margins, size, typeface, and space
• Balance-One document may have a formal rigid design in which the various elements are placed in a grid pattern whereas another may have less formal design in which elements flow more freely across the page. 
• Restraint- Strive for simplicity in design. Don't clutter your message with too many design elements, too much highlighting, too many colors, and too many decorative touches. 
• Detail- pay attention to details that affect your design and thus your message . 

Find Your Strengths

Doing what you Love!!

If you are still in school your best is to take advantage of your career office and ask to take compatibility test. Every career office has at least one test you will enjoy taking to find out what your strengths and interests are. This is a great place to start and a wonderful resource to use while your active in school.

Recommendations

1.      Myser-Briggs Personality Typing

2.      Strengths 2.0

3.      Profiles XT

4.      Self Assessment

5.      Ask Others & First Impression Test

6.      O*NET

7.      Astrology

Myers-Briggs Personality Typing

This book helps you easily discover your perfect career through your personality type. Personality type goes back to Carl Jung. Jung theorized that you can anticipate unpredictable behavior by discovering a person's attitude. The personality typing looks at four different factors in each individual:

1.      How one interacts with work

2.      What sort of information one notices

3.      How one makes decisions

4.      Whether we prefer structure or spontaneity

There is a possible sixteen combinations; by doing this test it places you in one of those combinations.  This test gives you several pages on what it means to be a certain type of personality, short descriptions of people with your specific type and how they found success in the workplace. This book opens your mind to many opportunities and possibilities

Strengththfinder 2.0

This is a fun assessment to do and will give you a pretty accurate description of your strengths/talents. You can get the results when you purchase the book, so this will not be free since you cannot use the library’s copy.

Strength finder may reveal things you may or may not already know about yourself. Even more important, you get to learn about your strengths in a new way than usual. This will give you further information on what you should or shouldn’t be doing with your life.

Profiles XT

This test is given to thousands of people in corporations. It takes about fifty minutes to take the assessment online. This will help you understand your thinking and reasoning abilities, your occupational interest and your behavioral traits.

Profiles XT will test your learning index, verbal skill, verbal reasoning, numerical ability, numeric reasoning, judgment, independence, and mechanical ability. It will suggest careers that best fits your character.

Self Assessment

Another tool you can use is pen, paper, and a little bit of time. Write on the top of the page, what am I good at? Write down things you are working on and may not be all that good at, but want to get good at.

After each item rate it 1-10 1 being the worst. In another column write a number down 1-10 in your interest to learning that skill. Revisit your notes once you complete to see If what you wrote is true. You can add and edit the list over a few days until it becomes final.

Another technique

Take a blank page for each 5 yr span of your life. On each page write down:

1.       Most memorable experiences from that time

2.       Your greatest accomplishments

3.       What your most proud of

4.       Any other positive memories

Look at the page and you will notice certain patterns. What are these patterns? These patterns direct you to your strengths and passions.  What you remember the most is naturally what you are inclined to do.  Mimicking these events by incorporating their characteristics into your career will give you satisfaction.

Ask Others & The First Impressions Test

Most important feedback on your skills is asking others for their opinion. There are two ways in doing this. Ask people to list your top five talents. You just want to know what your talents are, as far as they see it.

Another technique you can do is asking a person you barely know or just met “if you had to say four or five things about me, about my personality, what would it be.” After you get more than three people to answer this question you will be amazed at the results. No one really sees about themselves what everyone else sees.

O*NET

The O*NET system serves as the nation’s primary source of occupational information. If you already have a pretty good idea of what your skills are then your best bet is to use the U.S. Department of Labor to match jobs against your skills. After your skill set is matched, research high growth professions, high paid careers, and much more.

Astrology

You should also get your birth chart read by an astrologer to receive deep, personal analysis. Astrology was the basis of many modern religions. Astrology doesn’t tell you about your future, but it explains to you your desires and personality accurately. If you ask one hundred people about chart reading, 90% was profound with the experience.

If you go to an Astrologer and ask them to help you with your career, they can let you know where you been and the difficulties you endured. They will also offer suggestions to create success in your life.

Below Is a link that will allow you take a free online assessment to find what your strengths are. Be honest and truthful when taking this test, it will only help you in the future.

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Communicating in a World of Diversity

The Opportunities in a Global Marketplace
Thanks to communication and Transportation technologies, natural boundaries and national borders are no longer the impassable barriers they once were. Local Markets are opening to worldwide competition as businesses of all sizes look for new growth opportunities outside their own countries. Thousands of U.S. businesses depend on exports for significant portions of their revenues. 


Advantage of a Diverse workforce 
 Even if you never visit another country or transact business on global scale, you will interact with colleagues from a variety of cultures, with a wide range of characteristics and life experiences. Over the past few decades, many companies have changed the way they approach diversity, from seeing it as legal requirement to seeing it as strategic opportunity to connect with customers take advantage of the broadest possible pool of talent. Smart business leaders recognize the competitive advantages of a diverse workforce that offers a broader spectrum of view points and ideas, helps companies understand and identify with diverse markets. 


The Diversity of today's workforce brings distinct advantages to business: 

1.  A broader range of views and ideas
2. A better understanding of diverse, fragmented markets
3.  A broader pool of talent from which to recruit 

The challenges of Intercultural Communication

The  workforce today is made up of skills, traditions backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work- all which can affect communication in the workplace. Supervisors face the challenge of connecting with these diverse employees, motivating them, and fostering cooperation among them. Teams face the challenge of working together closely, and companies are challenged to coexsist peacefully with business partners and with the community as a whole. 

The way you communicate is deeply influenced by the culture in which you were raised.  The meaning of words, gestures, the importance of time and space, the rules of the human relationships- these and many others are defined by culture.  Your culture also influences the way you think, which naturally affects the way you communicate as both a sender and receiver.

Culture Influences everything about Communication:  
Understand these 5 examples in order to understand a culture's practices. 

1.  Language
2.  Nonverbal signals
3. Word meaning
4.  Time and Space issues
5.  Rules of human relationships

Simple gestures can mean different things for people of different cultures, and can affect business communication.

Developing Cultural Competency 

Cultural Competency includes an appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication and the ability to adjust one's communication style to ensure that efforts to send and receive messages across cultural boundaries are successful. It requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills. 

Understanding The Concept of Culture

Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and behavior norms. You belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way you communicate. You learn culture both directly (be being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others. Cultures tend to offer views of life that are both coherent (internally logical) and complete (able to answer all of life's big questions). 

The next step is to Overcome Ethnocentrism & Stereotype

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one;s own group. Stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular group. Culture pluralism is the acceptance of multiple creatures of their own terms. You can avoid ethnocentrism and stereotyping by avoiding assumptions and judgments and by accepting differences.  

Here are Some Helpful Tips:

• Avoid assumptions- Don't assume that others will act the same way you do, or operate the from the same values and beliefs. 
• Avoid judgments- When people act differently, don't conclude that they are in error or that their way is invalid
• Acknowledge distinctions- Don't ignore the differnces  between anther person's culture and your own. 

Recognize Culture Differences

There are eight main types of culture differences. 

1. Legal and Ethical Differences
2. Social Differences
3. Nonverbal Differences
4. Age Differences
5. Religious Differences
6. Ability Differences
7. Gender Differences

Adapting to Other Business Cultures

Whether you're trying to work productively with members of another generation in a office or with a business partner on the other side of the world, adapting your approach is important to successful communication.  This section of the blog will give advice on how to adapt to any business culture. 

• Become aware of your own biases-Successful intercultural communication requires more than just an understanding of the party's culture; you need to understand your own culture and the way it shapes your communication habits.
• Ignore the "Golden Rule"- "Treat people the way you want to be treated." The problem with that is  that other people don't always want to be treated the same way you want to be treated. Just treat people the way they want to be treated. 
• Exercise tolerance, flexibility, and respect- " Try to manage our people and our practices in ways that are respectful of the core principals of any given country or organization culture." Ron Glover
• Practice patience and maintain a sense of humor- Professionals make mistakes. It is important to be patient with one another. As a business becomes more global, even people in the most tradition cultures are learning to deal with outsiders more patiently and overlook occasional cultural boundaries. 

An important step in understanding and adapting to other cultures is to recognize the influences that your own culture has on your communication habits. 

How to Better Your Team Skills

Communicating In Teams
Teamwork interactions among employees represent the essential elements of interpersonal communication.  Collaboration which is working toether to meet complex challanges has become a core job responisbility for the workforce in the U.S. IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT CARRER PATH YOU DECIDE TO CHOOSE, YOU WILL PARTICIPATE IN GROUP WORK AT LEAST ONCE ON THE JOB. If you read my blog about the Importance of Communication Skills, your communication skills that you have learned will pay off during these interactions, because the productivity and quality of collaborative efforts depend on communication skills.

One may ask what is a Team?
I'm here to answer that. A team is a group with two or more people who share the same mission and work together to achieve their goals.  Teams are often diverse, gathering people with different backgrounds, goals, and experience to work together as a unit.

Positives and Negatives of a Team
The diversity of opinions and ideas can impact the group in a positive way. A successful team can provide number of advantages. Those same ideas and thoughts from others can affect the group in a negative way when individuals try to compete with one another. Working in teams can be frustrating and a waste of time.

Positive:

•  Increased information and knowledge- Gathering the experience of several individuals which gives the group more information when making decisions. 
• Increased diversity of views- Team members can bring different viewpoints and ideas to the table that can influence the decision making.
• Increased  Acceptance of a solution- When you apply yourself in a group and participate on a regular you'r more likely to support the final decisions and encourage other team members to do so.
• Higher performance levels- Working as a team can bring more energy and creativeness out of an individual. Effective teams can be better than a top-performing individual

Negative:

• Group think- This occurs when peer pressures causes individuals to withhold contrary or an popular opinions. The result will end up worst than the choices the team members made individually.
• Hidden Agendas- Some team members may have private motives, such as the desire to take control of the group, undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue a business goal that's the opposite of the teams mission.
• Cost- Schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts that spends up the money that is needed for the group.

Giving and Responding to Constructive Feedback

Constructive Feedback is often sometimes called constructive criticism, focuses on the process and outcomes of communication, not only the people involved. 

Destructive Feedback delivers criticism with no guidance to stimulate improvement. 

It is important to know that when you are receiving constructive feedback, resist the understandable urge to define work or deny the validity of the feedback. Remaining open to criticism isn't easy when you've poured your heart and soul into a project, but good feedback provides a valuable opportunity to learn and to improve the quality of your work. 

 How can you make Meetings more Productive?

Much of the workplace communication will occur during in-person or online meetings, so to a large degree your ability to contribute to the company and to be recognized for your contributions will depend on your meeting skills. Meetings can also be a great way to promote team building through the experience of social interactions. 

Prepare for Meetings:

• Identify your purpose- Meetings can focus on exchanging information, reaching decisions, or collaborating to solve problems or identify opportunities. 
• Select participants for the meeting- Invite those who need to be involved, and don't invite anyone who doesn't. 
• Choose the venue and the time- online meetings are often the best way and sometimes the only way to connect people in multiple locations or to reach large audiences. For onsite meetings, review the facility and seating arrangements. Pay attention to lighting, room temperature, refreshments, and details that can make or break a meeting. 
• Set the agenda- Success of a meeting depends on the preparation of the participants. Distribute a carefully written agenda to participants, giving them enough time to prepare. An agenda includes three key questions: (1) what do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals. (2) What issues will be of greatest importance to all participants? (3) What information must be available in order to discuss this information. 

Conducting Efficient Meetings:

1. Keep the discussion on track.- A great leader draws the main ideas the group has to offer while maintaining progress toward achieving the meetings goals. 
2. Follow agreed upon rules- The larger the meeting the more formal you have to be to maintain order. 
3. Encourage Participation- On occasions some participants will be too quiet while others to talkative. Draw the quiet participants out by asking their input on issues. 
4. Participate actively- If your a meeting participant, look for opportunities to contribute to both the subject of the meeting and the smooth interaction of the group.
5. Close effectively- At the conclusion of the meeting, verify that the objectives have been met or arrange for follow up work, if needed. 

Improving Your Listening Skills

Listening actively means making the effort to turn off your internal filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other person is saying. To be a good listener, adapt the way you listen to suit the situation. 

Recognize Four Types of Listening

1. Content Listening- Understanding and retaining the information in the speakers message. 

2. Critical Listening- Understand and evaluate the speakers message on several levels: the logic of the argument, the strength of the evidence, the validity of the conclusions, the implications of the message, the speakers intentions and motives. 

3. Empathic Listening- To understand the speakers feelings, needs, and wants so that you can appreciate his or hers viewpoints. 

4. Active Listening- making a conscious effort to turn off internal filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other person is saying.

Click here to watch:  How to become a good listener

The Listening Process

Listening is a far more complex process than most people think and most of us aren't good at it. People typically listen at no better than a 25 percent efficiency rate, remembering only about half what's said during a 10 minute conversation, and forget half of that within 48 hours. Listening follows the same sequence as the general communication process. The listening process involves five steps:

1. Receiving- you start by physically hearing the message and acknowledging it.

2. Decoding-  Next step is to assign meaning to sounds, which you do according to your own values, beliefs, ideas, roles, and needs. 

3. Remembering- Before you can act on information you need to restore it for future processing. 

4. Evaluating- Evaluate the message by applying critical thinking skills to separate facts from opinions. 

5. Responding- After you evaluated speaker's message, you react. 

After carefully reading the tips I have listed above, I encourage you to take the Listening skills test that will help overcome barriers to effective listening. Listening Skills Quiz

Remember that good listeners try to over come these barriers to successful listening. 

The Importance of Communication

What is Communication?
Communication is the transfer between people, entities, and ect.


1. Importance: 

• Provides information
• Gives facts and opinions
• Presents important information effectively
• Clarifies ground rules

Communication is Important to your company

Communication should be important to you because it is important to your company. Effective communication can help business in numerous ways. Communication provides:

•          Closer ties with important communities
•          Opportunities to influence perceptions and trends
•          Increased productivity and faster problem solving
•          Better finical results and higher return for investors
•          Stronger decision making
•          Clearer and more persuasive marketing messages
•          Greater employee engagement and their work, leading to higher employee satisfaction

What Makes Business Communication Effective?

Effective communication strengthens the connections between a company and all its stakeholders, those groups affected in some way by the company’s actions

To make your communication effective as possible, focus on the strategies below:

•        Provide practical information-give recipients useful information
•         Give acts rather than vague impressions- Use concrete language, specific details, and information that are clear and convincing.
•         Clarify Expectations and Responsibilities- Craft messages to generate a specific response from a specific audience.
•          Offer compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations- show your readers precisely how they still benefit from responding to your message the way you want them to.
•     Understanding the Unique Challenges of Business Communication

Business communication is often more complicated and demanding than the social communication you typically engage in with family and friends.

·         You will need to adjust your communication habits to the more formal demands of business and the unique environment of your company.

Communicating in An Organizational Context

In addition to having the proper skills, you need to learn how to apply those skills in the business environment, which can be quite different the social environment you are accustomed to.

·         Formal Communication Network- this is where ideas and information flow along the lines of command in the company’s organization structure.

·         Informal Communication Network- this encompasses all communication that occurs outside the formal network. Some of this informal communication takes place naturally as a result of employee interaction both on job and social in social settings.

The Basic Communication Model

This model helps you identify and improve the skills you need to be more successful. These eight steps provide a practical overview:

1.       The sender has an idea. Whether a communication effort will ultimately be effective starts here

2.       The sender encodes the idea as a message- When someone puts an idea into a message. He or she is encoding an idea or expressing it in words or images

3.       The sender produces the message in a transmittable medium- with the appropriate message to express an idea; the sender now needs a communication medium to present that message to the intended audience.

4.       The sender transmits the message through channel- Just as technology continues to increase the number of media options at your disposal, it continues to provide new communication channels.

5.       The audience receives the message. If the channel functions properly the messages reaches its intended audience

6.       The audience decodes the message. After a message is received, the receiver needs to extract the idea from the message, a step known as decoding.

7.       The audience responds to the message. By crafting messages in ways that the show benefits of responding, senders can increase the chances that recipients will respond in positive ways.

8.       The audience provides feedback to sender. In addition to responding to the message, audience members may give feedback that helps the sender evaluate the effectiveness communication effort. 

Considering the the complexity of this process and the distractions that often stand between sender and receiver- it should come as no surprise that communication efforts often fail to achieve the sender's objective. 

Click Here to watch a video to further your knowledge on the Importance of Business Communication:

http://www.maximumadvantage.com/