listening skills

Communication Tips – Listening Skills 2

An effective listener must direct and guide many discussions including performance management, dealing with customers, interviewing job applicants, among others. One aspect of better listening is learning how to gather information via smarter questions. This is the second on major aspects of listening skills. See also http://shrinsight.com/communication-tips-listening-skills/

Requests for Information

A major type of questions are requests for information. The six common types are:

the invitation to talk
open-ended questions
fact-seeking questions
comprehensive questions
probing for specifics
encouragers

An invitation to talk is a statement rather than a direct question but it invites the person to talk about a given subject. For example: ” I’d like to hear about the goals you have for this year”. Invitations to talk feature:

It focuses attention on a specific topic but gives a wide range of options to the person responding.
Its use keeps your views from influencing the response you will receive or tipping your hand about what you want to hear.

Interspersed with direct questions, it can keep a discussion or interview more comfortable and less like an interrogation.

Open-ended questions are good ways to start a flow of information because they call for an extended answer and cannot be answered “yes” or “no”. They give people room to respond and communicate that you are interested in the response.

For example: “Do you like your job?” can be answered yes or no and is closed-ended. Rephrased as “What do you like most and least about your job?”, it communicates that you really want to know details and their ideas.

Fact-seeking questions are designed to elicit very specific or factual information. They are questions with a narrow, more precise focus. Here are some examples:

What did you do to resolve the customer’s complaint?
How do you want our current policy changed?
What training have […]

By |February 8th, 2016|Communications|Comments Off on Communication Tips – Listening Skills 2

Managing Performance 5: Communication Tips

Communications are a critical aspect of every manager’s role. Successful growth and many performance management processes involve feedback situations. The need is for timely, objective and specific feedback to reinforce good performance and to correct problems before they become bad habits. These discussions require specific skills including good communications, active listening, coaching and counseling.

The Supervisor as Communicator

Communicating is a basic function underlying most of your management activities. You have four primary audiences: higher management – if you are not the founder, your peers, your staff, and those outside the organization.

Higher management should be informed of:

problems or difficulties in achieving your goals
suggestions for improving operations in your unit
praiseworthy performance of your staff

Your peers need to know things which help coordination or impact their work:

problems or difficulties which hinder their effectiveness
progress or data which assists their planning
suggestions for resolving common problems

Your staff must know your expectations and objectives:

role of the work unit and how it fits into larger picture
goals and objectives of the unit
work unit performance – achievements and issues
feedback on personal performance

Persons outside the company may also need to be communicated with to:

explain the contribution of your work unit to their needs
describe company actions, policies, or plans
respond to questions or criticisms

As a manager, a prime function is to get things done through people. Your ideas become effective only as they are communicated to others and thus achieve the desired actions. Employees’ ideas and suggestions are also vital to your success as an organization. Thus your communications need to be designed to encourage understanding and willingness to contribute. You communicate with words, attitudes, and actions. How well you manage depends on how well you communicate in that broad sense.

“Top Ten” Communications Tips

10. Clarify your ideas before […]

By |August 12th, 2015|Communications|Comments Off on Managing Performance 5: Communication Tips