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• Conducting and participating in meetings (provided effective meeting management
techniques are used
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)
• Resolving conflict
15
; motivating the team
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; influencing others.
All of these activities are enhanced by effective communication. However, for
a communication to be
effective, at least two of these elements need to be present.
• Power: if a communicator is perceived to be powerful (important), the message being
communicated will be seen to have importance. Power comes from a range of sources including
technical expertise.
• Credibility: built by making all communications accurate, timely and complete, as well as
consistent, open and auditable. Errors are managed (and credibility least damaged) by openly
identifying the problem and correcting it. Secrecy destroys credibility.
• Relevance: Appropriate to the audience, subject-matter and environment. The relevance of the
information to the recipient is enhanced through additional characteristics including being timely and
presented in a concise and consistent format.
Power is useful if you have it and can reduce the effort needed to tailor individual messages for each
recipient (although effective leaders do this anyway), the receivers want to understand your message. For the
rest of us, relevance requires understanding the receiver’s needs and credibility simply has to be earned.
Practical communication ideas for different media:
1. Voice mail and other recorded greetings: Smile when you record it - you want to sound pleasant.
Listen to the difference when you record the message while wearing a happy face—it might surprise
you.
2. Email subject line: Never leave it blank. Think of the subject as a headline, a short, catchy, specific
subject will get a quicker response than a meaningless phrase such as ‘following up’ or worse a blank
space.
3. Email message body: In a business-related email, leave out the emoticons, jokes, ‘funny links’, etc;
especially when the message is being sent to your superiors or more than one person. All business
emails are retained and may be read by a complete stranger sometime next year.
4. All communication: Ask or notice if the recipient has a preferred way to be contacted. Some live and
breathe through texting. Email is best for others. And others still want calls. Your message will be
received more effectively if it comes in on the channel your audience prefers.
5. Phone calls: When on a phone call, be present. It’s obvious—and disrespectful—when callers are
distracted and multitasking. If it’s not a good time to talk, just say so, and arrange another time to
speak.
6. Conference calls: Thankfully, many conference calls are muted by the moderator or administrator.
But if the one you’re on is not muted automatically, do so anyway. It is so annoying to hear someone
munching or typing, on a conference call. Even background noise can be distracting.
7. Conversations in person or on the phone: Allow the other person to finish their sentence. It’s polite
and civil, and helps keep conversations that way, too.
8. Interrupting: But if necessary to interject—and sometimes it is—use a trick like: “So allow me to
stop you there…” Or, “To clarify, I’d like to ask…” Or, “OK, so to respond to your point…”
9. “I’ll have to get back about that”: No problem. Just make sure to do. And promptly.
14
For more on running effective meetings see:
https://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1075_Meetings.pdf
15
For more on Managing Conflict see: https://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1041_Managing_Conflict.pdf
16
For more on Motivation see: https://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1048_Motivation.pdf