How Effective is Your Workplace Communication?

Problems with workplace communication are regularly regarded as a major organizational issue in employee surveys. Effective communication can be nearly impossible to achieve when organizations don’t focus on improving the quality of workplace conversations.

 

A global survey has rated workplace miscommunication as the NUMBER ONE cause of workplace inefficiency. While the U.S. leads the way, Canada solidly holds down the #5 spot - Canadian business owners say that better than 1 in 4 business communications are miscommunicated in one way or another. Here are the comparative statistics:

 

USA 53%

United Kingdom 50%

Australia 46%

Asia 48%

Canada 28%

Source: Organizations That Matter Survey

 

Translated into dollars and cents, these huge inefficiencies can cost billions.  Don't let the ‘rumor-mill’ and misperceived instructions dominate the conversations within your organization and cause massive inefficiencies. Your staff (and your bottom line) can benefit from learning critical skills for enhanced workplace communication, such as:

• Learning how to dialogue for clarification
• Discovering how to set specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time framed goals
• Recognizing how co-workers see the world and how they interpret information presented to them.

 

Grab your calculator.  What would a 5% improvement in workplace efficiency do for your bottom line? And a 10% improvement? 

 

Developing the capacity for effective workplace communication can start today! Contact COACH David now! 

 

 

Business Coach David Green

ActionCOACH Lethbridge

actioncoachdavidgreen.com

 

 

I told them they did a good job. I think.

You can't underestimate the value of a great team that synergizes business activity into a living, morphing organism of sustainable success. Do you know the secret to that success? It can be summed up in two words: effective communication.

Are your team members on the same page? Do you even know if they are? Maybe they are and they just don't speak the same language. Maybe they're not and they still don't speak the same language. And maybe they are misunderstanding you, the goals of the business, or other key concepts that daily affect their ability to contribute to the success of the company.

There are 98 common ways of saying, "You did a good job." How do you say it? How do your team members understand it? Do you think you're being supportive and congratulatory when in reality your team feels your encouragement is meagre at best? Are your staff meetings and team-building exercises successful or are they more an exercise in frustration? Do they build your team or do they seem to exacerbate differences instead? How well do you and your team members really communicate?

When a business owner and staff communicate effectively together and with one another, the result is a cohesive operation that runs seamlessly. Even when problems and obstacles arise they can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Positive energy, creative thinking, and ambition thrive in this kind of environment. When everyone feels heard, understood, and supported, they can put forth their best efforts in the workplace and know that these efforts are appreciated and rewarded. Everyone gives and takes and supports the business functions from their individual positions. It all comes together. And great things happen as this synergy places the business and everyone in it on the road to success.

If you find that your team is continually struggling to understand each other, that your staff is lacking in motivation, that you don't seem to be able to find common ground on which to build common understanding, or you're constantly frustrated with efforts to connect, it's time to call in a Business Coach. And not just any Coach - one that has experience with mediation, with strategies to build and enhance communication, and expertise in a variety of team settings (including corporate human resources, small business staffing practices, society and board function, and even government and municipal affairs). Team building is no easy task and you need an experienced Business Coach to make sure that the best is brought out in every member of your staff.

Take action today and start enjoying the synergy that will result in success. For you and everyone on your team. Call David Green today.

FinancialMastery - The Foundation of Business Communication

This morning I sat down with business owners to talk numbers. It's what we do at the FinancialMastery seminar - we explore the framework within which all business activity is reflected, communicated, and manipulated. It is so true - the numbers never lie. And today was a great day. Why? Because every day is a great day to know where you're at and where you're going. That's what the numbers tell you and that's why you need to know them.

We could all effectively stumble our way to profitability in a business. A combination of some hard work, luck, circumstance, and borrowing from someone's deep pockets would keep us going on the path of viable operation for a time. But we could also effectively stumble our way to bankruptcy and ruin. How do we know which path we're on? The numbers tell us.

Business owners are always concerned with the bottom line. After all, we're in this to make money, are we not? So increasing the amount of money in a business owner's pocket is the name of the game. We're not thinking like accountants (who should do a very fine job of ensuring we pay minimal taxes on our pocket cash) or like bankers (who love to see a long list of variable expenses and a short one of fixed costs) or like lawyers (who are masters of variable cost application). We are business owners and we think differently. We are the decision-makers that will bring our company to the realm of success. Reading what your business is trying to communicate to you in the financial statements  is just the beginning - but once you've entered that gate, you will shortly find yourself on the path to abundance. 

Do you have the courage to face exactly where your business stands, make the tough decisions that your numbers insist upon, and distance yourself emotionally from the possible fallout? Are you confident about your company's position, even in the volatile economy in which we find ourselves daily? Have you been listening and responding to what your numbers are telling you? If you hesitated, even for a moment, on any of these questions then it's time to make changes in how you run your business. 

A great group at FinancialMastery today took the initiative to control the outcome of their business activity. What will you do today?

Turning Prospects Into Customers

At ActionCOACH we believe in people. We believe in interacting with people, understanding where they are at, and offering them the best possible solutions to the problems they are trying to solve. We recognize that not everyone is the same, but everyone does have needs. For this reason, when we are handling prospects, we do our best to understand what those needs are and how ActionCOACH can help. To give you some idea of what I'm talking about, let me quote and paraphrase a few ideas from an excellent book on this topic:

"I suppose if we made an effort we could list a hundred different kinds of prospects: slow thinkers, fast thinkers, wrong thinkers and nonthinkers; big spenders, conservative penny pinchers, criticals, bargain hunters, timid, assertive, impulsive, needler, argumentative; non-listener, stone face, harassed executive, etc.

Then there are the old, the young, and the middle-aged; the male and female; the black and white and everything between. Regardless of the prospect, everyone wants to be right, to be understood, to be appreciated. All have physical, spiritual, and emotional needs. our objective is to meet those needs so these prospects will be our customers ..."

Making a sale is not a process of convincing someone that you are right. It's an opportunity to meet, interact with, listen, and understand effectively another human being's position and what you can do to solve a problem they are faced with. The key things to remember, as Zig Ziglar points out, is that everyone wants to be right and everyone wants to be understood. Getting the prospect involved in the problem-solving process is essential; as you interact, remember that objections are excellent questions and you are always delighted that they have brought them up. The quicker you can establish the needs and personality of your prospect, the quicker you can effectively interact with them. Let's elaborate a little on Ziglar's ideas by briefly looking at personality scenarios from his book and his recommendations of how we can help them realize that we have something valuable to offer them:

Gary Gullible - Just be confident. Gentle, but confident. Be open and straightforward, and he will like you.
Sidney Skeptical - Let them raise their objections, ask them to repeat them for clarification, and address these questions with honest interest and concern.
Hostile Helen - Get this prospect talking and let them express their feelings or past experiences that have shaped their current position. Honestly appreciate who they are and where they are coming from.
Indecisive Ivan - Be empathetic, reassuring, and absolutely convinced that your product is the best thing for him. Be firm.
Betty Bargain Hunter - Be certain they understand that everyone is treated the same by your company, and then seal the deal by doing something to assure them that they got the best possible offer. They need to feel like a winner, so help them realize that they are one.
Oliver Obnoxious - In a firm but positive way, give them attention; also challenge them with facts that uphold your product's effectiveness. Don't forget to appeal to their pride - it's important to them to feel that they belong to an elite crowd.
Heloise Hurry-up - Be brief and businesslike. Close the sale, handle details, and be sure you follow up so they get exactly what they want. Their time is the first thing on their priority list.
Jolly Jimmy - Be casual and be a friend. Offer encouragement and advice for action, as a friend.
Nora Know-it-all - Let them impress you, but be aware of how long it might take.
Bobby Big Shot - Make him feel important, and that you are an overachiever yourself.
Impulsive Irene - Conviction and firmness at the peak of the impulse will close this sale. It won't take long, one way or the other.
Agreeable Al - When someone agrees with everything and nods continuously, it's time to stop and find out why they've already made a decision not to buy. Either they'll give you an objection that you can work with, or they'll realize you have more to offer than they thought.

Ziglar has offered us a few glimpses into the complicated world of effectively understanding and relating to people around us. What it boils down to is the ability to understand someone in their own language and speak it back to them. There's no doubt that you have a solution to their problem - turn the mirror to appropriately reflect that and let them see for themselves. We could all use a little more understanding.