Effective Communication for Managers

Effective Communication for Managers

Speak and Mean It

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

                                                                  Mother Teresa

Who are managers? Are the special in an organizations? Simple answer to these questions is “yes”. They are CEOs in their own realm of duties and assignments. They are accountable, responsible 24x7 and have to deliver without excuse once accepted the assignment. They have to take the work from their work-force and deliver it to the management. Sometimes their position is like that of a drum beaten from both sides; seniors ask for delivery and the junior are not able to come up to the expectations of the manager. So managers are special people they are pivots which move the system for higher productivity, profits and good values:

1. Managers are a team members; rather they own a team. Team means -Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM). A team must produce more than the sum total of team members individual capacity put together. It is really a tough task to produce such a team.

2. They are the leaders, captains, ideally first among the equals and have to lead in every situation more so in difficult, awkward, emergent and unforeseen ones so have to communicate brief and effective.

“The Art Of Communication Is The Language Of Leadership.”                                      – James Humes

3. They co-ordinate efforts of all the team members playing with the strengths and shielding the weaknesses of each one to maximize the output. They also tame peers for outputs effecting their own performance

4. They manage men especially difficult ones, environment-more adverse, circumstances-unseen ones to see everything is smooth friction free.

5. They deal with fire-works when the management is in trouble because of national and international odds. They have to douse the flames with their creativity and experience.

So every manager should be expert in effective communication – he should be able to establish complete identity between the words, thoughts, view, manners, tone and toner of what is being said and what is being heard.

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”                       – Brian Tracy

Essentials of effective managerial communication:

1. Every individual is unique, his person, needs, character, beliefs, self-esteem, responsibility taking, attitude towards life, expectations and so on. He is, in fact, a unique personality. A manager must keep all this in view while communicating with men oral or written.

2. Every individual has personal styles like listening, eye-contact, delivery, credit sharing, speaking, expression, and owning the blame when things fail.

3. Listening skills of the manager are critical to the effective managerial communication. He must listen with sincerity which is a morale booster for employees; not doing anything nor even drafting the response to what is being said. Listening is a discipline and decorum and a much serious than speaking so pay full attention to the person speaking.

“I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.”        – Larry King

4. Speaking skills – an asset with manager. They must speak in a way people like to listen; effective, short and simple, straight and understandable, in the language dear to the other person.

“Storytellers, By The Very Act Of Telling, Communicate A Radical Learning That Changes Lives And The World: Telling Stories Is A Universally Accessible Means Through Which People Make Meaning.”             – Chris Cavanaugh

5. Effective questions- short and simple, clear and exact, no hidden agenda, pointed towards the required information, direct to the employee concerned get a manager to the depth of a problem. Think before asking.

6. Have stern face when needed, must assert themselves as the Boss-Built on Self Success. Must have the courage to ask hard and inconvenient questions in the interest of the organization and integrity of his employees and himself.

7. As every employee is unique so are the ways in which he can be motivated. Each one can’t be motivated the same way always. Needs change with the passage of time and your stage in the organization. A manager must keep a watch on each employee to find out what motivates him the most. It is very searching process as most of the employee keep their problems and requirements away from the office colleagues more so from their immediate boss. Some general patron of the demands can help to some extent but more exact a manager is more fruitful and productive would be his efforts.

8. Make every employee an asset not a liability. Employees contribute to the success of the manager; his career and development in the organization. Every individual has weaknesses and strengths too. Manager’s job is to use strengths and shield weaknesses. Job-profiles can be suitably adjusted and right man placed for a right duty chart only. This will increase effectiveness of communication and also reduce the quantum of speech.

In fact, a manager must know every movement of each face contour of his each team member and how a person is likely to react with each reaction on his face. It is the sum-total of effective managerial communication.

Benefits of effective managerial communication:

1. Real Team. Team is not a group of people, it is a group of those who compliment and supplement each other; exploit the merits and take care of demerits. If your communication is effective it is possible to have and ideal team of your dreams; whose people like to be part of.

2. Home Like atmosphere. Home is place where there is love and affection. There is nothing like home in office; if the people long for office; they are proud to be part of it; their faces glow on entering office and they are devoted to work; treat it as a hobby then a manager has succeeded in creating a home in office and the benefits are limitless.

3. No fear of ridicule when asking for guidance: Nobody is trained as per the job profile despite being in business school or a training class. On the job training knowingly or inadvertently is must, it makes you practical, creates capable and skillful executives. If the communication with managers, bosses and seniors is effective everybody is able to bring perfection in his job, it removes the fear of ridicule and everybody is too open to ask for the minute clarifications and basis of the intricacies and that ensures minute appreciation of the facts.

4. Quick resolution of problems. Effective communication means it is free, frank, with the positivity of the criticism and a senior’s advice. Obviously the problems would get reduced to the minimum and resolved with goodwill and appreciation.

5. Increase in productivity. When the work-force more specifically your own teams moves like a well-oiled machine; the productivity has to increase and may sometimes be in a proportion, not heard of in similar situations.

6. Clear official goals with purpose and direction: Effective managerial communication is of great help in clarifying to the staff complexities, time frame and confidential nature of the organizational goals.

7. Decorum and discipline are tools that increase the effectiveness of the action and help in reaching the target. Effective communication is the foundation of decorum and discipline so essential to increase the output.

“Most Of The Successful People I've Known Are The Ones Who Do More Listening Than Talking.” –           

                                                           Bernard Baruch

An effective manager must listen what is not being said verbally and must read what is not written.