Techno Finance and Executive Diary...

Monday, September 03, 2007

Communication Is Good Remedy

A client shared some excellent information from a book he read recently with his people (and me) and I thought I’d share it with you.

The “secrets” aren’t new, but they’re in a handy format that’s easily assimilated.

Read the secrets and pass them on to everyone you know. The more people who embrace them, the more civilized, valuable and productive your interactions will be—both professionally and personally.

The Best Kept Secrets of Great Communicators
by Peter Thomson

1. Think of listening based on the ratio of having two ears and one mouth. Use them in that ratio. Listen twice as much as you speak.

2. Maintain eye contact. It shows others that you are paying attention.

3. Take notes. This will reinforce your memory. It is advisable to ask permission first in some situations. That permission is seldom refused. If you wish to take a tape recording, it is vital to ask permission.

4. Allow people to finish their own sentences no matter how enthusiastically you want to jump into the conversation. Doing so will indicate respect for what the person is saying.

5. Get all the information that is available within a conversation so you will not jump to any false conclusions. Wait for the end of the sentence or end of the conversation to be sure this conversation is unique from any other that may sound similar to you.

6. Respond so the other person knows you are listening. Your response may be “Yes” or “I see” or merely nodding your head. Any of these will do.

7. Be accepting rather than judgmental so you can truly hear the message being given. Different accents, catch phrases, speeds of speech, and cultural generalizations can get in the way of hearing the actual message.

8. Ask questions when you do not understand something that was said. This goes a long way to building strong communication.

9. Ask core questions. That is typically a series of “why” questions that dive deeper into a particular subject to gain the greatest understanding of a situation. Start with broad information and continue seeking more specific responses.

10. Pause before replying. Pausing will add power to what you say. It indicates you are giving a considered response-that, you thought about it and it is not just some answer you offer every time this question comes up.

Labels: human resource

Posted by "CPerformance" :: 10:00 AM :: 0 comments