5 ways to be a better communicator at work

• 2-minute read •
Don’t take this personally, but more likely than not, you’re not giving 100% at your job. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’re reading this while at work.
If so, you’re not alone. A recent Gallup study revealed a startling statistic: 70% of U.S. employees are not engaged at work.
A major cause for this disconnect is that people tend to be really, really bad at communicating their wants and needs. Learn to do that, and you’ll stand a much better chance of staying calm and resentment-free, and possibly even landing the kind of assignments you’ve been longing for.
Monster asked career experts for tips to help you improve your communication skills, so you can go from feeling disengaged to practically ecstatic about your job.

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Avoiding A "Failure to Communicate"

It's in every classified ad and most job descriptions: must have excellent communication skills. Worse yet, once hired, it reappears annually at review time: Improve communication skills. What's a worker to do? Communication skills don't require a graduate degree, just some common sense, a bit of homework and a better understanding of the role communication plays - in everything:

Listen. Don't assume that better communication skills mean you have to speak like John F. Kennedy or orate like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Listening skills are the most ignored aspect of good communication skills. More misunderstandings occur due to poor listening than to misstatements.

To be a good listener, suspend that urge to speak while others are speaking. Don't begin to prepare what you'll say next. Listen intently, with ears, eyes, mind and body. Are you following what's being said? If so, nod in agreement. If not, a furrowed brow indicates you're confused. Your speaker needs these cues. If you truly heard and understood, repeat it back in your own words. This lets both parties know they're on the same wavelength.

Mind Your ABCs. Some people turn complex topics into simple explanations. Sadly, others' talents lie in the opposite direction: making simple topics complex. I strive to mind my ABCs: Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur once remarked that even more important than giving orders that could be understood was issuing orders that couldn't be misunderstood. Whether or not lives are at stake, your reputation as a communicator may be. People appreciate short sentences; they are often confused by long, convoluted ones. Keep it succinct.

Don't get labeled missing in action. Some excellent communicators are deemed less so for not contributing in meetings. A coaching client of mine from overseas was culturally uncomfortable speaking up, so others monopolized the meetings, often rudely interrupting to make a point. Her timidity, coupled with self-consciousness surrounding her command of English, resulted in her wallflower demeanor.

Now the night before meetings she reviews the agenda, composes her thoughts and rehearses making powerful yet concise statements about items of the day. To others her remarks appear off-handed. She's thus perceived as a more powerful and effective communicator. She's also developed a nice yet firm statement when she's interrupted, which reminds people she hasn't yielded the floor yet. After a few invocations of this phrase, others respect her opinions better. Her boss has noticed and applauded her new assertiveness.

It takes two. I knew a worker who was fired for her boss's inadequacies as a communicator. Don't pay the price for another's communication shortcomings. It may require some work on your part, but it's worth the effort.

I once had a boss who listened, but never asked questions. After a while I anticipated the questions that needed to be asked and posed them myself, or simply provided responses as if he'd asked them. I would go prepared to each meeting with a list of project-related questions, which showed my foresight and attention to detail. It benefited us both.

Write speech. It sounds like a Buddhist precept, yet remember, writing is a big part of communication. Let e-mails, weekly reports and other writings reinforce your clear thinking, organizational skills, attention to detail and ability to express important ideas.

Make your writing easy to read. Spelling matters, even in e-mail. Use white space, numbered lists and bulleted items to communicate more effectively. Titles, subtitles and lists similarly add cogency. Write your piece, set it aside for a spell, then review it and strike out 25 percent to say it more succinctly.

Speak up. Consider taking a public speaking class, joining a local Toastmasters club (www.toastmasters.org) to improve your oral communication skills. The new skills, offline practice and confidence gleaned will help you in meetings, in giving reports and in making presentations.

Excellent communication skills help in many ways. With practice you can confidently give a speech, make a cold call, train others; conduct a meeting, make a sales presentation, interview someone or be interviewed.

Improved communication skills can open many doors, both within and beyond the workplace. It's time you sharpen your CQ - Your Communication Quotient!

Expectations At Work Can Destroy You if Don’t Communicate Them!

Expectations have a powerful impact on our emotions, behaviors, and most importantly, in our performances. Have you noticed what happens when you expect no raise or promotion at work? Most likely you will not get them! The bitter truth is that - not only will you lose a promotion - but most likely you will not perform to your fullest potential, either. Expectations have a direct link to our behavior and outcome. One of the most common reasons for low employee morale and performance is poor communication of work expectations. Why is this so difficult and what are we doing about it?

Many of these expectations are not written anywhere. That, in and of itself, can cause some trouble. If you are the head of a department and you hire a new director, you expect the new director to do X, Y, and Z. You do not bother with providing a written list of expectations because you assume he or she would know these things. Surprise, surprise… some things that are obvious and normal for you might be considered silly and unnecessary for your new hire.

The answer is simple. It is about communicating clearly, addressing people, and not allowing assumptions to overrun our lives. But as I mentioned, this is often easier said than done.

There are several things that can be done to alleviate this obstacle. Implementing the tips below can help open the lines of communication so that expectations are not only known, but also acted upon successfully.

1. Be aware of them. Obviously, we have to be aware of our own expectations before we try to communicate them to anyone else. Be honest with yourself. If you expect a promotion after you close a million dollar deal then you need to name what you expect. In this first step, you should claim what you want, whatever it might be, and should be honest with yourself and those around you.

2. My expectations or yours? Many times the expectations of a supervisor or manager can be quite different from those of the employees. Be willing to negotiate. You may find that there are merits to the other person’s point-of-view, or that a compromise can produce better results than originally thought.

3. What communication style fits you? It is extremely important to know this for several reasons. Some people communicate better in writing. Others do best with using bottom-line, verbal communication. Still more are “talkers” who need to fully discuss every aspect of a plan before it is implemented. Once you know your communication style, and the styles of those you work with, communication of expectations will be both better received and conveyed.

4. Seek feedback. As you realize by now, dealing with
expectations is like dealing with perceptions, so the best way for you to learn how other people see your behaviors is to ask for regular feedback. Do not hesitate to ask what people expect from you. While you don’t need to agree with them necessarily, you do need to be clear on what is expected of you in order to accomplish your goals.

5. Align expectations with your values. Values define what you stand for. Values act as your internal compass, keeping you happy at work and in your personal life. Obviously, the more aligned you are with your values (and your professional goals) the smoother your life will be. With that said, it is advisable to check from time to time that our expectations are indeed aligned with the core of who we are. If you value freedom and entrepreneurship in your professional life, don’t seek positions that would land you in an environment opposite to you true values. Don’t get stuck trying to live up to expectations that do not match with your personal values.

Managing expectations - yours and those of others - is an important part of our every day life. A merger with another company, a new boss, a sudden change at home, new coworkers… all of these are circumstances where people expect things from you. Understanding the most effective ways to communicate your expectations, and to understand those of others, is the best solution for overall team success in any organization.

Managing your Boss

Unlike a friend, a boss is not someone you can choose. You normally have to accept the person whom you are supposed to report to. Whether you like it or not! It is therefore, important that you get off to a good start in your relationship with your boss. A good boss-subordinate relationship could help you progress in your career as your boss would recommend raises and promotions. On the other hand, a strained relationship could make life miserable for you at work and limit any opportunities for career advancement.

How does one go about managing a boss? To some people it may come naturally, while for others they may have to rack their brains to figure out what to do and yet feel they end up saying and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time!

In this article, we will attempt to offer some guidelines that could help you build a positive relationship with your boss and be beneficial to your career.

Do your job well with a non-threatening work style
The starting point is obvious and basic- do your job well. Boss management can help only if you are making a good effort at your work. Otherwise it will become a case of covering up your inefficiencies and weaknesses at work behind behavioural niceties which will not have a chance to succeed as they will only be superficial.

And in addition to this, an extremely important point- adopt a non threatening work style. Your great initiative at work will get a tremendous setback if your boss finds you too aggressive or abrasive and begins to feel insecure. Your work style should not communicate to your boss in any way that you believe that you know more than him/her, or that you do not respect his/her superiority and authority.

Accept responsibilities, take initiative, and prepare for meetings. Make yourself indispensable to your boss without threatening him/her. Let him/her rely on you for assistance in gathering information or any other area where you appear to be relatively more competent, but with the feeling that you are a great help and not a threat.

A boss has power that is derived from two sources- the first being the power/authority that comes along with the position or designation. The second is to do with the individual's personality traits and interaction with others in the organisation. You have to ensure that you give your boss due respect on both counts.

Remember then, be a smart and diligent worker and keep your boss feeling secure!

Understand your boss' working style and work within it
To manage your boss, it would be very useful to find out different aspects of your boss' working style. What makes your boss tick? You could use the following checklist to help you get to know your boss better.

* What are his/her goals?
* What does he/she expect from you?
* Does he/she have any idiosyncrasies e.g. getting the credit for all work done?
* What is he/she particular about e.g. punctuality?
* What irritates him/her?
* When is your boss most approachable?


Getting answers to these questions will help you adapt to your boss' working style and reduce conflict.

You could try and brand your boss into a specific personality type depending on his/her style of working. This could give you clues on how to work smarter with that type of a boss.
A few boss types you could consider are:

The Feudal Lord
This type of a boss likes to have a large group of supporters, sycophants and yes men. He/she invariably dislikes any opposition to his/her thoughts, ideas and way of doing things. If you agree, you are part of the coterie, otherwise you are an irritant.

What you could do:
Be careful not to let the quality of your work suffer in your desire to be "accepted".

The Nit-Pick
Here, the boss has too much of an eye for detail and ends up nit-picking on and on. Use this format, left align that, reduce this by 5mm, stroke your t's horizontally etc.
What you could do:
Try and toe the line as much as you can without losing sight of the overall picture of the job at hand.

The Slime
This boss type is as the name suggests- not clean and straightforward, but a great manipulator who could stab you in the back. This boss will not hesitate to pass the blame on to you if anything goes wrong. Neither will you get the credit for a good job done. This boss will spend more time in achieving personal gains.

What you could do:
Watch out, be cautious. Don't be naive. You may learn this after a couple of set-backs. Nevertheless, you need to get along with this boss type as well. Just organise yourself better and learn to "cover up" with well documented facts in case of a problem.

The Slog
Here, it's work, work and more work. This boss type is a confirmed workaholic. He may not pay attention to details but expects a lot of work to be done.

What you could do:
Work hard too. Meet deadlines. It's a lot better than dealing with the Slime!

Adopt the problem solving approach at work
The next point in boss management relates to handling problems at work. Do not panic when confronted with a crisis. Do not just oppose and disagree with your boss' ideas. Come up with a solution. And justify it with a well thought out plan. This approach could also help in reducing unpleasant scenes and conflicts with your boss. Work could also proceed more smoothly.

Communicate and keep your boss informed
This is essential in ensuring that work gets done on time and your boss is on top of it all in terms of information. The last thing you need is a situation where your boss' boss enquires about the status of a project and your boss was not updated by you, on the current position. Your boss would get caught on the wrong foot and could then pile on to you for not having provided all the information. To avoid these situations, keep your boss updated regularly on the status of work in the pipeline. This will make him/her look good and will let you breathe easy!
Also clarify priorities and deadlines regularly to ensure that you are working on the right item at a particular time. This will be very helpful in situations where priorities shift over time.

Be honest and do not compromise on ethics
It always pays to speak the truth. Ask for help where you need it. Admit your mistakes. Give credit where it is due. This will make your boss trust you. He/she will know that you can be relied on to tell the truth in the case of mud-slinging conflicts across departments. Your strength will be that you tell the truth whatever the situation and not just to take the credit or avoid the flak.
Do not compromise on ethics. Never sabotage work to spite your boss.


Do not condemn your boss to others
This is something you really have to watch out for as it is very common to crib about your boss to your colleagues. It often makes you feel better to have someone to complain to, who could agree with you and confirm your negative emotions about your boss. Avoid using this as a way of getting friendly with your colleagues or a way of joining one of the power camps in the organisation.
Resist the temptation to bad mouth your boss. Try to grin and bear it if you are stuck with a difficult boss till you find a workable solution. Going to the Human Resources department and complaining will not help. It is a misconception that the Human resources department will sort out such problems at work. They are concerned primarily with the needs of the organisation as a whole and not such issues related to specific individual problems. A move such as complaining to HR could probably get back to your boss and will only make matters worse.

Be flexible and not rigid in your style
Let your work style be compromising and flexible. Do not be too rigid as this could put off your boss and communicate that you are too adamant and aggressive instead of being supportive and co-operative. Also, a rigid style could give your boss the impression that you are too competitive and this may make your boss feel insecure which is when problems start!

Record dates and important instructions
To ensure that you stay on top of your job and avoid getting into trouble when it's time to pass the blame, keep a record of dates and key instructions relating to your work. It may sound like a repository of unnecessary information, but it could help you a great extent in the event of a crisis. Not to say that you should use this to malign your boss, but keep yourself out of such a mess as much as possible.

If you try and follow some of these guidelines, you could end up with a positive relationship with your boss. Remember, the situation is not that bad. You as a subordinate, are also very important to the boss!
And if you find yourself in a terribly hopeless and frustrating relationship with your boss, despite your repeated attempts to improve things- do not lose heart. It's not the end of the world! Just pack up and move on!