Effective Communication

at Work
Why You Need to Build Career
Skills
– Necessary for hiring
– A top skill set sought by employers
– Critical for promotion
– Essential for effective job performance
– More important now as a result of technology
– Learned through instruction and practice
 The Communication Process –
Basic Model
Noise Feedback Noise
5 travels to
sender
Noise Noise

4
Sender Message
Sender has 1 encodes 2 travels 3 Receiver
idea idea in over decodes
message channel message

Noise Possible Noise

additional 6
feedback to
Noise receiver Noise
Factors That Shape
Understanding
– Communication climate
– Context and setting
– Background, experiences
– Knowledge, mood
– Values, beliefs, culture
Barriers That Create
Misunderstandings
– Bypassing
– Differing frames of reference
– Lack of language skills
– Poor listening skills
– Emotional interference
– Physical distractions
Communication and Formal
Channels
– Written channels
– Memos, letters
– Annual report
– Company newsletter
– Bulletin board postings
– Orientation manual
Communication and Formal
Channels
– Oral channels
– Telephone
– Face-to-face conversation
– Company meetings
– Team meetings
Communication and Formal
Channels
– Electronic channels
– E-mail
– Instant messaging
– Voicemail
– Videoconferencing
– Intranet
Formal Channels of
Information Flow
Managers Supervisors

Coworkers Upward flow

Coworkers
Horizontal flow

Downward flow

Subordinates
Ch. 1, Slide 9
Awareness of Your Personal Style
Unit One Awareness of Your Personal Style

Past Experiences Shape Communication Style

•Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that
over time have developed into a pattern of attitudes and actions.

•It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your

thoughts, over time, become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint
for new experiences, which develop into patterns of behavior.

•An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative

attitudes and behaviors into positive ones.

•It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability

in the midst of changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can
ever really control or change is yourself.
 Awareness of Your Personal Style

Activity: What have you learned about yourself? Based on what you know about
yourself and how you have handled similar situations in the past, how do you think you
would handle the following scenario:

You have been asked to supervise a project.  The success of the project is also dependent upon the
contributions and feedback of other department groups. The deadline is approaching. The other
managers/department groups have largely ignored requests for information, but complained in
group meetings that the project is in danger of non-completion. During manager meetings, this non-
response has been raised as an issue, but your manager has not addressed it, stating that all of the
managers are busy and that they will respond as soon as they can.  However when the
documentation is not provided to you, it is identified as your deficiency and has been designated as
a risk to project completion. The end result is that you (your project) has been identified by senior
management as being at risk for completion and as your deficiency. At one meeting, a manager who
had ignored requests for information for several weeks, complained that you were arrogant him.
You felt frustrated and close to tears.
Skillful Listening
Unit Two Skillful Listening

Nine Steps to Effective Listening

1. Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.

2. Be attentive, yet relaxed.
3. Keep an open mind to the speaker’s message – try to feel what the speaker
is feeling.
4. Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying.
5. Do not interrupt and do not impose your "solutions."
6. Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions - ask questions only
to ensure understanding of something that has been said (avoiding questions
that disrupt the speaker's train of thought).
7. Give the speaker regular feedback, e.g., summarize, reflect feelings, or
simply say "uh huh."
8. Pay attention to nonverbal cues -- to feelings, tone of voice, inflection, facial
expressions, gestures, posture.
9. Be aware of potential barriers that impact your ability to listen effectively.
 Skillful Listening

Barriers to Listening
Sometimes people have a barrier that impedes their listening skills. Awareness of a
barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it.
Barriers to listening include:
• past experiences that influence our reaction to the speaker or the message
• worry, fear, anger, grief and depression
• individual bias and prejudice
• semantics and language differences
• noise and verbal "clutter"
• preoccupation, boredom and shrinking attention spans

Activity:
Awareness of a barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it and
improve your listening skills. Look at the above list of barriers. Can you
identify one or more barriers that may/does impact your ability to
listen?
Expressing Yourself
 Expressing Yourself

Communicating Long or Emotional Messages

. •
Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
•The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic
understanding of the time and effort they will be bringing to the
conversation.
•Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you
have personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
•Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person. if you need
to criticize, describe the behavior or actions of the other person
that bother you.
•State what you need or expect in positive terms.
 Utilizing “I” Statements
Expressing Yourself
•Accept responsibility for your emotions
•Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make me mad…”

Activity:
Consider the following statements you might make. How would you
change
. them into “I” statements?

1. You make me so mad when you don’t complete your work on time.
2. My supervisor frustrates me when she doesn’t communicate her
expectations.
3. My employee aggravates me when she comes in late.
4. My boss made me happy when he complimented my financial
report.
5. Those students make me sad when they don’t study and fail their
tests.
 Expressing Yourself

Five Components of Your Message

Activity: For the three situations listed below, think how you would
communicate:

1. Your teacher marked you low on your performance review. This

was the first indication you had of how you were performing in your
study.

2. Your team fellow in your team has been frequently absent causing
lost
production and a hardship for the rest of the team members in
your unit.

3. Your class fellow has been opening your mail and going through
your bag stuff, as well as saying negative things to others behind
your back.
Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Impact of Emotions
Emotional Obstacles
Emotional obstacles to effective communication include:

Vulnerability – people may not express their true feelings because

they do not want to expose themselves to others

Protecting – people may not want to express their true thoughts

because they don’t want to hurt or upset the other person

Expectations - social, professional, or cultural “rules” may inhibit

expression of some feelings

Fear – people seek approval and acceptance so they are often

reluctant to say what they really mean for fear of rejection
 Impact of Emotions

Manage your emotions

•Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry, embarrassed, or
hurt?

•Simplify your feelings. Select one or two words to describe how

you feel. Be specific.

•Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a decision,
enter into a discussion, or send an email in anger or frustration.

•Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.

•Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I”
statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make me
mad…”
Unit Four Impact of Emotions

Managing a conflict

•Keep yourself calm by breathing slowly and deeply. Remember that this is only one
temporary moment in your life.

•Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other
person’s mistakes.

•Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what they are
communicating.

•Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.

•Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.

•Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the achievement
of those goals.
 Impact of Emotions

Activity:
Reflect on the following situations.
1. Your boss scolded you at a department meeting for emailing a joke
to others in the workplace. Personal emails and jokes are routine at
the office.

2. Recently you shared your idea with a class fellow on how to improve
departmental operating procedure that could result in greater
efficiency and increased revenue for the University. You scheduled a
meeting with your supervisor to introduce the concept, but your
class fellow beat you to it, and has claimed your idea for their own.

3. You have learned that one of the employees you supervise

frequently criticizes you harshly to others in and outside of your
department.
Effective
What pointers from Managing Communication
Conflict in the
and Managing Workplace
Your Emotions would be
 Check Your Knowledge

Following are a series of questions for

you to complete. These questions are
designed to check your understanding
of the information you just reviewed.
Question 1

1. Past experiences

A. have little or no effect on your communication

B. influence your thoughts which in turn become your attitudes over time
C. are key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility
D. All of the above
 You have answered
B. “Influence your thoughts which in turn become your attitudes over time”

This answer is correct.

Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that, over time,
develop into a pattern of attitudes and actions.

It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your thoughts, over time,
become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint for new experiences, which
develop into patterns of behavior.

An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative attitudes and
behaviors into positive ones.

It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability in the midst of
changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can ever really control or change is
yourself.

Continue
 Question 2
2. Acknowledging what the speaker is saying is valuable because

A. It does not mean that you approve or agree with the speaker
B. It allows the speaker to feel understood
C. It is a defensive posture
D. All of the above
E. Only A and B
 You have answered
E. “Only A and B”

This answer is correct.

Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.

The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the time
and effort they will be bringing to the conversation.

Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have personally seen,
heard, need, or expect.

Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize, describe
the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.

State what you need or expect in positive terms

Continue
 Question 3
3. Consider the following scenario

You and your office coworkers have worked well together for approximately one year.
Another person has joined the work team and trouble has started. This person appears
very sensitive and frequently complains about being ignored. You and the staff have tried
to include this person in conversation and activities, but the employee went to the
supervisor after two weeks on the job and reported on a long list of office infractions.
Several of the complaints were exaggerated or totally false. The supervisor held a
meeting and firmly stated that department rules must be followed, that the office was too
busy for pettiness, and that future complaints or issues should be settled between the
staff. A preferred way to handle the situation would be which of the following?

A. Tell the coworker how mad they make you.

B. Demand to “have it out” with the coworker while it’s all fresh in your mind
C. Listen not as a critic, and desire to understand your coworker rather than to achieve either
agreement from or change in them
D. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s mistakes.
E. B and C
F. C and D
 You have answered
F. “C and D”
This answer is correct.
In managing a conflict you should:
1. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s
mistakes. Focus on positive results.
2. Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what they are
communicating. Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.
3. Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.
4. Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the achievement
of those goals.

To manage your emotions:

5. Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry, embarrassed, or hurt?
6. Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a decision, enter into a discussion,

or send an email in anger or frustration.

3. Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.
4. Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry
when…” rather than “You make me mad…”
Continue
 Question 4
4. When you want to communicate a long or complex
message, you should

A. Let the other person know this may be a long conversation

B. Briefly explain the intent of the conversation
C. Use “I” statements to specifically state your feelings
D. Not engage in blame or verbal attacks
E. All of the above
 You have answered
E. “All of the above”

This answer is correct.

When communicating long or emotional messages, you should

Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.

The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the time
and effort they will be bringing to the conversation
Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have personally seen,
heard, need, or expect.

Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize, describe
the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.

State what you need or expect in positive terms Continue