COMMUNICATION SPECIAL..... CLARITY

COMMUNICATION CLARITY

Clear communication helps one earn the trust and respect of peers, seniors and clients. An employee who recognises one’s inadequacies and has the willingness to learn has already taken the first steps to succeed in the process, feel experts..

1 Recognise Your Flaws
Communication can happen in a variety of ways and could include verbal, non-verbal or written communication. To embark on the process of improvement, one has to recognise one’s areas of improvement first. “Is it your body language that is a cause of concern, drafting emails, or articulation. You have to identify the areas where you need to invest time on learning,” says Puja Kapoor, HR head, Dunnhumby India.
2 Seek Coaches at Work Kapoor suggests the 70:20:10 approach for improving communication skills. “While 70 is about on-the-job learning and making use of all the internal opportunities by reading, improving vocabulary, practising during meetings, 20 is about mentors or coaches and 10 is classroom learning through other forums,” she says. We could all do with a good sounding board at work. This is someone who is good with what you are lacking in and could help you improve.
3 Engage Your Audience Marketing manager Sakshi Juneja used to be a bundle of nerves before her presentation meetings. Through feedback from bosses and peers, she learnt that there was no eye contact between her and her audience. Her monologue style did not help matters either. Through regular practice, Juneja worked on building eye-contact and used ways like prompting audience for their views to keep them engaged.
4 Leverage Internal Opportunities Most companies run internal trainings programmes. In her previous job at Google, Kapoor was trained on customised communitybased HR-centric programmes linked to her function which dealt with improving her presentation and communication skills. Dunnhumby runs Influencing Top Authority for project managers which deals with managers communicating all project-centric information to top bosses correctly, besides Inspirational Management, a programme for managers for improving feedback skills.
5 Use the Right Words Communication and interpersonal skills mattered the most to recruiters according to an opinion poll conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive in the US. Beginning and ending conversations on a positive note, thanking people for their time, and showing appreciation can also help one build rapport with people, feels Juneja.

Anumeha Chaturvedi ET140514