Showing posts with label business communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business communication. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Tip article for today
Here's the Tip Article for today:
Keep Your Eyes Open and Respond...
Have you experienced in a seminar crowd or meeting, where people linger around after the event and talk to one another about different issues that were covered during the presentations...
Someone in the audience might have said something to the speaker in a question and answer period and, afterward, you sought to get more information from that person.
Here's what happens:
You approach the participant who shared, but someone else is already talking with him or her. Politely you wait and try to attract attention but there is no response. You approach a little further to try and catch his attention but he and his party are so engaged in their conversation that he ignores you completely.
Look, I've been in that situation many times and it is very frustrating -- especially if you are a busy person and just want to ask a quick question -- not talk all night !
Don't be one of those ignoramus. When you have someone talking with you and another approaches to say something, immediately turn to that person seeking you and acknowledge him/her right away. Don't let them stand there. Let them in.
Your reply will just extend the discussion further to the interest of the group.
That's what these events are all about. People getting together to discuss matters of interest.
Tip:
Whether you are the speaker of the presentation or a participant from the audience who contributed to the event, just make sure to keep your eyes open and be ready to acknowledge the presence of another person seeking to speak to you.
Till next time, have a great and wonderfully successful week,
Diane
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Leadership Communication: The Merger of Leadership and Communication
by Diane M. Hoffmann, ph.d./th.
Of all communication, leadership communication is the most potent. Why? Because a) leadership is the beginning of effective management and b) communication is part of that leadership that leads to good management.
What do I mean by leadership being the beginning of effective management? By that I mean that leadership is where it all begins. Without leadership you can’t have effective management, or management at all, in any area of business or personal life.
To lead means to show the way, to direct the course by going before and along with; to conduct, to guide, to cause one to follow, to mark the way, to hold the hand, to pull along, to persuade or influence a course of action or thought….
Placing this adjective next to communication means that, now, communication takes on the same lead role and becomes a whole other dimension of basic communication, and becomes the most important leadership skill.
As leadership is the beginning of management, leadership communication is the beginning of leadership. Without effective communication you cannot lead or manage effectively. When you merge leadership and communication, you have the most potent of communication skills.
What is necessary to make a leader? Are leaders born or are they made? One might think that personality types would limit the possibilities for someone to become a leader. But personality types have both strengths and weaknesses, and it is the strong points that make the difference.
What makes a leader, is the recognition and capitalization of these strong points in any personality type. Anyone can be a leader in business or at home, no matter whether you are a type A, B, C, D or whatever other label you chose to describe your personality with.
But leadership without the “serving” attitude is dead. Leadership is not about bullying. Leadership is not about serving yourself at the expense of others. That will eventually lead to destruction rather than construction. It is about serving others. Every day we are serving someone.
So how does one become a successful leader and keep on being a successful leader?
Firstly, by being mindful of wanting to be a leader. Secondly, by pursuing being that leader through learning. And, thirdly, by continuously asking yourself questions, such as are found in the book “Serve to Lead” by James Strock:
Who are you serving? How can you best serve? Are you making your unique contribution? Are you getting better every day?
Leadership communication begins in successful leadership. It is all of the communication process and activities, conscious and unconscious, instinctive or created, that stem out of leadership into the effective management of our business and personal lives. /dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
Of all communication, leadership communication is the most potent. Why? Because a) leadership is the beginning of effective management and b) communication is part of that leadership that leads to good management.
What do I mean by leadership being the beginning of effective management? By that I mean that leadership is where it all begins. Without leadership you can’t have effective management, or management at all, in any area of business or personal life.
To lead means to show the way, to direct the course by going before and along with; to conduct, to guide, to cause one to follow, to mark the way, to hold the hand, to pull along, to persuade or influence a course of action or thought….
Placing this adjective next to communication means that, now, communication takes on the same lead role and becomes a whole other dimension of basic communication, and becomes the most important leadership skill.
As leadership is the beginning of management, leadership communication is the beginning of leadership. Without effective communication you cannot lead or manage effectively. When you merge leadership and communication, you have the most potent of communication skills.
What is necessary to make a leader? Are leaders born or are they made? One might think that personality types would limit the possibilities for someone to become a leader. But personality types have both strengths and weaknesses, and it is the strong points that make the difference.
What makes a leader, is the recognition and capitalization of these strong points in any personality type. Anyone can be a leader in business or at home, no matter whether you are a type A, B, C, D or whatever other label you chose to describe your personality with.
But leadership without the “serving” attitude is dead. Leadership is not about bullying. Leadership is not about serving yourself at the expense of others. That will eventually lead to destruction rather than construction. It is about serving others. Every day we are serving someone.
So how does one become a successful leader and keep on being a successful leader?
Firstly, by being mindful of wanting to be a leader. Secondly, by pursuing being that leader through learning. And, thirdly, by continuously asking yourself questions, such as are found in the book “Serve to Lead” by James Strock:
Who are you serving? How can you best serve? Are you making your unique contribution? Are you getting better every day?
Leadership communication begins in successful leadership. It is all of the communication process and activities, conscious and unconscious, instinctive or created, that stem out of leadership into the effective management of our business and personal lives. /dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
Organizational Communication In Business Or Anywhere
by Diane M. Hoffmann, ph.d./th.
Writing on the topic of communication has no limit. Organizational Communication is just one more facet of the communication prism. Whether we organize our communication at work, home or play, we need to recognize it for what it is. A necessary part of life.
Most of us have some organizational communication which we do unconsciously. And that takes us pretty far in our world of communication. However there is also the organizational communication that we can improve, add, and increase which will make our lives even better and more enjoyable.
Let’s take organizational communication in business for starters. In my experience working with various organizations, I have found that when communication is poor at the departmental or staff level, it is firstly poor at the corporate level.
Only when a company is organized within its corporate context can effective communication and training of its people take place. The organization of a business cannot be done independently of its surrounding departments and divisions. And it begins by people – at the top.
To get organizational communication, there must be effective visuals. The first and foremost is the example of the people who implement it. Then the visuals that present the strategy it to the staff. And then the rest of the visuals that illustrate the divisional, departmental and individual participants. This can go into the orientation employee manual and other corporate communication newsletters and memos, etc.
Conventional organization charts, for the most part, do not lend themselves to express such a clear understanding of its purpose. They have a habit of displaying rather a growth of job functions that automatically expands into what gets to be called the organization chart.
A new manager is hired, or a new job is created and a new box is squeezed onto the organizational chart. After a while this chart becomes a cumbersome octopus -- to which management becomes slave without common vision.
To get out of this mode, many organizations have adapted a smaller and more dynamic chart, that limits the levels and departments of an organization, to five or six main divisions. I for one use such a system, even though I am a small business. It is important and indeed critical to be organized however small you might be – even in the family organization.
It is a known fact that in the 80's when senior management perceived the old organization structure wasn't working, wise companies responded by flattening the corporate structure. Companies such as IBM Canada, for example, went from some ten levels on the corporate hierarchy to about five. (Boom, Bust & Echo by David K. Foot & Daniel Stoffman).
One of the first responsibilities of top management is to provide the environment for effective organizational communication. Diversity was the buzzword of the 90's as TQM and Re-engineering were in the 70's and 80's. Now it is teamwork and speed. But all are based on effective organizational communication -- in different ways, depending on cultural, managerial and survival needs.
Before effective communication can be implemented, there must be organizational communication in place, unto which the first and foremost of all communication – verbal -- can be hinged.
Then organizational communication needs to be carried throughout the corporation verbally and visually. How can communication ideas be passed on to the people in the organization if there are no corporate visuals for everyone to commonly focus on?
Visuals are the charts, flow-charts, drawings, diagrams -- anything that creates a common mental picture that can be seen by everybody in the same way, and that can be used as common measuring tools. As I always say, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.
Setting the environment for positive and effective organizational communication is what senior management must do when undertaking changes, implementing ideas or inviting participative solutions from its members. /dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
Writing on the topic of communication has no limit. Organizational Communication is just one more facet of the communication prism. Whether we organize our communication at work, home or play, we need to recognize it for what it is. A necessary part of life.
Most of us have some organizational communication which we do unconsciously. And that takes us pretty far in our world of communication. However there is also the organizational communication that we can improve, add, and increase which will make our lives even better and more enjoyable.
Let’s take organizational communication in business for starters. In my experience working with various organizations, I have found that when communication is poor at the departmental or staff level, it is firstly poor at the corporate level.
Only when a company is organized within its corporate context can effective communication and training of its people take place. The organization of a business cannot be done independently of its surrounding departments and divisions. And it begins by people – at the top.
To get organizational communication, there must be effective visuals. The first and foremost is the example of the people who implement it. Then the visuals that present the strategy it to the staff. And then the rest of the visuals that illustrate the divisional, departmental and individual participants. This can go into the orientation employee manual and other corporate communication newsletters and memos, etc.
Conventional organization charts, for the most part, do not lend themselves to express such a clear understanding of its purpose. They have a habit of displaying rather a growth of job functions that automatically expands into what gets to be called the organization chart.
A new manager is hired, or a new job is created and a new box is squeezed onto the organizational chart. After a while this chart becomes a cumbersome octopus -- to which management becomes slave without common vision.
To get out of this mode, many organizations have adapted a smaller and more dynamic chart, that limits the levels and departments of an organization, to five or six main divisions. I for one use such a system, even though I am a small business. It is important and indeed critical to be organized however small you might be – even in the family organization.
It is a known fact that in the 80's when senior management perceived the old organization structure wasn't working, wise companies responded by flattening the corporate structure. Companies such as IBM Canada, for example, went from some ten levels on the corporate hierarchy to about five. (Boom, Bust & Echo by David K. Foot & Daniel Stoffman).
One of the first responsibilities of top management is to provide the environment for effective organizational communication. Diversity was the buzzword of the 90's as TQM and Re-engineering were in the 70's and 80's. Now it is teamwork and speed. But all are based on effective organizational communication -- in different ways, depending on cultural, managerial and survival needs.
Before effective communication can be implemented, there must be organizational communication in place, unto which the first and foremost of all communication – verbal -- can be hinged.
Then organizational communication needs to be carried throughout the corporation verbally and visually. How can communication ideas be passed on to the people in the organization if there are no corporate visuals for everyone to commonly focus on?
Visuals are the charts, flow-charts, drawings, diagrams -- anything that creates a common mental picture that can be seen by everybody in the same way, and that can be used as common measuring tools. As I always say, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.
Setting the environment for positive and effective organizational communication is what senior management must do when undertaking changes, implementing ideas or inviting participative solutions from its members. /dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
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