242 / UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Communicating at work
Tailoring your approach
Several factors alter the way we look
at communication in the business
context. We all have a personal
communication style, but within an
organization you often have to adapt
your approach to accommodate the
needs of those you work with and work
for. If you put the preferences of your
audience—particularly your boss and
your clients—above your own, you will
often get what you want faster. The way
you communicate also depends on your
position within the organization. The
higher your level of responsibility,
the more you have to take into account
when communicating. And as you
become more accountable, you need
to keep better records—a form of
communication to yourself that
may later be read by others.
Adapting to your environment
Organizations, like the people who work
in them, are in constant flux. Businesses
change by necessity with the conditions
of the marketplace and the lives of
the managers who run them. Your
communications must adapt to the
conditions in which you find yourself.
However, this never constitutes a reason
for signing your name to a document that
is false, or passing along information
that you know isn’t true.
Communication is a skill that is central to the human experience.
We each know how to do it; we’ve done it since birth and receive
additional practice each day. So why is it so difficult to communicate on
the job? As a manager, it is important to understand how the workplace
changes the nature of communication, for both sender and receiver.
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COMMUNICATING AT WORK / 243
Matching the culture
All communication must work within
an organization’s culture. The accepted
approach can vary considerably between
different organizations: some companies,
for example, require every issue to be
written in memo form and circulated
before it can be raised in a team
meeting. Other organizations are
more “oral” in nature, offering
employees the opportunity to talk
things through before writing
anything down.
Many companies rely on a
particular culture to move day-to-day
information through the organization.
To succeed in such a business, you
must adapt to the existing culture
rather than try to change it or ask
it to adapt to you.
CHECKLIST...
YES NO
Adapting your style
1 Do you understand how the culture of the organization you
work for affects the way in which you need to communicate? ......
2 Have you adapted your writing and speaking style to meet
the expectations of the culture in which you are working? ...........
3 Have you changed your style to accommodate any changes
in the structure of the company or the conditions of
your industry? ..................................................................................
4 Have you noted the communication preferences of your
supervisor and adapted your writing, speaking, and
listening styles accordingly? ..........................................................
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