Business communication.
There are a lot of mistakes to be made, but just a few keys to success when you are thinking
about how to communicate clearly inside and outside your organization.
Hi, I'm Jenny Rae Le Roux, the Managing Director of Management Consulted.
And we’re a group of ex-MBB consultants, McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, who focus on training
organizations and universities on how to develop professionals that are going to be successful
in consulting and beyond.
Our focus today is on business communication.
And what I want to do is I want to walk through three forms of business communication, and
then I want to talk about a few highlights of what makes business communication successful.
Form number one.
Business communication is emails.
I want to talk a little bit about this because there is the version of email that has become
a lot less professional over time.
It used to be that emails were really like letters.
There were headers, and detailed information, and guidances.
It was literally just writing a whole bunch of different stuff.
And with the emergence of things like Slack channels, and text messaging as a popular
form of communication, we are seeing emails used in different ways today.
First of all, an email always needs to have a takeaway at the beginning.
Why you’re writing the email and what the purpose is of what you’re writing.
If there is data that you need to support it, you need to bullet that data.
Make sure that it’s not the kind of email that somebody opens and thinks I’ll never
read this.
You need to bold specific information in order to highlight what action item someone needs
to do, and you need to ask people on the email for one thing, and one thing only.
I’m guilty of not doing this well, and so are other people.
But overall, if you can get this 80% right, or 90% right, you’re going to find that
the emails that you do write actually drive action, which is the whole point in investing
in them in the first place.
Second of all, you’ve got meetings.
What’s the biggest problem with meetings?
It’s when people show up expecting to figure out in the meeting what they’re going to
do in the meeting.
Meetings need to have clear agendas beforehand, and clear takeaways.
We recommend starting every meeting with next steps.
Here are the things that we want to cover after the meeting, and we want to be prepared
to do.
Then begin with what your assertion is.
This is what we think, this is where we are, this is what we see happening.
And then focus on the process that you either need approval, or input, or an update on.
If you are able to do that, you’re using the pyramid principle method of communication,
and you’re driving shorter, more effective meetings where you can get more done.
Finally, the third form of communication is discussion, or interpersonal when you are
having conversation with folks that are inside your organization.
It’s imperative that when you’re having conversation, just verbal, without any guidance,
like a meeting, no agenda or no presentation, you’re still guided by one key principle,
and that is structure.
Structure means that you are asking questions that have a purpose, that you are engaging
in a way that has a limited quantity of time to it so that you are able to keep your interactions
brief and more enjoyable.
And finally, that you are working with somebody to take their cues to figure out when the
conversation needs to end.
Interpersonal communication is a huge topic of study, and it’s something that is really
essential that folks need to know.
But ultimately, if you get these three types of communication right, clear, direct emails
with a specific singular action, great meeting agendas to drive shorter, more focused, more
action-oriented meetings, and business communication where you’re giving and taking in interactions
where you’re able to get exactly what you want and need, either information, or contact,
or relationship out of it, you’re going to find that business communication will be
more effective for you.
If you’re interested in corporate training on business communication, we would love to
come in and speak with your organization.
If you have specific issues or insights that you would like to hear more about, please
make sure that you write us.
Subscribe to our channel or get on our mailing list.
We’d love to share a lot of the insights and topics that we’ve got with you there.
Thanks for watching.