Barriers to business communication

Written by Lee Hopkins


There are six crunching barriers to business communication:

1. Poor structure torepparttar communication 2. A weak delivery 3. The use ofrepparttar 107976 wrong medium to deliverrepparttar 107977 communication 4. A mixed message 5. The message is delivered torepparttar 107978 wrong audience 6. A distracting environment

Let's consider each of these barriers to business communication in turn...

Poor structure torepparttar 107979 communication ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The structure of a communication is an essential factor in how well a business communication is received by an audience.

It doesn't matter whether that audience is an audience of one or one million, good structure is essential if a communication is to be 'heard' amongstrepparttar 107980 advertising and marketing 'noise' of today's business environment.

So a poor structure to your message or delivery is therefore a major barrier to effective communication.

Weak delivery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It doesn't matter how important or impressiverepparttar 107981 subject of your communication is, if you deliver it without any 'punch' you will not get as many people to take your desired action as you would like.

A weak delivery is likerepparttar 107982 very funny joke withrepparttar 107983 badly-told punchline --- it is not as funny or as memorable as you rememberrepparttar 107984 original to be.

It is important to not get confused between delivery and presenter. I know of one English businessman, Richard Branson, who is a shy and reticent public speaker. Yet I have seen audiences hang on his every word.

Branson may not be a powerful orator, but his message and its structure are very sound.

The use ofrepparttar 107985 wrong medium ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You have to announce a temporary hold on non-essential stationery spending in your department. How do you communicate this?

Believe it or not, I know of one company who were seriously considering holding a major public meeting about this, withrepparttar 107986 department head having to get up in front ofrepparttar 107987 entire department inrepparttar 107988 staff restaurant and explain why her staff couldn't order disposable fountain pens for a while.

I know of one group that were thinking of rolling out a small internal initiative via an expensive multi-media cd-rom, one to be given to each member of staff.

Inrepparttar 107989 first case a simple memo would have sufficed; inrepparttar 107990 second a simple announcement on their intranet would equally have gottenrepparttar 107991 message across.

Similarly, an advertising campaign on local radio would be a highly ineffective way of reachingrepparttar 107992 desired audience ifrepparttar 107993 message was complex and really intended for a narrow niche audience.

A public presentation, with 'obligatory' PowerPoint slideshow full of complex charts and data, would berepparttar 107994 wrong medium ifrepparttar 107995 message you were trying to communicate would be better served by a white paper, or some similar print-based format that allowedrepparttar 107996 audience to digestrepparttar 107997 complexities at their own pace.

A mixed message ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is very hard for an audience -- whether an audience of 1 or 1 million -- to understand your communication if you unnecessarily obfuscate.

What?

If you deliberately, or otherwise, confuse them. A HUGE barrier to business communication isrepparttar 107998 ability of 'business-speak' to confuse and alienate its audience.

It does this in two ways:

1. By using terms and phrases that are 'jargon',repparttar 107999 meaning of which are possibly recognised but probably not fully understood

2. By trying to 'save time/paper' by rolling several different communication messages into one.

An example ofrepparttar 108000 latter is where a business communication mentions, inrepparttar 108001 one communication, two or more completely separate events. Such as, for example, a memo that talks about what management expect you to do to conform torepparttar 108002 latest departmental stationery budget cuts alongside an events list ofrepparttar 108003 up-coming staff picnic.

Another barrier arising from mixed messages is when a previously-held stance is lightly overturned to meet some political or business expediency, then upheld again.

An example of this would be whererepparttar 108004 acceptance of corporate gifts is not allowed, but then allowed if it a brand new client who has contracted a large amount of money to your business, then not allowed again afterrepparttar 108005 gift-giving and receiving season is over.

Or a company-wide budget cut that stops all business-class travel, butrepparttar 108006 very senior management are found to be travelling first class.

Be very careful of mixing your messages, as mixed messages are a very real barrier to effective business communciation.

Effective communication in business

Written by Lee Hopkins


Effective communication in business

Effective communication in business is not about creatingrepparttar perfect PowerPoint presentation. It's not about writingrepparttar 107975 perfectly-pitched report. It's not even about assiduously alliterating .

Sometimes effectively communicating in business can hinge on something really simple——the habits you bring to your interactions with others.

As we all know, we all have habitual behaviours that we carry around with us and use unconsciously. It could berepparttar 107976 "um" you sandwich between every fourth word of your presentation. It could berepparttar 107977 nervous 'fig-leaf' gestures of your hands. It could be your constant swaying and looking away from your audience, as if you should be somewhere else far more important right at that moment.

Whoever you are, whilst you may know your facts inside-out, whilst your work ethic isrepparttar 107978 standard by which others are measured, if you don't recognise and work on your personal presentation habits you might eventually destroy all that you have strived so hard to achieve.

Whatever your particular habit is, you can best find out what it is by two great methods:

* Ask your colleagues what you do in face-to-face encounters that annoys them

* Have someone video a presentation to a group that you give

We all have a communication habit that works against us in some small way. Butrepparttar 107979 challenge we face is that, left unattended, they start adding up. The more you have,repparttar 107980 more unprofessional you look.

Here's eight interpersonal communication blunders that can wreck your career over time:

* Owning a weak handshake: A weak handshake signals uncertainty, hesitation, a lack of integrity, a lack of confidence and a lack of courage. It quite possibly also triggers subconscious responses inrepparttar 107981 recipient that cause them to focus more and for longer on your handshake than on your message. To butcher Nike's slogan, "Just don't do it!"

* Displaying a nervous giggle: Just like a weak handshake,repparttar 107982 nervous giggle, inrepparttar 107983 eyes and mind of your audience, turns you into a child. No one seriously does business with a child.

* Over-using "I'm sorry": A 'killer' for undermining your authority, a phrase like, "I need your report on my desk by 5 o'clock, sorry" just knocks your professionalism, your communication and your career for six. You have no need to apologise if you arerepparttar 107984 boss orrepparttar 107985 client. There is a place for politeness in business, as there are for courtesy and humility. But inrepparttar 107986 shark-eat-shark world of nature and business, there is no room forrepparttar 107987 weak and mousy. Sorry to have to break that to you...

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