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Business Communication Essentials

Eighth Edition

Chapter 2

Collaboration, Interpersonal Communication, and Business Etiquette

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Learning Objectives (1 of 3)

2.1 List the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams, and describe the characteristics of effective teams.

2.2 Offer guidelines for collaborative communication, identify major collaboration technologies, and explain how to give constructive feedback.

Learning Objectives (2 of 3)

2.3 List the key steps needed to ensure productive meetings, and identify the most common meeting technologies.

2.4 Identify the major types of listening, describe the listening process, and explain how good listeners overcome barriers at each stage of the process.

Learning Objectives (3 of 3)

2.5 Explain the importance of nonverbal communication, and identify six major categories of nonverbal expression.

2.6 Explain the importance of business etiquette, and identify three key areas in which good etiquette is essential.

Communicating Effectively in Teams

LO 2.1 List the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams, and describe the characteristics of effective teams.

Collaboration—working together to meet complex challenges—has become a core job responsibility for roughly half the U.S. workforce. A team is a unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for working to achieve their goal. You will participate in teams throughout your career, so developing the skills to communicate successfully in team settings will give you an important advantage.

Advantages of Teams

Increased Information and Knowledge

Learning Opportunities

Boldness

Accountability

Teams are often at the core of participative management, the effort to involve employees in the company’s decision-making process. The advantages of teams include the following:

Increased information and knowledge. By aggregating the resources of several individuals, teams bring more information to the decision process.

Teams provide learning opportunities because each team member has a unique background and skills, and other team members can learn from those skills.

Some may feel empowered by the support of team members.

Since each team member is responsible for the outcome, some team members may work hard in order to avoid letting the team down.

Increased diversity of views. Team members can bring a variety of viewpoints to the decision process if these diverse views are guided by a shared goal.

Increased acceptance of solutions. Those who participate in decision making are more likely to support the decision and encourage others to accept it.

Increased performance levels. Effective teams can be better than top-performing individuals at solving complex problems.

Advantages of Teams

Trust Building

Increased Diversity of Viewpoints

Increased Acceptance of Solutions

Increased Levels of Performance

Teams are often at the core of participative management, the effort to involve employees in the company’s decision-making process. The advantages of teams include the following:

Increased diversity of views. Team members can bring a variety of viewpoints to the decision process if these diverse views are guided by a shared goal.

Increased acceptance of solutions. Those who participate in decision making are more likely to support the decision and encourage others to accept it.

Increased performance levels. Effective teams can be better than top-performing individuals at solving complex problems.

Disadvantages of Teams

Groupthink

Pressure to Conform

Affects Decision Quality

Hidden Agenda

Restricts Interaction

Limits Productivity

High Cost

Aligning Schedules

Arranging Meetings

The disadvantages of teams include the following:

Like other social structures, business teams can generate tremendous pressures to conform. Groupthink occurs when peer pressures cause individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions and to go along with decisions they don’t really believe in. The result can be decisions that are worse than the choices the team members might have made individually.

Some team members may have a hidden agenda—private, counterproductive motives that affect the group’s interaction.

Still another drawback to teamwork is the high cost of coordinating group activities. Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating a project can eat up a lot of time and money.

Characteristics of Effective Teams

Clear Objective

Full Engagement

Creativity and Technical Skills

Mix of Skills and Abilities

Open and Honest Communication

Shared Purpose

Consensus Decision Making

Communication

Psychological Safety

The Needs of the Team First

Effective teams share a number of traits, including a clear objective, a shared sense of purpose, full engagement from all team members, procedures for reaching decisions by consensus, and the right mix of creative and technical talents for the tasks at hand. While all these traits contribute to team success, the single most important factor is how well the team members communicate. Teams that lack one or more of these attributes can get bogged down in conflict or waste time and resources pursuing unclear goals. The success of the team is based on strong communication skills.

Summary of Discussion (1 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Advantages of Teams

Disadvantages of Teams

Characteristics of Effective Teams

The next section will cover Collaborating on Communication Efforts.

Collaborating on Communication Efforts

LO 2.2 Offer guidelines for collaborative communication, identify major collaboration technologies, and explain how to give constructive feedback.

When a team collaborates on reports, websites, presentations, and other communication projects, the collective energy and expertise of the various members can lead to results that transcend what each individual could do alone. However, collaborating on team messages requires special effort; the following section offers a number of helpful guidelines.

Guidelines for Collaborative Writing (1 of 2)

Select Collaborators Carefully

Agree on Goals Before You Start

Give the Team Some Time to Bond

Clarify Individual Responsibilities

In any collaborative effort, recognize that team members coming from different backgrounds may have different work habits or priorities. To collaborate effectively, everyone involved must be flexible, open to other opinions, and focused on team objectives rather than on individual priorities. The following guidelines will help you work together more successfully:

Select collaborators carefully. Choose a combination of people who have the experience, information, and talent needed for each project.

Agree on project goals before you start. Starting without a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish will lead to frustration and wasted time.

Give your team time to bond before diving in. Make sure people can get to know each other before being asked to collaborate.

Clarify individual responsibilities. This is essential because team members will be depending on each other.

Guidelines for Collaborative Writing (2 of 2)

Establish Clear Group Processes

Avoid Writing as a Group

Use Compatible Technologies

Seek Feedback from the Team Often

Establish clear processes. Make sure everyone knows how the work will be managed from start to finish.

Avoid writing as a group. Group writing can be a slow, painful process, so assign the actual writing to one person or divide larger projects among multiple writers.

Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team. Minor details such as different versions of software can delay projects.

Check to see how things are going along the way. Don’t assume that everything is working, just because you don’t hear anything negative.

Technologies for Collaborative Writing (1 of 2)

Content Management System

Organized Approach

Controlled Access

Wiki

Flexible Approach

Open Access

A variety of tools are available to help writers collaborate on everything from short documents to entire websites. The simplest tools involve software tools such as commenting and change tracking.

Writing for websites often involves the use of a content management system, which organizes and controls website content and includes features that help team members work together on webpages and other documents. These systems range from simple blogging systems on up to enterprise systems that manage web content across an entire corporation. Many systems include workflow features that control how pages or documents can be created, edited, and published.

In contrast to the formal controls of a content management system, a wiki is a website that allows anyone with access to add new material and edit existing material. Public wikis allow any registered user to edit pages; private wikis are accessible only with permission. A key benefit of a wiki is the freedom to post new or revised material without prior approval.

Technologies for Collaborative Writing (2 of 2)

Groupware

Shared Knowledge

Cloud Computing

Shared Workspaces

Intranets

Extranets

Teams and other work groups can also take advantage of groupware or collaboration platforms. These technologies let people communicate, share files, review previous message threads, work on documents simultaneously, and connect using social networking tools. These systems help companies capture and share knowledge from multiple experts, bringing greater insights to bear on tough challenges.

Shared workspaces are online “virtual offices” that give everyone on a team access to the same set of resources and information. You may see some of these workspaces referred to as intranets (open to employees only) or extranets (available to employees and to outside parties by invitation only).

Collaboration via Mobile Devices

Unified Communication

Voice and Video Calling

Voice and Video Conferencing

Instant Messaging

Real-Time Collaboration

Mobile devices add another layer of options for collaborative writing and other communication projects, particularly when used with cloud computing. An important aspect of mobile collaboration and mobile communication in general is unified communication, which integrates such capabilities as voice and video calling, voice and video conferencing, instant messaging, and real-time collaboration software in a single system. By minimizing or eliminating the need to manage multiple communication systems and devices, unified communication promises to improve response times, productivity, and collaboration efforts.

Giving and Responding to Constructive Feedback

Offering Constructive Criticism

Focus on the process and outcomes.

Provide clear guidelines for improvement.

Receiving Constructive Criticism

Don’t get defensive or deny the feedback’s validity.

Use the feedback to accept the quality of your work.

Aside from processes and tools, collaborative communication often involves giving and receiving feedback about writing efforts. Constructive feedback, sometimes called constructive criticism, focuses on the process and outcomes of communication, not on the people involved. In contrast, destructive feedback delivers criticism with no effort to stimulate improvement.

When you’re giving feedback, avoid personal attacks and give the person clear guidelines for improvement. When you receive constructive feedback, resist the urge to defend your work or deny the validity of the feedback. Instead, use the feedback to learn and to improve the quality of your work.

Summary of Discussion (2 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Guidelines for Collaborative Writing

Technologies for Collaborative Writing

Collaboration via Mobile Devices

Giving and Responding to Constructive Feedback

The next section will cover Making Your Meetings More Productive.

Making Your Meetings More Productive

LO 2.3 List the key steps needed to ensure productive team meetings, and identify the most common meeting technologies.

Much of your workplace communication will occur in 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. As useful as meetings can be, though, they can be an aggravating waste of time if they aren’t planned and managed well.

Preparing for Meetings

Careful Preparation and Planning Tasks

Clarify the Purpose of Your Meeting.

Select the Participants for the Meeting.

Choose the Meeting’s Time and Venue.

Set and Share the Purpose of the Meeting.

Successful meetings start with thoughtful preparation. After you have confirmed that a meeting is necessary, proceed with the following planning tasks:

Clarify your purpose. Informational meetings allow participants to share information and perhaps coordinate action. Decision-making meetings involve persuasion, analysis, and problem solving.

Select participants for the meeting. The rule here is simple: Invite everyone who really needs to be involved, and don’t invite anyone who doesn’t need to be there.

Choose the venue and the time. Online meetings are often the best way to connect people in multiple locations or to reach large audiences. For onsite meetings, review the facility and the seating arrangements. If you have control over the timing, morning meetings are often more productive because people are generally more alert and not yet engaged with the work of the day.

Set and share the agenda. People who will be presenting information need to know what is expected of them, non-presenters need to know what will be presented so they can prepare questions, and everyone needs to know how long the meeting will last. In addition, the agenda is an important tool for guiding the progress of the meeting.

Conducting and Contributing to Efficient Meetings

Keep the Discussion on Track.

Follow Agreed-Upon Rules.

Encourage Everyone to Participate.

Participate in an Active Way.

Don’t Interrupt

Use Mobile Devices Respectfully.

Close the Meeting Effectively.

Everyone in a meeting plays a role in keeping the meeting productive and making it successful. If you're the leader of a meeting, however, you have an extra degree of responsibility and accountability. To ensure productive meetings, be sure to do the following:

Keep the meeting on track. Good leaders need to guide, mediate, probe, stimulate, summarize, and redirect discussions that have gotten off track.

Follow agreed-upon rules. The larger the meeting is, the more formal you will need to be. Formal meetings often use parliamentary procedure, a time-tested method for planning and running effective meetings.

Encourage participation. Some participants are too quiet and others are too talkative. The best meetings are those in which everyone participates, so a leader must not let one or two people dominate the meeting while others remain silent.

Participate actively. Try to contribute to the subject of the meeting and the smooth interaction of the participants. Listen and observe to size up the interpersonal dynamics of the group and then adapt to help the group achieve its goals. Speak up if you have something useful to say, but don’t monopolize the discussion.

Use mobile devices respectfully. Tweeting key points from a speech or jotting down notes on your tablet can be productive and respectful. Checking Facebook and working on unrelated tasks are not.

Close effectively. At the end of the meeting, verify that the objectives have been met; if not, schedule follow-up work. Then, summarize the decisions reached, and make sure everyone understands and agrees on the outcome.

Putting Meeting Results to Productive Use

Written Meeting Minutes

Problems and Opportunities

Action Items Discussed

Key Decisions Made

Important Announcements

Responsibilities Assigned

In most cases, the value of a meeting doesn’t end when the meeting ends. For example, problems or opportunities brought up during a meeting need to be addressed, any action items assigned during the meeting need to be acted on, and key decisions and announcements should be distributed to participants and those who were unable to attend.

The conventional method of recording meetings is through written meeting minutes, a summary of the important information presented and the decisions made. One person is usually assigned to keep notes as the meeting progresses and then to share them afterward.

The specific format of the minutes is less important than making sure you record all the key information, particularly regarding responsibilities that were assigned during the meeting. Any handouts, electronic slides, or supporting documents can be attached to the minutes when they are distributed. Depending on the meeting technologies at your disposal, you may have software specifically designed to record, distribute, and store meeting minutes.

Using Meeting Technologies

Virtual Meetings

Instant Messaging

Tele- conferencing

Video- conferencing

Web-Based Meetings

Today’s companies use a number of technologies to enhance or even replace traditional in-person meetings. Replacing in-person meetings with virtual meetings can dramatically reduce costs and resource usage, reduce wear and tear on employees, and give teams access to a wider pool of expertise.

Instant messaging and teleconferencing are the simplest forms of virtual meetings. Videoconferencing technologies allow meeting participants to see and hear each other, and transmit other visual or nonverbal information.

The most sophisticated web-based meeting systems combine the best of real-time communication, shared workspaces, and videoconferencing with other tools, such as virtual whiteboards, that let teams collaborate in real time. These systems are used for everything from spontaneous small-group meetings to formal events, such as conferences, trainings, presentations, brainstorming, and webinars.

Summary of Discussion (3 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Preparing for Meetings

Conducting and Contributing to Effective Meetings

Putting Meeting Results to Productive Use

Using Meeting Technologies

The next section will cover Improving Your Listening Skills.

Improving Your Listening Skills

LO 2.4 Identify the major types of listening, describe the listening process, and explain how good listeners overcome barriers at each stage of the process.

Your long-term career prospects are closely tied to your ability to listen effectively. In fact, some 80 percent of top executives say that listening is the most important skill needed to get things done in the workplace.

Effective listening strengthens organizational relationships, alerts the organization to opportunities for innovation, and allows the organization to manage growing diversity both in the workforce and among the customers it serves. Conversely, poor listening skills can cost companies millions of dollars a year as a result of lost opportunities, legal mistakes, and other errors.

Recognizing Various Types of Listening

Content

Empathic

Critical

Active

Effective listeners adapt their listening approaches to different situations.

The goal of content listening is to understand and retain the speaker’s message. You may ask questions, but don’t argue or judge. Just focus on the information.

The goal of critical listening is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message on several levels: such as the logic of the argument, the strength of the evidence, the validity of the conclusions, the implications of the message for you and your organization, the speaker’s intentions and motives, and the omission of any relevant points. Be on the lookout for speaker bias, and separate opinions from facts.

The goal of empathic listening is to understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants so that you can appreciate his or her point of view. By listening in an empathic way, you help the individual vent the emotions that prevent a clear-headed approach to the subject. Avoid the temptation to give advice. Try not to judge the individual’s feelings. Just let the other person talk.

Effective listeners try to engage in active listening. They make a conscious effort to turn off their own filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other party is saying. They ask questions, summarize the speaker’s message to verify key points, and encourage the speaker through positive body language and supportive feedback.

Understanding the Listening Process

Receiving or Hearing the Message

Decoding or Assigning Meaning

Remembering for Future Reference

Evaluating the Quality of Information

Responding to the Message

Listening seems like a simple procedure; however, most of us are not very good at it. Most people listen at or below a 25 percent efficiency rate, remember only about half of what’s said during a 10-minute conversation, and forget half of that within 48 hours. To listen effectively, use the following five-step plan:

Receiving: Physically hearing the message and recognizing it as incoming information.

Decoding: Assigning meaning to sounds according to your own values, beliefs, ideas, expectations, roles, needs, and personal history.

Remembering: Storing a message for future reference.

Evaluating: Evaluating the quality of the information.

Responding: Reacting based on the situation and the nature of the information.

If any one of these steps breaks down, the listening process becomes less effective or even fails entirely.

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening

Selective Listening

Selective Perception

Language or Experience

Good listeners look for ways to overcome potential barriers throughout the listening process.

Selective listening is one of the most common barriers. If your mind wanders, you often stay tuned out until you hear a word or phrase that gets your attention once more. But by that time, you’re unable to recall what the speaker actually said; instead, you remember what you think the speaker probably said.

Selective perception leads listeners to mold messages to fit their own conceptual frameworks. Listeners sometimes make up their minds before fully hearing the speaker’s message, or they engage in defensive listening—protecting their egos by tuning out anything that doesn’t confirm their beliefs or their view of themselves.

Even when your intentions are good, you can still misinterpret incoming messages if you and the speaker don’t share enough language or experience. When listening to a speaker whose native language or life experience is different from yours, try to paraphrase that person’s ideas. Give the speaker a chance to confirm what you think you heard or to correct any misinterpretation.

What Makes an Effective Listener?

Summary of Discussion (4 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Recognizing Various Types of Listening

Understanding the Listening Process

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening

The next section will cover Improving Your Nonverbal Communication Skills.

Improving Your Nonverbal Communication Skills

LO 2.5 Explain the importance of nonverbal communication, and identify six major categories of nonverbal expression.

Nonverbal communication is the process of sending and receiving information, both intentionally and unintentionally, without using written or spoken language.

Understanding Nonverbal Signals in Communication

Verbal Messages

Enhance

Weaken

Replace

Nonverbal signals play a vital role in communication because they can strengthen a verbal message (when the nonverbal signals match the spoken words), weaken a verbal message (when nonverbal signals don’t match the words), or replace words entirely. For example, you might tell a client that a project is proceeding on time and within budget, but your forced smile and nervous glances send an entirely different message.

Six Important Nonverbal Signals

Facial Expressions

Vocal Characteristics

Touching Behavior

Gestures and Posture

Personal Appearance

Time and Space

Paying attention to nonverbal signals in the workplace will enhance your ability to communicate successfully. Six types of signals are particularly important:

Facial expressions. Your face is the primary site for expressing your emotions; it reveals both the type and the intensity of your feelings. However, facial signals can vary widely from culture to culture.

Gesture and postures. Many gestures (e.g., a wave of the hand) have a specific and intentional meaning. Other types of body movement are unintentional and express a more general message.

Vocal characteristics. Your voice also carries intentional and unintentional messages. Your tone, volume, accent, and speaking pace say a lot about who you are, your relationship to the audience, and the emotions behind your words.

Personal appearance. People respond to others based on physical appearance. To make a good impression, adopt the style of the people you want to impress.

Touch. Touch can convey warmth, comfort, and reassurance. However, touch is so powerful, that cultural customs govern it.

Time and space. Time and space can be used to assert authority, imply intimacy, and send other nonverbal messages. Keep in mind that expectations regarding both time and space vary by culture.

When you listen to others, pay attention to nonverbal cues. Be observant, but don’t think you can “read someone like a book.” Think carefully about nonverbal signals you send to those around you. Don’t let careless choices or disrespectful habits undermine you on the job.

Summary of Discussion (5 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Understanding Nonverbal Signals in Communication

Six Important Nonverbal Signals

The next section will cover Developing Your Business Etiquette.

Developing Your Business Etiquette

LO 2.6 Explain the importance of business etiquette, and identify three key areas in which good etiquette is essential.

You may have noticed a common thread running through the topics of successful teamwork, productive meetings, effective listening, and nonverbal communication: the need for mutual respect and consideration among all participants.

This section addresses some key etiquette points to remember when you’re in the workplace, out in public, and online. Long lists of etiquette rules can be difficult to remember, but you can get by in most every situation by being aware of your effect on others, treating everyone with respect, and understanding that the impressions you leave behind can have a lasting effect on you and your company.

Workplace Etiquette (1 of 2)

Respect for Time

Don’t Interrupt

Watch Language

Dress Appropriately

Pay Attention to Cleanliness

Avoid Eating at Your Desk

Workplace etiquette includes a variety of behaviors, habits, and aspects of nonverbal communication.

Respect the time of others by showing up for work and meetings on time, and don’t waste others time with gossip or chit-chat.

Don’t interrupt conversations or meetings.

Profanity has no place in a professional environment, even in casual conversation.

Dress for the situation. Show respect for the organizational culture and be judge on what you do, not what you wear.

Avoid soaps, perfumes, and other products with powerful scents.

Avoid eating at your desk; many foods have strong smells, and no one wants to listen to you eat.

Workplace Etiquette (2 of 2)

Respect Personal Space

Don’t Gossip

Don’t Come to Work if Sick

Keep the Noise Level Down

Don’t Discuss Religion or Politics

Respect the personal space of others by knocking before entering their office and don’t barge into someone’s cubicle unless invited.

Not only is gossip a waste of time, it is often disrespectful to other.

Don’t go to work sick, you will only spread the illness.

Noise is a big concern in open-plan workspaces. Keep your voice down, avoid having meetings in your cubicle and don't play music at levels that disrupt others.

Avoid discussing religion, politics, or other potentially emotional issues.

Guidelines for Using Phones in the Workplace

Be Aware of How Your Voice Sounds.

Be Courteous When Placing Calls.

Convey a Positive, Professional Attitude.

End Calls Courteously and Clearly.

Use Your Own Voicemail to Help Callers.

Be Considerate When Leaving Voicemails.

Here are some important tips for using phones at work.

Be conscious of how your voice sounds. Don’t speak in a monotone; vary your pitch and inflections so people know you’re interested. Slow down when conversing with people whose native language isn’t the same as yours.

Be courteous when you call someone. Identify yourself and your organization, state why you’re calling, and verify that you’ve called at a good time. Minimize the noise level in your environment. For important or complicated conversations, plan what you want to say before calling.

Convey a positive, professional attitude when you answer the phone. Answer promptly and with a smile. Identify yourself and your company. Establish the needs of your caller by asking, “How may I help you?”

End calls with courtesy and clarity. Close in a friendly, positive manner and double-check all vital information such as meeting times and dates.

Use your own voicemail features to help callers. Record a brief, professional-sounding outgoing message for regular use. If you don’t check your messages regularly or at all, disable your voicemail.

Be considerate when leaving voicemail messages. If you leave a voicemail message, make it as brief as possible. Leave your name, number (don’t assume the recipient has caller ID), reason for calling, and times you can be reached.

Business Etiquette Using Mobile Devices

Obnoxious Ringtones

Mute Your Phone in Meetings

Talking Loudly in Public Spaces

Unnecessary Personal Calls at Work

Invading Privacy

Taking or Making Calls in Inappropriate Places

Texting during Meals

Interrupting Meetings and Discussion

Your mobile device habits say a lot about how much respect you have for the people around you. Selecting obnoxious ring tones, talking loudly in public places, invading someone’s privacy by using your phone’s camera in inappropriate places, texting while someone is talking to you, allowing incoming calls to interrupt meetings or discussions—these are all disrespectful choices that will reflect negatively on you. Don’t assume that your habits will be universally acceptable.

Virtual assistants, such as the Siri voice recognition system in Apple iPhones, raise another new etiquette dilemma. As with other public behaviors, think about the effect you have on the people around you before using these technologies.

Expectations and policies regarding mobile device use vary widely from company to company. Make sure you understand the situation in your workplace.

Business Etiquette Online (1 of 2)

Avoid personal attacks.

Focus on the original topic.

Don’t present opinions as facts.

Support facts with evidence.

Follow spelling and punctuation rules.

Maintain current antivirus protection.

Ask permission before you start chatting.

Electronic media seem to be a breeding ground for poor etiquette, so learn the basics of professional online behavior to avoid mistakes that could hurt your company or your career.

Here are some guidelines to follow wherever you are representing your company while using electronic media:

Avoid personal attacks on others. Don’t lose your temper; stay cool.

Stay focused on the original topic. If you want to change the subject, start a new message or thread.

Don’t present opinions as facts. Let people know when you’re presenting your beliefs or opinions.

Support facts with evidence. Seek out credible sources of information. Cite the sources of facts, data, statistics, and so on.

Follow the basic rules for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. If you send messages that are riddled with spelling or grammar errors, you’ll look like an amateur.

Use antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. Sending or posting infected files puts others at risk.

Ask if this is “a good time” for an IM chat before you start. Don’t assume that the person wants to chat when you do.

Business Etiquette Online (2 of 2)

Control language and emotions.

Avoid multitasking during communication.

Never assume you have privacy.

Don’t abuse the “reply all” feature.

Don’t waste other people’s time.

Respect boundaries of time and space.

Be careful with online commenting.

Watch your language and control your emotions. An emotional outburst on the Internet or social media can take on a life of its own.

Avoid multitasking when using IM or other communication tools. The other person will have to wait while you’re shifting between tasks.

Never assume that your online activities are private. Assume that any message you send will be stored forever.

Do not use “reply all” in email unless everyone can benefit from your reply. If someone doesn’t need the information, don’t “spam” their inbox.

Do not waste other people’s time with sloppy, confusing, or incomplete messages. Doing so is disrespectful.

Respect personal boundaries of time and virtual space. Don’t assume people are available to discuss work matters around the clock.

Be careful of online commenting mechanisms. If your Facebook profile includes your job title and/or your company’s name, those could show up along with your comment.

Business Etiquette in Social Settings

Meeting Others

Representing Your Company

Introducing Yourself

Introducing Other People

Business Meals

Observing Dining Etiquette

Starting Polite Conversations

Choosing Appropriate Topics

You represent your company when you are out in public. Make sure that your appearance and actions are appropriate to the situation.

When introducing yourself, include a brief description of your role in the company. When introducing two other people, speak both their first and last names clearly, and then try to help these two people ease into a conversation.

Business is often conducted over meals. Knowing the basics of dining etiquette will make you more effective in these situations. Choose foods that are easy to eat while you are trying to carry on a conversation. Avoid alcoholic beverages, but if one is appropriate, save it for the end of the meal. Leave business papers under your chair until entrée plates have been removed; the business aspect of the meal usually doesn’t begin until then. Finally, business meals are a forum for business, period. Avoid topics that are likely to stir up emotions. Don’t complain about work, avoid profanity, and be careful with humor.

Summary of Discussion (6 of 6)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Business Etiquette in the Workplace

Guidelines for Using Phones in the Workplace

Business Etiquette in Social Settings and Online

Business Etiquette with Mobile Devices

This concludes our discussion of Chapter 2: Collaboration, Interpersonal Communication, and Business Etiquette.