Better Business Communication Results

Definition of Business Communication

"Effective communication needs to be built around this simple foundation and realization: communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual listening process."
Dr. Heinz Goldmann, Chair, Heinz Goldmann International Foundation for Executive Communications, Geneva.

Learning to communicate more effectively is so easy, yet so few bother to put in the time to learn how.

It's not magic; it's not a 'black' art; it's not a gift you are either born with or denied forever.

It is built around three skill sets:

Empathy. It's about being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. About understanding the implications of what you are saying or doing for colleagues, employees, customers and anyone else your behaviour affects.

Common denominator. If you are to communicate effectively you have to find, establish and express a common denominator with your target group. There needs to be a bond of solidarity.

Projection or impact creation. If the delivery is boring then empathy won't help. The impact created is based on projecting a strong message, portraying a powerful personality, impressing by determined (yet acceptable) persuasion. Empathy and projection are not necessarily correlated. Similarly, projection and impact are not automatically helped by using the latest high-tech devices. In fact, there is a danger that techology will lead to a greater number of monologues as executives become consumed by technical gimmickry rather than focusing on the message they are trying to communicate. An exhausting parade of dancing charts stifles interest. Also, face-to-face communication is 90 per cent more effective than written or printed messages.

I was not a 'natural-born' communicator. I learned to talk confidently in public as a defence mechanism for daring to be a pre-teen foreigner. I learned to write and to love the written word not only for pleasure but also as a way of releasing the tormenting pressures of adolescence (and for impressing girls!).

The payoff for learning to communicate is so rewarding and accessible that there can be no logical or reasonable excuse for not making a conscious decision to alter our own lives for the better:

• For the CEO who wants to be seen as a leader

• For the COO who wants to be CEO

• For the CFO who wants to drive the stock straight up

• For the lawyer who wants to serve her clients better and build her practice

• For the salesman who wants to run his own region

• For the researcher who wants to help his clients and his own management understand the incomprehensible

• For the teacher who longs to inspire his students

• For the entrepreneur who seeks investors to build her business

• And for all the toilers in all the vineyards who ever wanted to leave the world a little better than the way they found it.

The payoff I'm talking about will work for anyone willing to work for the payoff.

Question is, how much effort are you willing to exert to enrich your life forever?

Contact me to discuss your communication needs.

"It is vital for the success of our companies that businessmen and women emerge as real leaders and demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively, internally and externally." Sir Colin Marshall, chairman, British Airways

"Communication in stressful change situations requires sustained and extensive interpretation and reinforcement. Competent, high-trust firms are in a position to communicate the same basic messages to all levels, from middle management to shop floor, with nothing left out on the grounds that those below would not understand it." Tony Eccles, London Business School

"No manager can be effective in his job unless he is able to communicate. It is the most essential single skill. I hope that managers everywhere will seek to improve their ability, for it is one that can be learned." Sir John Harvey-Jones, former chairman ICI and renowned European 'troubleshooter'

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For Your Consideration:

The Articulate Executive:
Learn to look, act and sound like a leader,
by Granville N. Toogood.

"Probably the best book on the subject I've ever read. Toogood is a real expert, and the advice he gives is indispensible." Charles Lee, CEO, GTE Corp.