Communication in Business
is Serious Business
Commitments drive all communication in business
Commitments are powerful language actions. In a business, they are promises made to different customers: shareholders, suppliers, employees, and those who buy its goods or services. They are powerful to the extent that a business intends to take whatever actions are necessary to do what it promised to do.
Communication in business and getting help
To meet its commitments, a business needs help. The only way to get that help is to ask for it. That is the intention behind all business communication.
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Getting that help is what drives job announcements, interviews, and hiring. Hanging onto that help is the reason for performance reviews, awards, bonuses, and promotions. And acquiring the cooperation of employees about to be let go, to keep the business solvent, is the motive for laying them off or firing them.
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When a business decides to let someone go, it is asking the employee to help it keep its commitments by accepting a decision it believes meets the criteria of a fair termination of employment agreement.
Communication in business and employee responsibilities
Each employee of a business is responsible for some part of a larger business commitment. Helping them meet those responsibilities is the purpose behind every briefing, memo, directive, email, interview, and meeting. The more a business communicates to its employees what its commitments are, and how their work contributes to meeting them, the more likely they will be motivated to carry out their tasks.
Still, knowing the purpose of their work and the value of their contribution is not enough to keep employees motivated to perform at a high level. They also need to be able to communicate effectively with one another, especially when they realize carrying out their responsibilities may be at risk.
Then they need to know how to renegotiate agreements with co-workers, how to make offers and counter-offers to one another, how to decline requests they know they cannot fulfill, and how to listen to complaints and respond to them.
They also need a work environment that will allow them to initiate such conversations.
Communication in business and complaints
One of the more important actions a business needs to take to keep its promises is to enter into conversations with internal and external customers that challenge its identity.
By asking for and accepting customer feedback, a business demonstrates its commitment to learning what it needs to know to become more successful.
Complaints and criticism tell a business whether its customers trust it. They also reveal opportunities for the business to transform the way it operates
Barriers to communication in business
A business needs feedback on how it is perceived by its customers and what they think about its products and services. It needs regular feedback on its financial position, its relationship with employees, its position in the market, as well. Without this information, it will not learn what it needs to learn if it hopes to experience continued development or significant breakthroughs.
The business may go on as it is, but it will not grow. And if it stays as it is, it will eventually fail.
Yet not all businesses seize the opportunities that feedback offers. Some deliberately avoid the kinds of conversations that create them. The believe they don’t know how to handle them, or that they cannot learn the communication skills needed to conduct them. Empty beliefs like these are barriers to communication which keep them from developing.
Effective Communication Coaching teaches you the communication skills necessary for developing trust and improving communication in business.
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