Expert Speak: Mr. Anand Pillai

Effective communication strategies which SMEs can adopt

Employees spend majority of their time at their work place and in interpersonal communication. Thus it is no surprise to find that most conflicts arise because people cannot sustain effective communication. Cultivating the art of effective communication and listening helps to build bridges and enhance relationships.

Given below are 5 essential cornerstones for ascertaining effective communication at workplace which every enterprise (small or big) should achieve:

1. Trust and transparency

In today’s virtual world and knowledge economy-Secrecy is bad strategy. I believe that the time has come to now stretch this beautiful muslin of transparency and trust over our organizations too. Managers’ needs to be transparent in their operations and openly communicate to the employees about the organization’s policy/ vision, challenges and strength. This will build trust among the employees (especially the increasing influx of Gen Y) turning everyone into business partners where they meaningfully contribute to the success of the organization through their innovation, creativity and commitment to deliver.

2. Etiquette

While effective communication needs to adhere to the principles of social etiquette (meaning it has to be polite) it cannot just restrict itself to this aspect and incorporates many more attributes. In my view for communication to be effective it has to inspire action and if possible change. And this is one common concern that business managers and leaders often mull about. A frequently heard complaint from most managers today is that while they work hard to create messages, most of these messages do not translate into action or positive thinking for the employees who it was intended for. I firmly believe that the problem lies in the message delivery. The message cannot be or rather should not be delivered in such a fashion that it comes across as an order. Instead recipients should feel that the message communicated to them is in their best interest and accommodates their well being, and growth and development.

In other words effective organizational communication should at one important level help in eradicating self deprecating behaviors and aid the development of new behaviors. And for this effective communication to happen managers have to become better teachers in terms of what to do and how to go about doing the same. Very often leaders think that because they are telling people what they want them to do; people are turning around and doing it. This is a profound fallacy. We need to realize that teaching, not telling, is a communication skill at which all leaders need to become effective—because the more you teach, the more people will learn and the more successful they will be.

3. Empathy

Another strategy for effective communication is effective or attentive listening and empathy. The communicator needs to be tuned to the sensitivities of his audience/message recipient and take into account his/her points of view. Most importantly the communicator should always have a clear goal in his/her mind that needs to be achieved from the communication.

4. Credibility

Credibility is yet another pertinent hallmark of effective organizational communication. In other words ascertaining the accuracy of the communication is of pivotal importance. This is especially critical as faulty or incorrect communication can lead to a lot of chaos and confusion.

5. Implementation

Often the message is not communicated by the leaders clearly or they hesitate to share complete information with the employees. Doing this the leaders in the organization discourages to promote an organizational culture which promotes open and clear communication, and this results can have negative repercussions on the work culture and the employee productivity.

So, an organization to leverage and unleash its people’s potential today should create and fosters a work culture wherein problems, plans, issues, opinions, thoughts and ideas pertaining to work, are discussed and handled in a professional, transparent, proficient manner through positive, effective communication.

All this about effective communication may sound like common sense but “common sense is not common practice. Let us be painfully be aware of what George Bernard Shaw said "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

The author of the article is Mr. Anand Pillai, Sr. Vice President and Global Head, Talent Transformation, Intrapreneurship Development & EFCS Transformation Initiatives, HCL Technologies Ltd.