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Mcgraw-Hill - Briefcase Books - Communicating Effectively, SAMOKSZTAŁCENIE, Mcgraw-Hill [Briefcase Books]

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It’s All About
Communication
day. No sooner have you entered the building than you’re
accosted by an employee who has a complaint. “Well,” she
demands, “what are you going to do about it?” You promise to
get back to her later in the day.
You head down the hall toward your office. An employee
greets you cheerfully. Another glares and grumbles. “I’ve got to
talk to him about that attitude,” you think.
Stopping by the break room for coffee, you notice a few of
your staff seated around a table in the corner. “What’s up?” you
ask pleasantly, meaning to strike up a friendly conversation.
“Nothing,” one of them mumbles. You surmise something is up,
considering how their conversation stopped abruptly when you
entered the room.
At your desk, you power on the computer to check your e-
mail. The usual: 37 messages and it’s only 8:15. You’ll attend to
them later. First, you need to check with the human resources
department about getting the new hire through orientation.
1
Y
ou arrive for work bright and early, ready for a productive
2
Communicating Effectively
As soon as you pick up the phone to call human resources,
your boss appears. “Need you in a meeting at 9 about the
Jones account. It’ll only take fifteen minutes.” You know better.
These “only” meetings go on longer than that.
With less than 45 minutes until the meeting, you do a quick
mental calculation. Should you jot down notes for your presen-
tation to the staff tomorrow? Meet with Jane to give her instruc-
tions on the next project phase? Call Joe in to talk about that
attitude problem you’ve noticed? Get together with the manager
of quality control about those defects in the gizmos? Review the
Jones file? Check on that employee’s complaint? Reply to the
e-mails, voice mails, memos, letters, faxes, ad infinitum?
Brrriiing ... your telephone rings. Saved by the bell.
Nobody told you it would be like this!
What You Do
Call to mind a typical week at work. Of the activities listed
below, place a checkmark next to those you do on a regular
basis. Estimate, on average, the percentage of time you spend
on each.
_____ Work on tasks or projects _____%
_____ Discussions with the boss _____%
_____ Conversations with peers _____%
_____ Discussions with employees _____%
_____ Give employees instructions _____%
_____ Give employees feedback _____%
_____ Interview _____%
_____ Lead or take part in meetings _____%
_____ Make presentations _____%
_____ Compose memos, letters, e-mail _____%
_____ Telephone calls
_____%
_____ Other activities
_____%
All of these activities involve
communicating
in one form or
another. Chances are, you spend the bulk of your time involved in
such activities. No matter what your “official” title—team leader,
It’s All About Communication
3
supervisor, manager, direc-
tor, business owner, or the
like—if you manage peo-
ple, communication is a
critical part of what you do.
The Experts Agree
Zig Ziglar has long been a
popular author and speaker
on leadership and motivation. In
To p
Performance
, he cites research that
shows 85% of your success depends
on relational skills: how well you
know people and interact with them.
In the record-breaking bestseller,
The
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
,
Stephen Covey asserted,
“Communication is the most impor-
tant skill in life.” Thomas Faranda
echoed the point in
Uncommon Sense:
Leadership Principles to Grow Your
Business Profitably
: “Nothing is more
important to a leader than effective
communication skills.”
A Model of Management
Suppose you signed up for
a course entitled Manage-
ment 101. During the first
session, the instructor
poses this question to the
class: “What is manage-
ment?” How would you
answer the question?
Figure 1-1 suggests
some answers to this ques-
tion.
Direct
Coach
Monitor
Report
Desired Results
Figure 1-1. What does a manager do?
After decisions are made about the results to be accom-
plished in the area you manage, you direct and coach employee
performance toward achieving those desired results. You then
monitor what’s going on and report on progress or problems.
At every stage, you
communicate
. You interact with the
boss, with employees, and with other departments. You may
interface with entities outside of the organization, including sup-
pliers, contractors, and government or community agencies.
At every stage, you encounter this challenge. You’re
accountable for seeing that results are achieved. But you don’t
4
Communicating Effectively
produce them directly yourself. The results are produced by
others (unless you’re a “working supervisor” doing the jobs of
both employee and manager). In other words, you’re in the
middle of it all (Figure 1-2):
Yo u
Direct
Coach
Monitor
Report
Desired Results
Figure 1-2. You as the manager
Management
The
process of producing results
through other people.
For many managers,
this realization requires a
shift in mind-set and skills.
A Shift in Mindset and Skills
Think about the job you did before you were promoted to your
first management position. What was your primary concern?
Unless you were the office gossip, you were most concerned
with your job. You concentrated your efforts on what you did.
What was the nature of the work you did? In all likelihood, it
was mainly task-oriented. You did work of a technical or opera-
tional nature.
But when you occupy a management role, your frame of
reference changes. Management requires a different mindset
and skills.
It’s All About Communication
5
The Managerial Mindset
As a manager, your primary focus is no longer on
you
. A man-
ager’s mindset shifts to
them
(or, perhaps more appropriately,
us
), the employees who do the tasks. Although you’re still con-
cerned with yourself in terms of doing your job well, you recog-
nize your success depends in large part on how well you and
your employees work together to accomplish goals. You con-
centrate on doing the things that will equip and encourage them
to produce the desired results—and many of those things you
do involve communication.
Management Skill
As a worker, you probably prided yourself on your technical or
operational skills. It’s likely one of the reasons you were pro-
moted to management. You performed the tasks better than
other employees.
Now, you don’t do
those same tasks any-
more. You oversee the per-
formance of others who do
them. Your effectiveness as
a manager isn’t deter-
mined by your expertise
with tasks or technicalities.
Your effectiveness resides
in your
relational
skills.
To be effective, you need to be a skillful communicator. You
need to be especially skilled at
interpersonal
communications.
The Importance of Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal skills are increasingly critical because of four fac-
tors of growing importance in most organizations these days:
technology, time intensity, diversity, and liability.
Relational skills
Skills that
build and maintain relation-
ships.They pertain to how
well you read people and relate to
them. Relational skills include the abil-
ities to establish rapport, instill trust,
foster cooperation, form alliances,
persuade, mediate conflict, and com-
municate clearly and constructively.
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