Quick Tip: Model Effective Communication for Employees
It’s not enough to tell your employees to communicate well with each other and with clients. You need to model the skills, and the way you expect them to be used.
Behave to employees how you expect them to behave to customers:
- Listen with your full attention when they’re telling you. Make eye contact. Restate their comments and ask if you’ve grasped the point they’re trying to make.
- Be relaxed and friendly. Don’t let worries about other matters get in the way of establishing and maintaining a good rapport.
- Whether you’re sitting, standing or on the phone, convey openness in your stance, your body language or your voice.
- Be clear about your expectations and what you will do to make sure employees have the resources needed to accomplish goals.
- Be polite but firm.
- Close by restating your understanding of the situation. If it’s appropriate, thank them for their time.
This isn’t something you can fake. You have to actually display the kind of attention and consideration to employees that you expect them to display to others.
There are tips and tricks you can use to force yourself into an attentive stance, but paying attention to your staff has to be sincere.
Anything else will give employees the message that how they behave isn’t important.
See more Quick Tips.
Tags: business, communications, employees, the office, etiquette, behavior, attitude, management, supervision, sincerity, effectiveness
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POSTED IN: Communication Skills, Employee Communications, Executive Mindset, PR, Quick Tips, Work
4 opinions for Quick Tip: Model Effective Communication for Employees
Michael Vanderdonk
Dec 17, 2007 at 10:42 pm
This is so very true. Be the example of what you want to happen!
Eric Eggertson
Dec 18, 2007 at 7:51 am
Of course, instilling fear in employees also works, to an extent. But as soon as your back is turned, watch out!
Darlene
Jan 5, 2008 at 1:22 pm
As soon as leaders/managers turn their back, then the employees will “feed the hog”. Not exactly what leaders want to hear if they want their organization to generate revenue. Disgruntled employees affect the bottom line of every organization. When leaders/managers wake up to that and decide the value of employees is invaluable, we will find better ways to care for them in the framework of running profitable businesses.
http://www.interviewchatter.com/feeding-the-hog/
Darlene
Interview Guru
http://www.interviewchatter.com
Around The Business Channel - Common Sense PR
Jan 7, 2008 at 5:59 am
[…] Ok, I had no idea what my colleague, Eric Eggerston was up to over at Common Sense PR, but I have to say, it is a must read blog. He has an excellent writing style and I enjoyed reading various post. Eric forgive me for not visiting sooner. In any case, to my readers here at Interview Chatter, this is my second installment of Around the Business Channel. This is a new category I will be writing about this year. Common Sense PR is a blog about Business Communication for the real world. Eric writes about everything from Communication Skills to Employee Communication to Networking and Strategic Thinking. One of the post I stumbled on while visiting an interesting post, I thought would be applicable to you as a reader here at Interview Chatter is called Quick Tip: Model Effective Communication for Employees. […]
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