Check Your Communication Skills
Use this check list to assess your communication skills. Focus * Do you pay complete attention to others when they are speaking? (A wandering
focus discourages open communication.) * Do you manage your thoughts during a conversation, focusing them on
understanding what the other person is saying? (Effective listening requires more
concentration than any other form of communication. If you are thinking about
anything other than what the person is saying, you are defeating your ability to
understand.) * Do you postpone preparing your reply until after you have heard everything the
other person has to say? (Thinking about what you plan to say while the other
person is speaking prevents you from understanding what that person is saying.) * Do you ignore distractions, such as other people, ambient noise, and the
surroundings? (Attending to distractions makes you appear uninterested,
unfocused, and rude.) * Do you make eye contact during a conversation? (Watching a person's face shows
that you are paying attention. You also gather nonverbal messages, which can
convey most of the important information being conveyed to you.) Environment * Do you convey confidence, courage, and strength during your conversations? (A
pleasant manner will encourage people to trust you and tell you more. Negative
behavior conveys weakness, insecurity, and fear.) * Do you react calmly to bad news? (Anger will frighten people into avoiding you.) * Do you encourage others to speak freely? (Appearing interested, asking questions,
and treating others with respect will facilitate open communication.) * Do you use a diplomatic, positive vocabulary? (Talking about what you want is
more forceful than talking about what you don't want, won't do, or can't do. This
means that in most cases you would delete the word "not" from what you say.) * Do you seek solutions? (Seeking approval, culprits, or excuses, discourages
communication.) Clarity * Do you stick to the subject? (Introducing new unrelated issues will confuse the
other person and degrade the quality of your conversation.) * Do you maintain a "you" focus? (Speak in terms of what the other person needs,
wants, and understands because that will enhance the impact of what you say.) * Do you avoid games? (Asking trick questions, setting traps, and making others
look bad will cause people to avoid you.) * Do you use a linear, logical approach to explaining things? (Make it easy for others
to understand you because it's more efficient.) * Do you use common terms? (Avoid jargon and flowery speech because these
impress only the person using them.) IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who
want to be more effective. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired
people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Call
714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas. Sign up for
his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Measuring Creativity, DIY style
Creativity measurement is often required in order to benchmark existing competencies, monitor improvement, increase output and generally provide tangible and useable processes and structures for clients.
Solve Problems Permanently - Ask WHY
As Albert Einstein said:-
Making Your Workers Your Partners
There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows what will transpire tomorrow). For companies traded in the stock exchanges, the former wish to maximize the value of the stocks (short term), the latter might have a longer term view of things. In the USA, shareholders place emphasis on the appreciation of the stocks (the result of quarterly and annual profit figures). This leaves little room for technological innovation, investment in research and development and in infrastructure. The theory is that workers who are also own stocks will avoid these cancerous conflicts which, at times, bring companies to ruin and, in many cases, dilapidate them financially and technologically. Whether reality leaves up to theory, is an altogether different question to which we will dedicate a separate article.
Improved Communication to Improve Results
Facilitating good communication can make the difference between a well oiled, effective team and disorganization and ambiguity. By following the tips below, you, the supervisor, can take steps toward improving communication with your employees:
Are You Cascading Your Strategy, or Fragmenting It?
INTRODUCTION
Dont Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line
A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. But wait, shouldn't a business owner already KNOW how much money he or she made last year, last quarter, or last month?
Want to Manage Your Time? Get Real!
You know the drill - the ridiculous deadlines, the relentless barrage of email, voicemail, phone calls, all those "got a minute" interruptions, the constant worrying that one of those many balls you're juggling is going to unexpectedly drop.
Middle Managers Behaving Badly ? How To Stop This Damaging Your Results
More and more I hear and read about a looming crisis of leadership at the middle management level and the inevitable resulting increase in, poor performance, accidents and production mistakes and hence declining profits.
How to Coach Your Employees - 5 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do!
Want to get more from your people, but you don't know how? Are you up for a small challenge and prepared to do things a little differently? If so, we have five changes to your style that you will find easy to incorporate into the way you work and your people will love you for it; you will have more time and your business will flourish.Think about it - is that not worth just the little effort required?
The Power of the Contract in Performance Management
An essential step in managing the performance of salespeople is that of establishing a sound and agreed contract between manager and the salesperson. A contract in this context is simply an agreement between the manager and the salesperson as to how best they are going to work together. It is a chance for each party to outline expectations, hopes and fears and is a superb opportunity for both the manager and salesperson to fully understand each other in terms of personality style, motivators and de-motivators. It is also an opportunity for the manager to ensure that the salesperson fully understands their role and their responsibilities as well as their sales and activity targets.
Lateral Thinking, Logical Thinking, Applied Creativity
Certain processes enhance creative output and others enhance innovative output. Defining creativity as problem identification and idea generation and innovation as idea selection, development and commercialisation, this article will tackle stages two and three using the three-stage process of lateral thinking, logical thinking and applied creativity.
Examining the Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
Researchers have undertaken numerous studies to look at the connection between customer and employee satisfaction. A majority of these studies were able to uncover a correlation between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability.
Outsourcing Quiz: Cheap Vs. Good
Someone can say, 'Why do you oppose this?' So I'd like to prevent such attacks and tell that this article is dedicated mainly to the issue if it's worth to look for the cheapest solution.
A Corporate Facelift With Sound Bytes
If Baby Boomers can get botox and tummy tucks, then why don't companies receive facelifts to improve their image as well? The telephone is the lifeblood of any business. Use it respectfully. Don't leave your clients on-hold to listen to radio static or elevator music. With digital recording and delivery of sound files, professional production of on-hold advertising is both economical and necessary for a positive image. That's right ? it's imperative that the first impression a client receives of your business (even though they may never visit) is how they're treated on the telephone. How many times have you called a business to hear "Thank you for calling ABC Dental Office please hold" before you can get a word in edge-wise." In many cases , what they have on-hold is your first impression of that company.
Online Business Peace of Mind
Is your online business disaster-proof? Online businesses face a unique set of challenges. Unlike our offline counterparts, we must worry about hackers, credit-card fraud, loss of data, virus attacks, websites going down and more.
People - You Cant Make Them What Theyre Not
Many business people and managers are spending too much time trying to change the underperforming people who work for them. They seem to believe that if they train people - tell them what to do or even threaten them with the sack - then the performance level will go up.
How You Can Learn to be a Better Manager
When you first take over a department, expectations are usually high but operations are sometimes in disarray. The staff is disorganized, goals aren't being met, and hours are spent on unproductive tasks. Just when you think the company would never get on track, the CFO recommends that you learn more about something called operations assessment.
Have You Fixed the Broken Window?
Left alone it doesn't take long for a building with a single broken window to rapidly become a building with many broken windows. Fixing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems.
Avoid Outsourcing Pitfalls in the Injection Molds and Stamping Dies Markets
When looking to outsource overseas for Plastic Injection Molds or Stamping Dies there are many things to consider.
Usually price is the first thing to be looked at, that's probably why you're looking overseas for a new mold or die source-to save money.
One of the first places to come to mind is Asia.
Large labour forces and low wages can get your job done quickly and cheaply. Or so you think.
The Crisis of Modernity
Since the beginning of the industrial era our world has been facing what some historians call an ongoing "crisis of modernity". As fast as we adjust to new circumstances, the circumstances change again, and, the rate of change seems to be multiplying exponentially. Of all the demands imposed by twenty first century leadership, perhaps the toughest is the ability to not only manage change but to instigate it, control it and to be it's master. Dealing with the ever increasing rate of change may be the leader's most potentially overwhelming task. Today's Change Agent is an agressive forward thinker.
|
