Barker - Improve Your Communication Skills

• Dealing with Difficult People Roy Lilley

• Decision Making and Problem Solving John Adair

• Develop Your Leadership Skills John Adair

• Develop Your Presentation Skills Theo Theobald

• How to Manage People Michael Armstrong

• How to Manage Projects Paul J Fielding

• How to Organize Yourself John Caunt

• How to Write a Business Plan Brian Finch

• How to Write a Marketing Plan John Westwood

• How to Write Reports and Proposals Patrick Forsyth

• Improve Your Communication Skills Alan Barker

• Successful Time Management Patrick Forsyth

• Taking Minutes of Meetings Joanna Gutmann

The above titles are available from all good bookshops.

For further information on these and other Kogan Page titles, or to order online, visit www.koganpage.com .

Publishers note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2008 by Kogan Page Limited

Fifth edition 2019

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

Alan Barker, 2000, 2006, 2013, 2016, 2019

The right of Alan Barker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBNs

Hardback978 0 7494 9886 3

Paperback978 0 7494 8627 3

Ebook978 0 7494 8628 0

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number

Names: Barker, Alan, 1956- author.

Title: Improve your communication skills : how to build trust, be heard and

communicate with confidence / Alan Barker.

Description: Fifth edition. | London ; New York : Kogan Page, [2019] |

Series: Creating success.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019005155 (print) | LCCN 2019007437 (ebook) | ISBN

9780749486280 (Ebook) | ISBN 9780749486273 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780749498863

(hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: Business communication.

Classification: LCC HF5718 (ebook) | LCC HF5718 .B365 2019 (print) | DDC

651.7dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005155

Typeset by Hong Kong FIVE Workshop

Print production managed by Jellyfish

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

We all need to communicate better at work. A survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), conducted in 2017 in the US, found that miscommunication is delaying projects and contributing to lost sales, as well as increasing stress and destroying morale.

And the problem is affecting our organizations at every level.

If youre a senior manager, you might see the problem as one of leadership. Two-thirds of business leaders surveyed by the Interact consultancy in 2016 said that there is something about their role as a leader that makes them uncomfortable communicating with their employees.

You may be one of those employees. You might be a millennial, born between 1981 and 1999: one of a generation who generally use social media at work far more than their (mainly) older managers. According to Art Markman, Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, millennials wishing to become leaders will need to master the skills of communicating in person: We have a generation, he explains in the EIU report, who is not as practised at engaging in real time with people.

If youre a middle manager, you face a particular challenge. You spend a lot of time shuttling information and ideas between senior and junior execs. As Mr Markman explains, Communication is one of the most significant parts of [a middle managers] job because theyre dealing with the widest variety of people.

And if youre entering the world of work, its worth knowing that communication skills head the list of must-haves in new recruits. In the Graduate Management Admission Councils (GMACs) 2017 Corporate Recruiters Survey, the two top-rated skills that employers look for when hiring are speaking and listening. Third in line is adaptability, the ability to flex communication style. Written skills and presentation skills take the next two places. Interestingly, employers rated managerial skills consistently as least important.

The GMACs survey reflects the fact that every organization is a network of conversations. Our success depends on the way we speak and listen to each other. Most of us know that: 65 per cent of those surveyed in the EIU report rated face-to-face meetings as very effective, but only 22 per cent claimed to have such meetings every day. Globalization, outsourcing and flexible working are making it harder to talk face-to-face. Ever more rigorous auditing forces co-workers sitting at the same desk to exchange emails. We look at screens, some of us, more than we look at each other.

It starts with us. If we can speak and listen more effectively, then our videoconferences, presentations and reports will all improve. More than that, well be able to adapt our own communication styles to the increasingly varied styles our colleagues bring to work.

Thats why, in this new edition, Ive added a questionnaire to help you identify your own preferred style and become a more adaptable communicator. And its why Ive maintained a core focus on the four top-rated skills of corporate communication. Speaking, listening, presenting and writing: master those skills and youll be well placed to win the job you want, manage more efficiently and lead more effectively.

Communicate: its what we humans do. Were not alone, of course: every living thing sends messages in one way or another, to help it navigate its environment or attract others. Movements, sounds, scents even the shape and colour of a flower communicates useful information to the insects or birds that are drawn to it.

But we humans seem to have developed certain kinds of communication to a rare pitch of sophistication. Our command of spoken language is extraordinary; but just as impressive are our abilities to read facial expressions, tone of voice and gestures.

In fact, communicating comes so naturally to most of us that its sometimes hard to see why it goes wrong especially at work. Why should a skill that comes to most of us so effortlessly become such a tortuous process in an organization?