How to Communicate Effectively in YOUR Business!
While doing research for this post it occurred to me that there are many elements to communicating effectively in business depending on your desired outcome and where you are with your business so I will cover one area since we could be here for hours, days if we tried to cover all of them.
This post will focus on How to Communicate Effectively in your Business as a Business Owner. Most of us are here are the owner of our business.
We want to ensure the success of the business as well as our personal prosperity and quality of life – that’s why we went into business in the first place – right?
There are very specific ways to communicate as the owner of a business, no matter what your title or how large your company. These are some of the universal rules of the business game, so to speak.
First let’s discuss modes of communication. These days there is everything from email and IM to texting and phone calls and each of these has their appropriate place in the communication hierarchy.
Email is fine for day to day correspondence and general memos to staff but should NEVER be used to communicate sensitive issues.
Both the reader of the email as well as the writer of the email super impose their emotions onto the communication with or without intending to. This can give the email a sentiment that was not intended or does not exist.
Email is convenient and quick but is fickle and should be treated as such – fine for the simple things but not for anything important or sensitive.
Sensitive issues should always be dealt with in person or on the phone. This allows you to deliver the intended sentiment to the issues being discussed. It also allows the other party to do the same.
Another thing to consider is WHO ELSE IS READING THE EMAIL CORRESPONSEND.
No one can ever be sure who exactly is included in an email with blind ccs. What would the reaction to the email correspondence be from your staff, business partners etc?
Write all emails as if some else may be reading them. This will save all parties any possible grey area or misrepresentation.
I am not suggesting you become paranoid but as a business owner you need to have a certain level of formality in all your interactions. Depending on the size of your company or your growth aspirations it is important to be the leader your company will need even if you are not there yet.
As the owner you are by default the leader of your organization. All your staff (even if they are remote), business partners, strategic parterns, investors etc will follow YOUR lead
I was discussing this topic with a business associate with decades of background with large corporations.
What I learned is that CEO’s have no friends within the company. They have business partners, employees, and working relationships with these people but not friendships. There is a level of formality and professionalism in all their corresponds and interactions. It was also interesting to learn there are basically two types of women in business(in her experience):
- The bully who pushes her way thru and intimidates others into giving her what she wants. This mode of communicating will get you what you want in the short run but will be detrimental to your success in the long run.
- The woman who at all times acts with integrity in EVERY interaction and is exceptional at maintaining a friendly but formal relationship with all in business.
Since I believe we all want to fall into the second category let’s focus on how to integrate this into your business.
It is easy to act with integrity when things are running smooth. What about when something drastic happens, there is an internal mishap/issue that requires a very public response from YOU. This is when everything we have discussed previously comes into play.
To ensure your acting in the best interest of your company as well as communicating with integrity be sure to:
- Decide in advance how you want to handle any difficult situation be it with staff, customers, clients, business partners, etc.
- Vent to a safe person about the situation – your personal safe people who already have in place to support you. Vent until you feel all the negativity has left you. This will allow you to…
- Act instead of REACT. When we ACT we are in charge of our actions. When we react – the person or situation we are reacting to is in charge much like a puppet master.
- Work with an inner circle team (think inner cabinet) on your position and statement to be sure you are presenting the response of a respected leader who acts with integrity at all times.
- Do NOT communicate emotion – do not take things personal, there shouldn’t be any positive or negative emotional baggage in your communication. This helps from a small situation from becoming a hissing cat fight. We are not high school girls hanging out, we are business owners, leaders of our teams and we need to act the part.
Communicating effectively in your business as the owner of the company is one of the steps to brining your company to your ultimate success.
It is a learning process to act with integrity in all your correspondence and it takes time to feel like the leader you already are as the owner of your company.