Understanding Communication Styles in Business
Have you ever played phone tag with a contact? Most people have. It is frustrating, time consuming and inefficient for business. However, if you are dealing with most individuals from the Traditional or Baby Boomer generation or (what I call) the “Sensory Communicators” you need to be aware that most will prefer phone calls to e-mail or text and want primarily face-to-face meetings for everything.
Meetings abound in their eyes. It may be that they prefer these methods to block out distractions. I agree that meetings definitely have their place in corporate culture. However, I think that many use meetings or phone calls to break up the day more than to share information. To them face-to-face time means they are getting business done.
They want to see emotion in your eyes. They want to hear, see and feel the communication using their senses. When they ask you to get in contact with someone. Most likely mean for you to place a call the person or go visit them.
The Seven Essentials of Business Communication
There are seven essential elements to successful business communication:
* Structure
* Clarity
* Consistency
* Medium
* Relevancy
* Primacy/Recency
* Psychological Rule of 7±2
If you are going to communicate effectively in business it is essential that you have a solid grasp of these seven elements.
So let’s look at each in turn…
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The Art of Communicating With Different Communication Styles
As individuals we tend to prefer some forms of communication over others. As business leaders it is our responsibility to understand not only our preferred communication style but also the communication styles of those that surround us.
For a company to succeed, everyone must feel safe enough to demonstrate the gifts and talents that they have to offer. If the people around you don’t feel comfortable communicating with you, it can be hard to properly utilize everyone’s unique contribution.
There are two main styles of communication; active – fast paced / direct and thoughtful – moderate paced / indirect. An active / direct communicator will look you in the eyes and tell you what they think.