Basic Of Business Communication Skills

In business we have to be particular of what we say and how we say this is true for verbal, but it his is also true for written communication.  We when we talk of verbal communication, we should know how to use language effectively and appropriately.  Besides whatever we say should come from the heart. The communication should be convincing and honest. Your speech has to be articulate and each word has to be very clear and you should bring about voice modulation in your speech.

Voice modulation is your ability to bring in variance in pace, pause, pitch, emphasis on your keyword and the tone. Written language has to be concise and should clearly express what we want to say. In business communication, there is no room for verbosity.  In fact that would be wasting your words, and therefore your energy and time.

 Following aspects of business communication have to always be kept in view.

  1. Decide what actually you want to achieve. Then select your words and create sentences which you think will achieve your objectives.
  2. You must decide whether a formal presentation is the best way to achieve this objective. If you have to achieve this objective. If you have to talk before two or more your seniors, then the formal presentation is recommended. It may not be with a power-point presentation , but without the power-point presentation  the verbal presentation that you make has to follow a certain in order that it is very effective.

Whenever you are reporting on certain needs or problems that you are likely to face, that must be well thought reporting That is true for both verbal presentation or the written report.

Whenever it is a formal presentation, it is necessary to script it and to rehearse it. This will enable you to talk in front of your seniors, peers and other stakeholders. If the audience that you expect is more than ten, it is necessary to rehearse beforehand.

Esprit De Corps (Team Spirit)

Henri Fayol pioneered management philosophy by propounding fourteen principles of management. These formed the very foundation of management thought and even after more than a century these timeless principles hold good even today. In fact, management gurus have based their built their management theories and based their management research building upon these fourteen principles.

Henri Fayol’s principle number 14 is esprit de corps. This term is a French expression which in English refers to ‘team spirit’ and ‘team work’. In fact esprit de corps is the essence of unity and therefore closely connected with ‘unity is strength ‘.

Fayol strongly advocated the need of team spirit within the organisation and also recommended that all employees must consider themselves as an integral part of the organisation.

It is now widely acknowledged that when employees identify with their employer company they develop a feeling of belonging which among other things contributes to the achievement of shared organisational goals. Moreover, the sense of togetherness helps team members perform with greater efficiency and positive attitude towards their work.

The two theories involved in this principle are:  (a) Unity is strength, and (b) Unity among the staff is the foundation of success in any organisation.  The principle of Esprit De Corps endorses the view that  both the management and workers should work together to accomplish the organisational objectives. It goes without saying that well-co-ordinated team contribution is always better than the contribution of several individuals.

Positive impacts of this principle:

  1. The group goals are achieved easily.
  2. There is a development of team spirit for greater feeling of satisfaction.
  3. The morale of the employees in these circumstances always remains high.
  4. Cooperation and Coordination within the organisation is ensured.

The Consequences of lack of this principle are as follows:

  1. Non achievement of the organisational objectives.
  2. Organisational Conflict as well as a confused work environment in the organisation.
  3. Lacks of optimum participation from the employees who do not perform to their full potential.

Initiative

According to this principle, a company management should encourage employees to experiment and to innovate. The spirit of innovation should be actively fostered and they should be encouraged to express new ideas and to develop new processes for implementing these new ideas. This will result in greater engagement and involvement of the team. Employees will identify themselves with the company. Better productivity and results can be achieved in this manner. However, initiative does go to the extent of employee interference in the set order of the company which can lead to disobedience.

Typically initiative means to start or to begin to instruct in an ongoing or a new project. So if the company encourages and one of the employees come forward and does bring out some innovation, the others will also be encouraged.

It is a good idea for the manager, before setting a plan for a new project, he / she should welcome the suggestion and idea of the employees.   There can be a brain storming session which always proves very useful and brings about maximum participation. However when the plan is made and agreed upon, it should be strictly followed.

Developing employee initiative brings the following benefits:

  1. It develops a feeling of oneness and belonging within the employees, and this leads to better loyalty towards the organization.
  2. Employees achieve the targets when they are allowed to take initiative and such targets are set up with their consultation.

The adverse consequences of lack of initiative among the team is:

  1. Employees will not work to the best of their ability.
  2. Demotivation among the employees will result in lower organizational productivity.

Blog is written by Vikram.

Stability

Henri Fayol, the French Management Expert who propounded fourteen principles of management has left a legacy which continues to inspire the management gurus of the modern times. Out of the fourteen principles, the 12th principle is known as the principle of stability.

Stability refers to how long employees stay with an organisation. Stability of tenure of personnel helps any organisation achieve better productivity and smart working.

An organisation must take steps to obtain as much stability as possible.  Frequent change and disruption are often expensive both in terms of time and resources. If a large percentage of the workforce leaves frequently, such staff will be need to be replaced by new people. The replacement workers will then have to be trained once again. Training is expensive and time consuming. Individuals need to thoroughly know the policies and culture of the organisation. The money spent on such repetitive activity can be better utilised and spent on more productive activities.

No wonder that HR departments today spend a lot of time in devising ways and means to keep attrition to the minimum. The organisation’s esprit-de-corps needs to be maintained. It is critical that a sense of loyalty is instilled among the members of the organisation.

Thus, stability means no frequent changes and no frequent transfers. Removal from the place where an individual Is working is both distractive and disruptive. In fact, stability helps employees to know each other well and take help for solving  the day-to-day problems. Thus the satisfaction of the employees is mitigated. It also leads to achievement of the organisational objectives.

The positive impacts of this principle:

  1. It develops a sense of belonging towards the organisation, thus improving the efficiency and minimising the wastage of resources.
  2. Better accountability makes team members to be more disciplined and helps them achieve work satisfaction.

Lack of stability leads to the opposite and adverse results since there is lack of employee participation resulting in general dissatisfaction and high employee turnover.

To conclude, Henri Fayol recommends that every organisation must respect the principle of stability of tenure as much as possible.

EQUITY

Though Henri Fayol expounded his management principles in the early 20th Century, these principles still form the basis of management studies even today. Daniel Ren goes on to the extent in writing that, “without contribution of the pioneers such as Fayol, we would be teaching industrial engineering, sociology, economics, and ergonomics to those who aspire to manage. To be doing such a thing would push us back to the nineteenth century, when the technical knowhow reined supreme as the path to managerial responsibility”.

Foyal’s eleventh management principle is Equity which is becoming important by the day. Modern HR management not only draws inspiration from Fayol’s  principle of equity but also offers suggestions and advise based upon what has been recommended by Fayol’s  in his principle of equity.

The need to treat all employees with fairness and kindness has been experienced now more than ever before. Employees have become very sensitive to their feelings; their self-respect and their self-esteem. Today, HR departments ensure that all employees are treated equally and as a result there is greater belonging towards their employer Company. Such a feeling of belonging motivates employees even more than the salary and perks.

Equity also means your holding in a company by virtue of your shares of the company. Further equity also refers to the portion of your particular property. It means that if you own a house of four crores and you have to pay to the bank three crores, your equity will be one crore.

Order

Though Henri Fayol expounded his management theory in the early 20th Century, it is valid even today. The Management Gurus thereafter only modified or added their respective opinions, but the basic foundation of management remains as expounded by Foyal.

Fayol’s 10th principle is ‘ORDER’ which does not mean a command from the superior. In fact, it means how things should be organized in a proper manner so that all activities are efficient and productive. This principle states that there should be proper order for everything, just as we say that there should be a place for everything should be in a place. We all know by experience that if we follow the above dictum we shall be able to avoid unnecessary wastage of time in simply trying to find things. Rather we shall make good use of them when they are needed.

According to Fayol, there are two kinds of order that are essential in every organization. These are:

  1. Material Order: This specifies that there should be a proper place for all physical resources. Just as we have stated above, a proper place for everything and everything must be in its proper place. As a result we avoid wastage of time and effort by following this principle.
  2. Social Order: This specifies that the human resources must be used in accordance with their respective designations. It further elaborates that there should be an appointed place for each employee and each employee must be at his / her appointed place.  The order is based on the basic assumption of the right man for the right job.

We find that this principle helps the organization in achieving productivity and efficiency in work and effectiveness in management. There will no confusion and or delay if set order is followed and maintained by each and every team member. Order also helps in controlling and making fuller use of financial resources.

Benefits of this principles are as follows:

  1. More efficient use of resources without any wastage of time and energy.
  2. Smooth and systematic work, leading to greater efficiency.
  3. The productivity is in increased.
  4. It ensures the proper usage of financial resources.

Disregard of this principle leads to:

  1. Delayed operations in every area.
  2. Scattered physical and human resources.
  3. Lack of accountability among staff.
  4. Reduced efficiency in controlling work processes and lower operational productivity.
  5. Wastage of financial resources.          

Scalar Chain

Henri Fayol was the pioneer in the field of management. Though he lived between 1841 and 1925, he enunciated the principles of management and actively worked out these principles during the early 20th Century. In fact, this is the foundation on which management gurus build their philosophies even today.

The Scalar chain principle can be defined by understanding communication recommended in an organization. The principle of scalar chain revolves around the flow of communication from the management to the lowest rank in the company. It identifies the chain of all supervisors from the top management to the lowest ranks.

A clear line of communication is very important. The organizational objectives become difficult to achieve if the communication does not flow according to the designated path from the supervisor to the worker in the lower position. Such a proper flow of communication safeguards against the possibility of any ambiguity.

Let us understand it with the help of an example.

Suppose the company has 10 employees. If employee number 4 has to communicate with employee number 8, he/ she has to follow the scalar chain in the following fashion. The flow of information will thus take place from employee 4,5,6,7, and employee number 8. The process is simple and will avoid any ambiguity.

Though it is not a complicated process, but surely it takes time as it has to go through a four step structure. In case of emergencies, this system may not be usable and therefore may be side stepped in such cases. One of the advantages of scalar change is that it avoids chaos. Every employee knows whom to approach when there is a problem. Further it allows the top management to communicate with the entire organisation through the supervisors at each level who become responsible to execute the orders from the top. Though it should not be inflexible, yet under normal circumstances a proper chain of command allows business to run smoothly.

CENTRALISATION

Henri Fayol was a pioneer in establishing principles of management. His fourteen principles of management constitute the foundation of business management even today. One of his key principles of management is the principle number eight where  Fayol talks about centralization.

Let us define what Centralization is. Centralization means that all the important decisions and actions are directed by a central authority. In such a system this action helps in bringing all the activities taking place in a system; and it also helps in bringing all the activities taking place in a single virtual location.  Let us consider an examples of Facebook of Google. Though the facilities of the organizations are available throughout the world, through the algorithms, the actions and procedures are all conceived and put into practice from the central location.

This means that there is a strict hierarchy with one decision maker who could be sitting in the main office of the organization. This could be one of person or it could be a collective decision of some CEOs and others. This type of management has the benefit that there is proper understanding by the employees of the critical role played by the boss. There remains no room for misunderstanding and misjudgment of the instruction to be followed.

As opposed to centralization; decentralization, which is also practiced today, is defined as the measure that helps the manage activities from several separate entities. The benefit of such a situation is that through power sharing the burden of employees and the department is substantially reduced. Power is regularly dispersed among all employees and delegation is made possible. While there are benefits of both the systems, the fact Fayol’s principle of Centralization remains the nucleus and foundation of all thought in the respect  of his aspect of management.

Blog is written blog is Vikram Kakri.

Remuneration as a principle of management

Anyone joins the organization and works there with the objective of earning his bread and butter. The wages or salary which he earns for his work enables him/her to fulfill the basic needs and there requirements of life. The Remuneration must be in equality with the work done by the employees. This will motivate him to perform better and become loyal to the organization.

Fayol’s principle of management has been respected by management gurus everywhere. The principle of remuneration comes as number seven of the fourteen principles.

The principle of remuneration comprises of salary plus other compensations in the form of commission on the work done. Thus while the salary is fixed, the remunerations can vary according to the quality  and the quantity of work done.

  a  fair wage system is one of which guarantees that both the employer and  employee will be satisfied. The owner in the guarantees due to which both the employer and the employee will be satisfied. The owner in the term  of the work completed by an individual employee who in turn will be received by him/her.

Thus the seventh principle enunciated by Fayol brings about a cordial atmosphere in the organisation. It also leads to better work environment.

Positive Impacts of this principle:

  1. It creates better relations between workers and management.
  2. Employees get motivated.
  3. It reduces the turnover rate of the employees.
  4. When employees feel satisfied with their salary / remuneration they contribute there best effort.
  5. This raises the standard of living of the employees.
  6. Finally It develops the society as a whole.

Consequences of the violation of this principle:

  1. The efficiency of the employees decreases.
  2. Conflict between the management and employees spoils the work environment.
  3. The attrition rate or turnover rate increases.
  4. The immediate result is incomplete work and general dissatisfaction.
  5. Finally it becomes hard to achieve the organizational objectives.

Henri Fayol’s Sixth Principle of Management – Subordination OF personal interest

This principle states that the interest of the organisation should always be above the person interest. Further it states that whenever individual goals conflicts with the organisational goal, the manager should make efforts that the objectives should be so aligned and integrated that both can effectively be accomplished with efficiency. However the goals of the organisations remain supreme and must not be compromised under any circumstances.

Each and every individual joins any organisation with certain personal objectives & expectations. However, it is necessary for him or her to understand the vision, mission and the goals of the organisation he/she is working for. He/she should take up the assignment only if the organisation objectives which come first are acceptable and honoured under any circumstances. In fact it is the Manager’s duty to ensure that there’s no conflict within the organisation. This will ensure that the relationship among the employees and with the management remains cordial.

Positive impacts of this principle areas under:

  1. The organisation is able to achieve the objectives seamlessly:
  2. There is proper rapport and coordination between the employees and the organisation.
  3. The coordination also extends to the individuals and organisation’s goals.
  4. There is harmony promoted within the organisation.
  5. It increases employee respect for the organisation and the management.

The consequences of the violation of the principle are as follows:

  1. It would be difficult to achieve the goals of the organisation.
  2. There would be multiple conflicting situations in the organisation.
  3. It will result in wastage of time will be lost.
  4. There will be valuable time lost due to unnecessary delay in work leading to general dissatisfaction among the employees.

The blog is written by vikram.

RSS
Follow by Email
YouTube