Communication

CCEW
February 2009
 Today’s agenda
 Introduction
– Why is communication important
– Types of communication in a business environment
 Organization
– Why is it important to be organized?
– Ways to be organized
All Course Material at
 Listening
– What is listening? http://tinyurl.com/200902CCEW
– The Process of listening
– Barriers to listening: Email us at
– Types of Listening
 Speaking 200902CCEWClass@gmail.com
– Telephoning
– Teleconferencing
– Meeting Etiquettes
– What Makes Meeting Wasteful
– Using Mobile Phones
– Smart Emails
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 A little bit about us

 Anant Gairola
– Designation:-Strategy and Business Development Leader
– Educational Background: - B.Sc.(Mech Engineering), MBA
– Entity: -Cummins Turbo Technologies

 Parag Khare
– Designation:- Account Manager Asia Pacific
– Educational Background: - B.E.(Mech), MBA
– Entity: -Cummins Turbo Technologies

 Irfan Awate
– Designation:- Worldwide Packaging Specialist
– Educational Background: - B.Sc (Science), MBA
– Entity: -Cummins Turbo Technologies

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 Communication is the keystone to
success
 Communication helps us to get what we want
– Job
– Resources, help from team
– Promotion
– Personal life
 Communication reflects our
performance
– Best idea doesn’t always succeed
– Perception counts
 Communication differentiates us
– A way for us to stand out amongst the crowd

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 In today’s business environment
communication means many things

Everything reflects on you

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 The 1st step to clear communication
– organizing the space around you
 Simple but effective
 Eliminate distractions
– Posters
– TV / Radio / Internet
 Easy access to information
– File data by date and subject
– Neatly mark and label data
 Don’t multi-task

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 Every message has a story –
Hierarchical Organization
1. Think of your audience
2. Think of what is your desired outcome
3. Organize your data based on the story.
– Column
– Matrix
– Venn Diagram
– Hierarchal
– Network

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Listening
 Typical Communication
 Listening - 33%

 Speaking - 26%

 Writing - 22%

 Reading – 19%

 Amazing facts:
- Misunderstanding is the rule rather than the exception.
- Conversational partners achieve about 25 to 50%
accuracy in interpreting
- Most people do not recognize the problem.

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 Who among is listening

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 Hearing Vs Listening
Hearing – Physical
process, natural,
passive
Listening – Physical as
well as mental
process, active,
learned process, a skill

Listening is hard.
You must choose to participate in the process of
listening.
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 Active Listening

1. Setting the stage

– Choose an appropriate physical environment
– Remove distractions
– Be open and accessible
– Listen with empathy

2. Insuring mutual understanding

– Reflect feelings
– Paraphrase main ideas
– Interrupt to clarify
– Confirm next steps

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 3. Understanding body language
- Observe position and posturing
- Make eye contact
- Consider expression and gestures

4. Suspending judgment
- Concentrate
- Keep an open mind
- Hear the person out

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 Barriers to Listening

• Noise
• Verbal & Non-Verbal symbols
• Inappropriate medium
• Assumptions/Misconceptions
• Emotions
• Language differences
• Poor listening skills
• Distractions

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 Exercise

 Separate handout to be utilized

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 ESSENTIALS OF LISTENING
Behaviors that support effective listening

- Maintaining relaxed body posture

- Leaning slightly forward if sitting
- Facing person squarely at eye level
- Maintaining an open posture
- Maintaining appropriate distance
- Offering simple acknowledgments
- Reflecting meaning (paraphrase)
- Reflecting emotions
- Using eye contact
- Providing non-distracting environment

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 ESSENTIALS OF LISTENING
Behaviors that hinder effective listening

- Acting distracted
- Telling your own story without
acknowledging theirs first
- No response
- Invalidating response, put downs
- Interrupting
- Criticizing
- Judging
- Diagnosing
- Giving advice/solutions
- Changing the subject
- Reassuring without acknowledgment
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SPEAKING
Listening –Mother of all speaking
 Speaking

 Telephoning
 Teleconferencing
 Meeting Etiquette
 What Makes Meeting Wasteful
 Using Mobile Phones
 Smart Emails

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 Telephoning

 General Preparation
– Know your Phone
– Keep a Pen and Pad Ready Next to the Phone
– Keep Distractors out;concentrate on the call.
– Find out how you sound on telephone-Clarity is important
– Cultivate a lively Telephone Voice
– Be Extra Careful when you speak to a foreigners
– Adopt a efficient way of Giving Names and Numbers

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 Telephoning
 How to make a call ?
– Ask yourself if it is a right time to call.
– Ask yourself why do you want to call
– Mentally draft the message before call………
– Jot down the Points you want to discuss
– Dial the number yourself if possible.
– When some one answers your call, greet them and identify
yourself
– Apologies if you get through to a wrong number
– If you get through the right person check if it a right time to
speak………………………………
– Redial if the lines get cut off
– When the call is over ,thanks the person you have spoken to.
– After the call, complete you notes
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 Telephoning

 How to answer a call ?

– Do not let the phone ring more than three times
– Greet and Identify as soon as you pick up the phone
– Do not allow the phone to interrupt a meeting or something
equally important
– If some one else can deal with the call better,transfer to them
– If the person to whom the caller wants is not available,offer
return call
– Take the notes as you listen
– If you are taking the message for some one,write it down .

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 Teleconferencing

 If you are a organizer

– Notify the Participants in advance on time and date
– Keep in Mind the time zones and working hours of the
Participants
– Prepare and send agenda in advance
– Punctuality is extremely important
– Once Every one is connected to the call greet all of them.
– Introduce the people if needed
– Keep the discussions focused on Agenda
– Circulate the minutes of meeting immediately once the call is
over

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 Teleconferencing

 If you are Participating in the conference call

– Plan for the conference call as you would for meeting.
– If the number of participants are more talk only when the host
asks
– Speak slowly and clearly
– Be clear what you want to say and say it briefly
– Be considerate to other Participants

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 Meeting Etiquettes

– Go early to the meeting .

– Allow others to speak, don’t interrupt
– Do not monopolies the Meeting
– Pay attention to the person speaking
– Switch off your phone
– Be focused on the discussion at hand
– Be respectful of others in the meeting, don’t be emotional
– Obey the chairperson’s instructions and request
– Maintain the time schedule for the meeting-Not advisable to
over run

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 What Makes a Meeting Wasteful

– Poor Preparation by conveners and attendees ……..

– Incompetent chairperson
– Meeting without clear objective to make a decision
– Calling the meeting when it is not needed
– Too big agenda…………….
– Absence of the key players

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 Exercise time!!!!
One hand out is provided to all of you.
Please read the situation carefully and identify;

• What went wrong?

• Suggestions to make meeting more meaningful.

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 Using Mobile Phones

– Switch off your phones or put them is silent mode when you
are in the meeting.
– Switch off your mobile phone when you are driving……
– Try to use hands free as much as possible.
– Avoid business calls on cell phone unless there is a urgency.
– Avoid using cell phone when you are in public places.
– Ensure your phone will remain switched off on all the places if
requested such as flights,hospitals,fuel stations etc.
– During the flight do not switch on the cell and continue to keep
it off till requested
– Do not let stranger listen to your non emergency calls.

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 E-mail Etiquette
– Invest in the subject Line –Smart Heading is important
– Small is beautiful,keep it as brief as possible……
– Always give your email a spell check
– Mind your luggage-Do not attach unwelcome files
– Mind your language,hold back angry outburst
– Structure your thoughts before writing a email
– Have short Paragraphs
– Try and reply the emails in twenty four hours
– Do not copy the emails to the people who do not need to read
– Do not cry wolf too often - no one may take you seriously when
wolf comes
– Do not make your mailbox junk yard;put it in order
– Do not mix business with Pleasure

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 Case Study on Annual distributor Award Selection Meeting.
The new secretary co-ordinated the teleconference to discuss and agree on the
Regional Distributor of the Year Award 2008 and Worldwide distributor of the Year .

The people invited were the Account Managers from US, South America , Brazil , UK ,
Europe , Middle East Africa and Turkey , Asia Pacific , China and India , Worldwide
Service head , Marketing Co-ordinator , General Manager Europe and General Manager
US .
The meeting starts with only few people logging on the bridge on time . Then the European team based
in Holland realize that for some mysterious reason they are unable to log in through the bridge given .
Service Head then sends email to everybody on the new bridge number and one by one participants
from all over the world log in .

Finally , when the meeting starts , the secretary who had invited all the meeting went on a lunch break
and was not traceable and thus nobody knew who is chairing the meeting . After another couple of
minutes the chair is announced on the phone . The invite send to everybody did not have clear
guidelines on the on coming prepared on the respective nominee for the Regional and Worldwide
distributor so some came prepared with their presentation while most of the Account Managers gave it a
miss . By the time the Agenda was somewhat clear , it was found that the Account Manager from
China was not invited and even if invited the timing would be wrong as it was 10.00pm in China .

Meanwhile , the General Manager Announced a new structure of voting for Asia pacific and South
America which was not intimated to the respective Account Managers . This added further confusion to
the meeting . Finally , somebody suggested that the Marketing Co-ordinator , who had managed to
barge
in the meeting only 5 minutes back , should send the agenda on the new meeting schedule .
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 Thank You !

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