Bus 340 Communications -week 1 assignment.

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Focusing on the Fundamentals of Effective Communication Within an Organization

© 2014 Dan Coughlin. All Rights Reserved.

* Dan Coughlin works with business leaders to improve their bottomline results by impacting teamwork,

execution, innovation, and branding. His clients include RE/MAX Integra, McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch InBev,

Abbott, GE, Marriott, Coca-Cola, Shell, Toyota, Boeing, Subway, BJC HealthCare, Shawnee Mission Medical

Center, St. Louis Cardinals, Prudential, Land O’Lakes, ACE Hardware, Jack in the Box, Denny’s, Holder

Construction, Kiewit Construction, McCarthy Building Companies, and more than 200 other organizations.

The author can be reached at [email protected]. Website: www.thecoughlincompany.com

Dan Coughlin*

Every business is in a relationship business. There are relationships with your customers, suppliers, and fellow employees. You have relationships to build up and down the organization chart. You have relationships to build with peers whom you may one day be in charge of or who may be in charge of you. Technical ability alone does not produce sustainable profitable growth. It is only in combining your ability to add value with other people that you actually produce real business results.

Recently, I was asked by a client to puttogether a full-day interactive seminaron how people can communicate more effectively with other employees inside their business. My first thought was that this would be like asking a scientist for a cure for the common cold.

By far and away, the biggest issue inside of organizations is the way the individuals communicate with one another. I have worked now with over two hundred organizations. To prepare for my work, I have many times interviewed anywhere from 5 to 20 people inside the organization to better understand their perspectives. Generally speaking, I ask them to share their thoughts with me on what makes the organization effective, what makes the organization ineffective or gets in the way of it

being as effective as it could be, and what would make it more effective.

I have now interviewed more than eight hundred people in these organizations, and without exception, the number one answer to what gets in the way of it being as effective as it could be is poor communication within the organization. I am not talking about communicating with customers, prospects, and suppliers. I am talking about communicating with fellow employees.

Clarifying Great Communication If poor communication is so prevalent in organizations in over 40 different industries, I am wondering if great communication is even possible. Do people really know what they want? Take out a sheet of paper and write down your answer to this question:

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Describe what you mean by great communication inside of a business. What does it look like?

You might want to think of someone you consider to be a great communicator or think of what you imagine great communication looks like in a work environment. Take a few minutes right now and start jotting down what you think this really looks like. When you are done, compare your answer to the realities of your workplace. What is similar and what is different? What do you think can be done to improve communication in your organization? Trust me when I say this is easier said than done.

How In-House Communication Affects Business Results Think of business performance this way:

Talent + Energy + Time = Improved Results Talent is the capacity to add value to other

people, energy is the effort you put into creating and delivering that value, and time is the amount of time you concentrate your energy on creating and delivering that value to other people.

Keep in mind that your organization only has ‘x’ amount of cumulative talent, energy, and time. If you waste a portion of that on poor communication, then it is gone and cannot be retrieved. So now you have to achieve great results with a smaller amount of talent, energy, and time.

Consequently, poor communication makes business performance much more difficult. In order to thwart poor communication, one thing that is important is to acknowledge what it looks like and to consciously work to avoid it.

Communication Approaches That Ruin Work Relationships (The Headline Is, “Not Respecting the Other Person”) At the heart of ineffective communication is a true lack of respect for the other person. This could be conscious or subconscious, but either

way it rears its ugly head and weakens relationships. To get ready for the seminar, I started thinking about communication approaches that I have seen really damage working relationships within my clients’ organizations and in organizations I have worked in. Here is what came to mind:

Lack of time together one-on-one Nothing ruins relationships faster and more effectively than not spending time together. This is true in families, in friendships, in neighborhoods, and in businesses. There is something about human nature that when people are not spending any quality time together, negative thoughts and assumptions about each other start to creep in and negative walls start to build up. Forget that saying that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Not true. Absence makes people jump to conclusions that may or may not be true. If you really want to hurt a relationship with a fellow employee, do everything you can not to spend any time with that person.

The danger of drive-by shootings (otherwise known as the explosion of public humiliation, the evils of e-mail, the terror of texts and tweets, and the fear of Facebook) Imagine you are sitting in your house and a car goes by and then a bullet crashes through your window and gets lodged in the wall next to you. No one is physically hurt, but an enormous amount of fear is generated. With no explanation or warning, you have been attacked. Your neighbors all start to wonder if they are in danger as well or if this is just about you.

To a somewhat lesser degree, this is what happens when people get intensely criticized with no forewarning. They are sitting in a business meeting and suddenly the boss berates them in front of their peers. They are reading through their e-mails at the end of a long day and then they read one from their boss that tells them

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all the things they did wrong at a meeting with a customer. They are rifling through their text messages or tweets and they find one that calls them out personally as having been a poor performer and the text or tweet has also been sent to ten of their peers. They go home to catch up on their Facebook postings and they find that someone has broken their trust and revealed something very confidential about them.

All of these ‘drive-by shootings’ can ruin work relationships.

Beware of the cute and funny What you think cute and funny may not be. My wife, Barb, and I had accidently broken a glass pane for our light fixture outside of our front door. Since it was under the roof, we figured it would never get rained on. Then a bird built a nest twig by twig in there, and we thought that was cute and funny and so we did not bother it. Then one day a neighbor smelled the nest burning while we talked on the front porch. Immediately, I took out the nest. What we thought cute and funny could have burned our house down.

Is there something in your business that you think cute and funny that is in reality really hurting a relationship? Perhaps you always tease a certain person for having grown up in a certain location. You think it is funny and the other person smiles every time it comes up, but in fact the person is really sick of hearing it and is getting really ticked off at you. Be aware of the cute and funny.

It is not just “don’t drink and drive,” it is also “don’t drink and talk” We all know it is dangerous to drink and drive. It is also dangerous to your business relationships to drink and talk. After a few drinks or more than a few drinks, it is amazing how stupid we can sound and not realize it. What we might have said in a coherent and reasonable manner while sober can be said while we are slurring our words

and falling off our chair in ways that really, really damage working relationships.

When you are getting near to the point of drinking too much, it is best to claim a headache and head back to your hotel room by yourself. Otherwise, you might really end up with a business headache the next day.

Building a fortress around how things are done My least favorite meetings to attend are the ones when the person in charge says, “We really want to hear your ideas on this topic. Please share them with us.” Then another person starts to share his or her perspective and immediately the first person says, “That won’t work. Who else has a thought they want to share?” I have been in situations like this. I cringe when I think about them. So much talent in the room and yet the people in charge refused to listen or consider anything that did not originate from their minds and mouths.

Throwing in too many ideas too fast and too often The opposite of the fortress is The Idea Machine. This is the person who throws out ideas in every meeting. There are two problems with this approach.

If you are on a committee or at a department meeting and you always are the first one to put your idea on the table and then you add ideas to everyone else’s ideas, people will very quickly roll their eyes and shut out any suggestion that you offer. Looking back I have done this many times myself. I was trying much too hard to prove that I could add value and so I added way too many suggestions for the group to be able to handle.

Another problem that occurs is when the person is the boss and his or her direct reports are on the receiving end of a constant flow of suggestions and ideas. They do not know which ideas the boss is just ‘suggesting’ and which ones he or she is expecting to be carried out.

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The devastating energy drain of non-stop changes Bob (the name has been changed to protect the guilty) was responsible for a very, very large piece of business. He loved making changes. He practically thrived on making changes just as every deadline on various projects expired. He was in charge and so he could get away with this kind of behavior. Project after project was postponed or delayed because of Bob’s changes. The impact on the key business outcomes was devastating, and people on his team did everything they could to avoid him. Finally, after a few years of this kind of behavior he was let go by his boss.

Before you make yet another change to a project, think about the impact it might have on people.

The deadlines don’t apply to me syndrome (otherwise known as the perception of not caring created by not responding) These are the people who are ALWAYS late on everything. If there is a deadline to fail meeting, they will fail at it. This is a remarkably effective way to ruin relationships because it not only sends the message that you do not care, but it also affects the work of a lot of other people.

Constant arm-chair quarterbacking (relentlessly criticizing other people) The easiest, and sometimes the highest paid, job in the world is to criticize other people, especially when it is behind their back. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the Boomerang Effect comes back to really hurt the relationship. The Boomerang Effect is created when the person being criticized finds out about it. Now the person is mad and has every reason to be mad. And thus ends another working relationship.

Tone and volume and attitude really do matter (it is not just what you say; it is also how you say it) Saying “Can you please help me with this report?” is quite different from “GET OVER HERE NOW

AND HELP ME FIGURE OUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. YOU’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING RIGHT NOW ANYWAY.”

BONUS: The Vacuum Created by Fake Listening and False Praise.

The only thing worse than communicating disrespectfully is to pretend you are communicating respectfully and you are really not. That is where you nod your head up and down and smile a lot and make eye contact and say things like, “That’s great. Way to go. You’re doing a terrific job,” when in fact you are not listening at all and you have no idea what the person has been doing. Remember the Boomerang Effect? People will eventually figure out what you are doing.

As mentioned earlier, business performance could be explained using the following formula:

Talent + Energy + Time = Results Consequently, communication approaches

that ruin working relationships waste the time, energy, and talent in the organization. Conversely, communication approaches that strengthen working relationships optimize the talent, energy, and time in an organization toward improving results.

Communication Approaches That Strengthen Working Relationships (The Headline Is, “Respecting the Other Person”) At the heart of building a stronger relationship with another person is truly respecting that person. If you are only working to build a stronger relationship with that person because your boss is making you do it, then you are unlikely to make any real progress.

Do you respect the person, even though you might disagree with some aspects about him or her? Why do you respect the person? What is it about him or her that you admire? If you cannot

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find something to base your respect upon, then you are not going to put in any real effort toward strengthening the relationship.

If you do respect the person, then here are 10 approaches to consider in strengthening that relationship:

Spending one-on-one time with the other person (recommendation: 10 key people list, minimum 90 minutes once a quarter with each person, repeat quarter after quarter)

At the very minimum, I believe you need to spend 90 minutes of quality one-on-one time with the other person every three months. This could be at lunch or in a conference room or riding in a car or over the phone or on Skype. For those 90 minutes, have no agenda and no interruptions. Turn off your cell phone and get away from your e-mails. Go away from your office where you won’t be tapped on the shoulder with constant requests. Ninety minutes four times a year might not seem like much, but I have been amazed to find out that sometimes people go a decade without ever having any quality one-on-one time with a key person in their part of an organization. And then they wonder why the relationship has never gotten very strong.

I suggest you make a list of the 10 key people you want to have a strong working relationship with, and then schedule 90 minutes with each of these individuals every quarter. If you are really faithful to that, I think you will find that your relationship with each of them is much stronger at the end of the year. Then continue to do that year after year.

360-degree respectfulness (to the person’s face, in side conversation, and behind the person’s back)

The ultimate relationship builder is ongoing constant respect towards the other person. This includes to the person’s face, in side conversations

when you bump into them at a conference or during a break at a meeting, and behind the person’s back when you are talking about him or her to another person. You demonstrate how much you respect the person by the comprehensive way in which you demonstrate that level of respect.

The enormous power of the handwritten note My mom is in her mid-80s now and she is just as strong as ever. My mom is a great leader. There are very, very few business people who know who my mom is, but trust me she’s a great leader. When I was 12 years old and I got $10 from my Aunt Helen, Mom said to me, “Danny (and by the way my mom is the only person allowed to call me Danny), you write a handwritten letter to Aunt Helen and thank her for that gift.” When I was 18 years old and received a scholarship to go to college, my mom said, “Danny, now you write a handwritten letter thanking each of the committee members.” When I was 22 years old and I got my first job after college, my mom said to me, “Danny, you write your new boss a handwritten letter and thank him for that job.” A few weeks ago, my mom said, “Danny, I see that your high school teacher’s father passed away. Now you write him a letter thanking him for all that he did for yo u.” I have been writing handwritten letters for the past 40 years.

Last year, I shared this idea in a speech at Shell Oil. Two weeks later, I received a handwritten letter thanking me for the idea from the North American Director of Operations for Shell Retail Marketing. He told me that he had just written a handwritten letter to 80 people across the North American organization.

Handwritten letters are a powerful way of thanking people and letting them know that you are thinking about them. This is especially true in an electronic world of e-mail, text, Skype, Twitter, teleseminars, video conferencing, and so on.

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Clarify and bring light to a situation (as opposed to keeping the other person in the dark) Imagine you are sitting in the back of a well-lit room. Your boss holds up a book and says, “Could you please come here and take this book back to your seat?” That is a very simple thing to do. You just walk up, take the book, and go back to your seat. Now imagine the room is completely dark and you cannot see your boss or the book and she asks you to come to her and take the book, except this time she does not have it in her hand. It is placed somewhere along the wall in her briefcase. Now it is a much more complicated situation. You are quite literally grasping in the dark for a book you have never seen before.

That is what it is like when a person gives very poor directions to another person. In the absence of any reasonable clarity, it is very hard for the other person to be effective at all. Unfortunately, this happens a lot.

To be an effective communicator, clarify what you want done and why it is so important. And then make sure that the environment is clear and well-explained so that the other person can move forward with a minimum of uncertainty. This is not always possible, but try to put as much light on the situation as you can by explaining items of importance to the other person.

Understand what makes the other person feel important (Dale Carnegie quoting two others: “The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated” —From the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.) I first read, How to Win Friends and Influence People, in 1988. Those two sentences above have remained stuck in my brain ever since. Here is another sample from that book: “If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are.” I cannot encourage you enough to read this book. It is THE master class on effective communication.

If you can understand what drives another person more than any other factor, then you will have an opportunity to communicate with that person in a way that matters the most to him or her. It takes time to understand what makes the person’s heart race faster and care to a greater extent. Once you know what that is for the person, you can gear your comments toward that nerve center in meaningful ways.

Totally listen (consider what the other person is saying. Close the loop. Conversations are most effective when they go both ways) The ultimate sign of respect is to totally listen to what the other person is saying. There is nothing greater than sincerely listening to what the person considers important at that moment. For five minutes, really let go of everything else in your life and totally tune in to what the person is saying and how he or she is saying it. In general, people do not listen very well to each other. I think that is a fair statement to make after all these years of watching people interact with others. Letting go of life’s distractions and attentively and empathetically listening is a remarkable gift that you can give to another person.

The incredible impact of patience and calmness It is quite easy for people to get frazzled. There are a lot of things in life that can create tension both at home and at work. That tension can quickly escalate at work into very dramatic situations. The person who can stay calm and patient is the one who can maintain strong working relationships with a diverse set of people and help get the group from a state of tension to one of collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation.

A willingness to be in the moment at a moment’s notice. (Can’t be every moment, can’t be never.) You show how much another person means to you by setting aside what you had planned for the day to be with that person. If that person is

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dealing with a crisis at home or at work and you let go of what you had on your agenda to step into his or her world, you are clearly saying, “You are more important to me than what I was doing.” Of course, you can’t do this every day for every person you know because you would no longer be getting any of your work done. However, when you do this, it sends a very loud message about your priorities.

Apologize. Really apologize with sincerity We still are human and we still make mistakes.

When you make a mistake, even if it you intentionally made that mistake, it is rarely irreversible in terms of being unable to sincerely apologize for what you did. Go to the other person, look him or her in the eye, and say, “I’m sorry for what I did. It was the wrong thing to do, and I sincerely apologize.” Of course, your future actions have to support the sincerity of that apology. You cannot then go berate the person again behind his or her back.

Walk a day in the other person’s shoes Most complaints about people in other departments are based on not really knowing what they are doing. People in marketing complain about people in operations and IT and strategy and vice versa. The comments are constant and never-ending from organization to organization that I have worked in. It usually goes like this, “They have no idea how hard we are working and how many hours we are putting in. They don’t do anything in that department to really go the extra mile, and I’m sick of being taken advantage of.” I have now heard that comment from many, many people in operations, finance, marketing, human resources, sales, IT, event planning, research and development, and senior executives in charge of the whole organization.

If people in every group feel that way, then there is a very good chance that most people

do not understand what other people are going through. One way to make some progress toward resolving all the complaining is for people to spend time in each other’s roles. Then maybe the complaining will transform to greater understanding and appreciation of what other people do.

BONUS: Care about the other person’s success The icing on the cake of a great working relationship is truly caring about the other person’s success and genuinely congratulating him or her on that success. Teamwork happens when a group of people support one another toward achieving meaningful objectives and fulfilling a meaningful purpose. The success is not about just you as an individual. It is about the success of other individuals and the group as a whole. Be just as excited for other people when they succeed as you are when you succeed.

Here are Two Questions I Encourage You to Think About Which of these approaches do you feel are the most useful to strengthening work relationships?

What other communication approaches have you found that are effective in strengthening work relationships?

Meet the Communication Needs of the Other Person Great coaches in sports and great managers in business understand that players and employees need to be communicated with in different ways. One size definitely does not fit all when you are communicating with people.

If you want to build an effective working relationship with a co-worker, employee, supplier, customer, or prospect, first work to understand the other person’s communication needs and then work to meet his or her needs. Before you get to the business topic, it is important to meet the other person’s communication needs. As you

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can see in Figure 1, if you try to skip this stage, you will likely run into problems. The person will not want to work with you and it will make the process of getting things done effectively and efficiently much more difficult.

Five Communication Needs That People Have In this paper, we are going to focus on five communication needs that people have. They are: 1. How the person wants to make decisions. 2. How the person wants to learn. 3. How the person wants to receive

communication from you. 4. How often the person wants to communicate

with you. 5. The most important things to that person

in a work relationship.

Four Types of Decision Makers There have been many volumes written on this topic. The DiSC® Assessment is one of the best- known approaches. Over the years, I have heard ideas on how people make decisions explained in many different formats. Here is a summary of how I explain the different ways that people make decisions. 1. Quick Decision Maker (speed, “Did I make a

decision?”) 2. Emotional Decision Maker (fun, “Did I enjoy

working with the other person?”) 3. Logical Decision Maker (logic, “Does this

decision really make sense?”)

4. Conscientious Decision Maker (clear conscience, “Did I do the right thing?”)

Quick Decision Maker (the most important factor for this person is speed, “Did I make a decision?”)

Characteristics of this type of decision maker Ver y direct and straightfor ward. Strongly opinionated, decisive, and forceful. Do not want to see a lot of paperwork or take part in a lot of small talk about the weather and what movie you saw. Want to consider a few options and then make a decision quickly and get on to the next thing.

How to meet the personality needs of a quick decision maker Listen more than talk. Be direct and to the point. Expect abruptness. Provide the person with three options and ask which one he or she thinks would be most appropriate. Often the quick decision maker will choose one of the options, but then make a few changes to it. As long as the changes fit within the parameters of what you were hoping for, go along with the changes. Limit socializing and avoid small talk. Be brief, emphasize real results, and follow-up with bullet point summaries.

Emotional Decision Maker (the most important factor for this person is fun, “Did I enjoy working with this person?”)

Characteristics of this type of decision maker Like small talk about non-business issues. Very people-oriented and really enjoy getting to know you as a person: what makes you tick, where you

Figure 1: Effective Communication

Discussion Communication Needs

Failed Attempt

Business Topic Improved Business Outcomes

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grew up, who your family members are, and what your favorite hobbies are. They very much want the business relationship to feel right. They want to get excited about working with you. They are not into paperwork.

How to meet the needs of an emotional decision maker Be casual and friendly. Start off with small talk. If you avoid the small talk, this person is going to feel you are just using him or her to achieve better business results and that you do not really care about him or her as an individual. Use the person’s name often. Relax, smile, and engage in a fun conversation. After you have given a reasonable amount of time to small talk, find a way to shift the conversation to business. Emphasize the importance this person brings to the project. Use handwritten note cards to follow-up with them.

Logical Decision-Maker (the most important factor for this person is logic, “Does this decision really make sense?”)

Characteristics of this type of decision maker Logical decision-makers want to move from point A to point B in very logical steps. They want to see how all of the pieces fit together before they make a decision. They listen more than they talk. They do not like quick changes. They do not want to engage in small talk. They want to analyze facts and data before they make a decision. They want to know why you are doing what you are doing. They enjoy going through paperwork.

How to meet the needs of a logical decision maker Keep your emotions in check. Explain step-by- step how together you will move from point A to point B. You could use a flowchart or a giant puzzle to show how all of the different components fit together. Have your explanation typed up with copies for each of you and visually

walk the person through the process. Be methodical and patient. Follow-up with a clear, step-by-step summary of the discussion.

Conscientious Decision Maker (the most important factor for this person is a clear conscience, “Did I make the right decision?”)

Characteristics of this type of decision maker This person wants to be absolutely certain that the decision is the right thing to do. He or she wants to follow the rules. This person likes to look at information for a long period of time by himself or herself. Several days or weeks later they will come back and present their decision.

How to meet the needs of a conscientious decision maker Keep your emotions in check. Have phone numbers and e-mail addresses available so the other person can validate the information. Provide hard facts backed by statistical reports. Expect the other person to want the information to be correct. Be ready to provide this person with key information on any questions he or she has. Do not wing it. If you do not know the answer, do not make one up. This person will likely check up on your input. Be very patient with this person as he or she develops the decision. Give the person plenty of time to examine the information without you being present. Be sure your follow- up is accurate and backed up with facts.

As you work with another person, ask yourself what type of decision maker the individual is. Keep adjusting your approach to meet that person’s decision-making needs. It is not about you getting him or her to meet your needs. The effective business leader works to meet the needs of other people.

Four Ways People Learn to Do Something Over the course of the past 28 years, I have provided over 2,100 Executive Coaching sessions for

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executives and managers in over 40 industries and prior to that I taught or coached more than 1,200 high school and college students. And I have two children, Sarah and Ben. It has become abundantly clear to me that people learn in different ways. Here are the four primary ways that people learn.

Reader – “Give me the information, I’ll read it over, and I’ll be ready.”

Doer – “I’ll just start doing it, and I’ll learn as I go along.”

Watcher – “I’ll watch how other people do it, and I’ll learn from them.”

Discusser – “I’ll discuss the work with other people and ask questions, and I’ll learn how to do it better.”

If you want to be effective in teaching an idea to another person, realize that not everyone learns the same way. Be willing to step back from what comes naturally for you and ask the other person how they want to learn the ideas. At the very least provide a variety of learning experiences for the person until you see what is best for him or her.

Even within each of these four ways to learn there are lots of subtleties that can make a difference. Some readers like to read text in words and paragraphs while others want visual cues to follow. Some discussers want one-on-one dialogs while other people prefer 10 people collaborating simultaneously on a project. The more you understand the other person’s nuances when it comes to learning, the better your chances are of creating effective learning experiences for that individual.

How People Want to Receive Communication from You Modern technology has expanded the ways we can deliver information and interact with other people. Some people will love one mode while others will hate that approach. Here are some

of the ways you can communicate with another person: face-to-face, phone, Skype, voicemail, e-mail, texts, spread sheets, bullet points, written detailed attachments, faxes, and handwritten letters. Ask the person what he or she prefers, and watch how the person reacts to communications from you. Over time you will come to understand what is best for that person.

How Often People Want to Receive Communication from You For some folks, a daily phone call is the expected behavior. For others, a monthly e-mail recap is sufficient. It is important to identify how often the other person wants to communicate with you. Communicate too little and you risk losing the relationship. Communicate too often and you risk overwhelming the person. Be on the alert to determine the right frequency for each individual, and then determine to what level you can meet that frequency.

Understand What Is Most Important for that Person in a Work Relationship Some people will tell you their whole life story in the first five minutes and other people are still guarded in their comments five years later. It does not make one person better or worse than the other. It makes them human. The key is for you to figure out what the other person wants in a work relationship with you. Here are some of the things I have seen that people want: meaningful conversations on important life topics, a sense of camaraderie, having fun and laughing a lot, honesty, achieving remarkable results together, a sense of adventure, and a confidante. Nobody wants all of these things. Different people want different things from a professional relationship. The key is to figure out what each person wants, and then try to see if you can meet those needs.

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Of course, you will have to decide if you can talk about what the other person wants to discuss. Sometimes you won’t be able to. I have had people tell me extremely private details about situations related to their sex lives that I really did not want to talk about, or hear for that matter. I quickly moved on in the conversation and did not look back. You have to decide where you will draw the line.

Key Points to Remember There is no magic formula or silver bullet or psychological test that can tell you exactly how best to meet the other person’s communication needs in every situation. All you can do is try to figure out what is the most effective way to meet the person’s needs at that moment.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind: • People usually have a primary and a secondary

decision-making approach, learning approach, favored way of communicating, desired frequency of communication, and sense of what is important in a work relationship. Rarely is anyone a pure logical doer or just a quick reader.

• A person’s communication needs can change based on the situation he or she is in at that moment. Be aware of the context of the situation. Here are some questions for you to consider when you are communicating with another person related to context: 1. Is it a time to be serious or laid-back? 2. What is the time frame for making a

decision? 3. What is happening in the other person’s

life? 4. What is happening in that person’s part

of the business, in our industry, and in the world right now?

5. What other aspects of the situation are important to keep in mind?

How Do You Want to Be Communicated With? Before you try to understand the communication needs of other people, start with yourself.

Based on everything in this paper, and things I did not get into, how do you prefer to be communicated with? Try to describe your communication needs in detail. Here are some thought-starter questions: 1. What is your primary and secondary decision-

making personality? 2. What is your primary and secondary approach

to learning? 3. Do you prefer e-mail, texts, face-to-face, or

phone conversations? When do you like each of them? How often do you want to be communicated with?

4. What is most important to you in a work relationship?

5. Do you like to make decisions quickly or do you prefer to study a lot of information and take longer to make a decision? When do you prefer one over the other?

6. Do you like to get to the point quickly or do you prefer to engage in some small talk?

7. How long do you prefer to plan before executing a project? Six months, six weeks, six days, six hours, or six minutes? Now write a description of your

communication needs. Do not hesitate. Start writing it down now.

Describe How You Think Another Person Wants to Be Communicated With As you think about people you work with, select an individual and write down how you think this person wants to be communicated with. Observe how the person reacts to different approaches from you and from other people. Be on the alert to better understand that person’s communication

3 9Focusing on the Fundamentals of Effective Communication Within an Organization

needs and make adjustments in how you communicate with him or her.

Conclusion Every business is in a relationship business. There are relationships with your customers, suppliers, and fellow employees. You have relationships to build up and down the organization chart. You have relationships to build with peers whom you may one day be in charge of or they may be in charge of you. Never underestimate the critical importance of communicating with respect and

meeting the other person’s communication needs. Your technical knowledge, experience, and skills are very important. They do matter a great deal. But none of them matters if you are ineffective in communicating with other people. Technical ability alone does not produce sustainable profitable growth. It is only in combining your ability to add value with other people that you actually produce real business results.

Reference # 03M-2014-03-03-01

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