Interpersonal Communication Expertise: A Necessity in Today’s Corporate World

By: Tonya Foust Mead

Communication, the string that connects everyone together in the universal web of life.

 
Ineffective Communication thwarts Negotiation

Uhmm, yes you’ve got your legal language in contracts, joint venture agreements, memorandum of understanding rock solid, air tight. You’ve aligned your procedures with federal regulations for compliance; the one deal breaker though is the manner in which said agreements are communicated verbally.  According to the Harvard Center for Negotiation, 70% of all strategic partnerships and joint ventures fail because business people could not navigate around the complex relationships that required difficult conversations. Darn.

Ineffective Communication increases Employee Grievances

Although well written personnel performance appraisals are important, numerous studies undertaken by Henry Mintzberg found that executives spend most of their days communicating with other people. Even so, when employees of 1,400 employers in the United Kingdom were surveyed regarding formalized employee grievances against their managers, poor communication skills ranked evenly with ‘stealing credit for work.’

 
How did we Get Here? Protestant Relational Ideology- The Guilty Culprit

The traditional work ethic in the United States is equated with an impersonal management style emphasizing results and outcomes rather than affective and relational concepts. John Calvin, the co-founder of the Protestant reformation argued that while working, one should maintain a detached rapport  with others. Calvin advocated that workers should refrain from focusing on interpersonal concerns as it is evil and distracts from work (Sanchez-Burks, 2003). Such standards lead to a communication style which places the manager and entrepreneur in an emotionally detached straightjacket; one in which he is forced to de-emphasize feelings, motivations, attitudes. Research has shown that the American culture favors individualism and independence. Thusly, managers use the language primarily to convey information. Engendering group spirit, massaging social emotional needs of employees and attending to relationships, has not been considered a domain of managerial communication.

 

Managers have been taught to use directive, declarative  and even interrogative speech patterns rather than one’s of a philosophical, questioning nature.

 

To Impart Information

Declarative- Speaker’s main communicative goal is informative.

 

To Illicit a Response

Interrogative- Speaker’s main approach is to illicit a yes/no question; what/where/when/why/how question;

Imperative- Speaker’s main goal is to issue an order.

 

High Context versus Low Context Communication

In addition to the more direct communicative style such as, “Just the facts, madam,” or “Where’s the beef?” impressed upon business managers and leaders, European and North American cultures, according to research, are low context societies. Conversely, Latin and East Asian cultures are high context, whereby speakers attend to eye contact, emotional expressions and voice tone. For them, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.” As the market has become increasingly global, it is imperative that managers expand their internal concept of the effective uses of verbal communication.

 

Yes, we Will Communicate Effectively- We Must, as Required by the Situation

Take a look at these daunting statistics:

 

Unemployment rate at a 15-year high of 6.7 percent,

Home values dropped 17% in the third quarter, 2008,

Stocks declined 200 points in December 2008.

 
Employees are worried. The bleak economic, unemployment, and housing picture requires that business owners and managers attend to the socio-emotional needs of their employees. In-house fitness centers, pricey HMOs and exorbitant menu of benefits is not the immediate goal at this point.  Rather; a change in communication style; from issuing commands to expressing concern, from intense interrogations to intimate conversations centering upon the well-being of your employees and their families. How do we do this?

 
Relational Communication Techniques

• Slow Down the Pace- Are you always in a hurry? Do you walk a 4 minute mile? Always have a ready excuse for interrupting someone or avoiding a conversation such as, “I need to catch a plane,” or “I’m late for an engagement.” Slow down. Lengthen your gait.  So what if you are 1-2 minutes late? Taking control of your time affords you greater self confidence, a chance to catch your breath. Nothing says, “I’m in control,” better than a 1-2 minute delay of a meeting at your request. Smile at the custodian, say hello to the security guard. Make a pointed effort to speak with your secretary, personal assistant for 5 minutes. About what?  Nothing, that is the point.

• Draw out your Conversations- Are you Type A? Assertive, aggressive, hard charger? No need to change your management style. Slow your vocal cadence to a slight southern drawl. Slowed didactic rhythms are proven to calm psychiatric patients.  Surely it may help worried, stressed-out workers. Why not draw out the pleasantries? Spend a little more time at the water cooler. Don’t hide in your office to avoid giving and receiving bad news. As you manage-by-walking around, take your time. Real leaders make themselves accessible and available, one of the leadership principles of Colin Powell. Make a point to literally stop at every third desk or cubicle. Time yourself. Spend at least 1 minute shooting the breeze. You never know, you might gain some strategic business intelligence, unearth a money-making or saving idea, uncover a hidden talent and/or discover a special interest/pet peeve held by a subordinate that can be monetized.

•  Stop, Look, and Observe- Are you labeled by others as a thinker or doer? No matter. To be better at what do best, why not take a moment to observe others, animals, nature? You’ll be amazed of your discoveries. And, in time you’ll notice how common occurrences in everyday life have profitable and or cost saving applications.

•  Reflect- To busy living life to live your life? We’re not mere robots. We may even have a soul and a divine purpose or unique calling. If this is true, then the words of the business philosopher and reformist capitalist, Geoffrey Klemper may serve as a source of inspiration:

 

There is an ideal, which comes across very strongly when you read someone like Ayn Rand,
that the practice of business is, or can be a vocation in the true sense, a calling. 
The point is that it can be. But it need not be. One of the fascinating aspects of the 
business arena is that the doors are not barred to those whose only motive is profit and 
material gain. (The film Wall Street raises these issues in a very entertaining way, and 
very much from a moral perspective.) 

This is not a 'good' thing or a 'bad' thing because it is part of the package. For 
the majority, the motivation is complex, not simple: to provide for oneself and one's 
family, certainly, but equally to contribute to the wealth of society as a whole by 
playing a necessary and valuable part in the economic process. That is one view.

On the other side, you have the view of Karl Marx. The young Marx's answer to 
'the meaning of life, the universe and everything' was very simple: work. Through 
working on external things we literally create ourselves, we make the world a human 
world. We identify with our productions. They are our very soul externalized, the 
essential thread that connects us to the rest of human society.

• Enjoy- As you conduct your daily business, strategize, lead and manage others, eek out every ounce of enjoyment possible. Show optimism and positivity in all that you do. When times are tight, budgets are slashed, people may be let go. Preserve and stay upbeat with your remaining cohort.  According to Colin Powell, perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Effective interpersonal communication is a necessity in today’s time. Your business, professional livelihood and the quality of your working relationships demands it.

Links to Resources:

Dr. Mead, PhD, MBA, MA http://www.ishareknowledge.com is a consultant specializing in human behavior, school and social psychology. She can be contacted at: tonya@ishareknowledge.com