...is to study the keys for effective presenting and listening which are two crucial skills a manager must sharpen. Along with this, it identifies the relevance and importance of these two skills for my profession and develops an action plan to improve these twin skills within myself. This assignment is prepared as a requirement of the course Business Communication (MBA 503), Master of Business Administration 2013 program of Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura. 2. Manager’s Skills and Role within an Organization Managing an organization has four main aspects which are namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Each manager has to learn and keep their work in accordance with the main aspects. To manage the organization a manager must have three main skill areas as follows; • Conceptual skills • Human skills • Technical skills The skill level differs depending on the level of hierarchy that manager is positioned. As the manager moves up on the hierarchy, conceptual skills get prominent and at the lower levels of the hierarchy, technical skills get prominent. Human skills remain the same at each hierarchical level revealing that it is equally important to all levels of managers. Effective presenting and listening are two skills that come under human skills and are key skills that all managers every level must sharpen. 3. Effective Presenting It is a requirement for every manager to present during their day...
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...INTRODUCTION In order for any business organization to thrive, whether large or small, effective communication is very essential. So the success of a business organization is greatly dependent on how effectively the members of that organization communicate. Whatever position one stands for in an organization, communication skills are required extensively. Among many other tasks of a manager in an organization includes ensuring order and understanding between the employees. And this is only possible by practicing effective communication. So, as a Manager of a company like Urembo ltd Company I would take the following steps in order to achieve my goal. Enforce good listening skills Good listening skills are attributed to a successful communicator. Listening to people shows interest and increases the chances of understanding between the communicators. Communication is not a one way thing, so you talk but you listen as well. For example, listening to customers and their complaints enables an individual to solve problems and avoid un pleasantries and the same applies to managers who listen to lower level individuals as they could gain knowledge from them and acquire new ideas that would help the organization to grow and develop. So I would enforce my employees to be good listeners to the customers, themselves and to their senior staff. I would also work on my own listening skills as well because communication doesn’t just work on one side, it works both ways. Ensure strong...
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...EFFECTIVE LISTENING AND PRESENTING: ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR A MANAGER TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Listening 2 2.1 Listening as a Communication Skill 2 2.2 Why are Managers Inherently Poor Listeners? 2 2.3 Key Factors to Effective Listening 3 3 Presenting 7 3.1 Presentation as a Communication Skill 7 3.2 Why are Effective Presentation Skills Important? 8 3.3 Key Factors to Effective Presenting 9 4 Action Plan for the Next Three Months 13 5 Conclusion 15 6 List of References 16 INTRODUCTION Communication is at the heart of everything done by a manager. Thus, effective communication is considered as a major challenge and a responsibility. A majority of a manager’s day is spent on communicating with the subordinates. As stated by Daft, Kendrick, and Vershinina (2010), “Managers spend at least 80% of every working day in direct communication with others. In other words, 48 minutes of every hour is spent in meetings, on the telephone, communicating online or talking informally while working around. The other 20% of a typical manager's time is spent doing desk work”. The need for effective communication has been further increased due to the turbulent nature of the today’s business environment. Therefore, having effective communication skills is arguably one of the vital attributes that a manger has to possess, throughout planning, organizing, leading, directing and controlling processes. Basically, the manager should act...
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...Effective Communication One basic responsibility of a leader is the development, adjustment, and orientation of his or her subordinates. The leader should strive to develop subordinate potential, delegate responsibility, and achieve cooperation. To do so he or she must have, among other abilities, the ability to communicate effectively. Communication plays a major role in employer-employee relationships. Although effective communication does not guarantee success, its absence usually assures problems. Communication also affects the willingness of employees to provide useful suggestions. The effective communicator uses speaking skills and guidelines to control the course of a conversation and achieve his or her desired outcome. Every interaction has an opening, middle and a close. The success of the interaction depends upon how well the communicator masters the skills and guidelines for each. At the opening of a conversation the objective is to get the conversation moving in the direction of the desired outcome. The communicator must ensure that they have the other person’s attention, communicating readiness through nonverbal signals such as direct eye contact or assertive posture. The communicator communicates why they are there in a way that establishes authority, and begin to move the conversation toward the desired outcome. In the middle of the conversation the objective is to keep it on track and moving toward the desired outcome while making sure...
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...concepts of management and leadership including questioning and dissecting the similarities, differences, and the many attempts of both displayed in the public eye. As a group of graduate students in SM 517, we have considered the good with the bad ranging from the well trained, self-sacrificing leader to the selfish, untrustworthy, and undertrained manager. We began with understanding the Applied Behavioral Science Approach in overall management and concluded with Synthesizing Management Theories. In all, SM 517 has provided an extensive educational approach to understanding management and overall leadership as a student (Hersey, Blanchard, & Johnson, 2008). The approach to gaining and expanding on knowledge in this area was to use resources such as Hersey, Blanchard, and Johnson’s (2008) text “Management of Organizational Behavior”. As a group of graduate students and aspiring leaders being led by Professor Malcom Beckett, we also used added resources that included current event articles, lectures, class discussions, and case studies to guide us in examining different forms of management and leadership styles and concepts. Most importantly, our approach allowed the students of SM 517 to look at ourselves and begin to determine the type of leaders and managers we currently are, as well as the ones we aim to be. In my decision to write this paper as a final project, I wanted to go beyond looking at the effects of SM 517 on the class as a whole. I decided to examine specifically...
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...hallmark of the effective manager. “Research spanning several decades has consistently ranked communication skills as crucial for managers. Typically, managers spend 75 to 80 percent of their time engaged in some form of written or oral communication.” (Blaylock, Marty) There are several parts to the communications process. To paraphrase the basic model a message is encoded by the sender, and then transmitted to a receiver who then decodes the message. After decoding the receiver provides feedback. This process is known a two communications. For the manager two important skills to ensure effective two way communication are listening and asking questions. Listening is how we receive the message during oral communication. If we do not listen well we risk missing the correct message. “When we listen it is important to listen well. Listening is not a passive activity.” (Thorogood Publishing Ltd., 1999) The mark of a good manager is one who sincerely shows interest in what others are telling him. “In the orai/interpersonal area, business professionals rated the listening competency higher than business faculty rated them” (Waner, Karen K.) In that survey of Business professionals rated listening first while business faculty rated listening as second. Listening is important because it ensures the correct receipt of the message, but there other reasons for good listening. Good listening boosts confidence of the subordinates, peers, and supervisors of the manager. When employees...
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...Communication Or Lack There Of: Between Two Educational Organizations MGMT 591 April 15,2014 Communication Or Lack There Of 1 Communication or Lack Thereof: Between Two Educational Organizations I. Introduction: In 1973, Dr. Robert Wolfe started a program where students can be a part of a workplace-learning program. This is where students will receive classroom instruction, be placed at a job site out into the community where they will receive occupational skills by professionals in the field. Merced County Office of Education serves the needs of more than 70,000 PreK-12 students and prepares them to be career and college ready. The mission of Merced County Office of Education, as the educational leader of the Central Valley and trusted community partner, is to transform education and inspire personal, social, and academic achievement of students through collaborative partnerships, accountable leader-ship and innovative, high quality programs and services. (Quevedo 2013, p.20) Holly Newlon is the Assistant Superintendent for the Department of Career and Alternative Education. The Career and Alternative Education (CAE) Department provides a wide range of quality programs and exemplary services to our districts in the areas of Career Education, Career Technical Education Programs, Alternative Education Programs, Charter School Options and Outdoor Education. Merced County ROP serves all comprehensive, continuation, and community high schools in Merced...
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...Benefits of Effective Listening Benefits of Effective Listening Maryann Rieger Brandman University COMU-410 April 21, 2012 Benefits of Effective Listening Effective listening is one of the most important parts in communication. As noted by Elizabeth Rice (1998), “[Listening] involves caring, hearing, interpreting, evaluating, and responding to oral messages to gain a shared understanding” (Rice, 1998) There is always something to be learned when listening. As listeners, we cannot have an "I know everything" attitude. There is always a different opinion, or a new piece of information that can come to light. Listening is never a waste of time. We must pay attention and be active and total listeners when communicating with our peers, supervisors, employees and customers It is important to understand both how we listen as well as who is communicating to us in order to become more effective listeners. Listening Types There are many listening types and we need to understand how we are listening in order to improve and become more effective listeners. We need to be engaged when we listen to hear and understand what is being said. We need to listen to verbal and non-verbal communication to get the full effect of what is being communicated to us. Common listening types are active, inactive, total and partial. Of these, active and total are the most successful. Active listening “Listening in a way that demonstrates interest and encourages continued speaking....
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...direct reports. People can managing their bosses for very good reasons: to get resources to do the best job, not only for their-selves but also for their bosses and their companies as well. Effective managers take time and effort to manage not only relationship with subordinates but also those with their bosses. This essential aspect of management is sometimes ignored by otherwise talented and aggressive managers. And there are some managers who actively and effectively supervise subordinates, markets, etc assume an almost passively reactive stance when they meet their bosses. With this mutual dependence, effective managers seek out information about boss’s concerns and are sensitive to his work style. Whether see the boss as the enemy or viewing the boss as an all-wise parent. Summary The book is divided into four big parts. First part is Misreading The Boss-Subordinate Relationship. This part provide about how two people can on occasional be psychological or temperamentally incapable of working together, where a personality conflict sometimes only a very small part of the problems. Sometimes people did not realize that their relation with their subordinates involved mutual dependence between two unperfected human being. Some people behave base on their thought, that their bosses were not really rely on them. And some people behave as they not really rely on their bosses. To manage situation like this we need a good understanding of the other person and ourselves, and...
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...1. Introduction In the today’s fast moving and dynamic information age, Managers in organizations have a unique role to play with multiple and continuously evolving responsibilities. Managers must instill a high-performance mindset while creating a culture whose foundation promotes teamwork. In this context among many other important things communication skills of a manager has become increasingly more important than ever. Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School states that “Communication is the real work of leadership” To be a good communicator and an effective manager, a manager must sharpen his listening and presentation skills. By doing so will help the manager reach his goals and the company goals. Manager must realize and accept that clear communication is always a two-way process. It’s not enough to speak clearly; you have to make sure you’re being heard and understood. To facilitate this, use the following two-way communication primer. This document explains the importance of effective listing and presenting for a manager. Also the author sets an action plan to for improving his listening and presenting skills 2. Listening According to Daft (2012), Managers perform a wide variety of activities that fall within four primary management functions. One of the most important tools of manager communication is listening, both to employees and customer. Most managers should now recognize that important information flows from bottom up, not top down. Listening...
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...EFFECTIVE LISTENING IN THE WORKPLACE Jeff Bernier Abstract “Listening is perhaps the most critical element in language and language learning, for it is the key to speaking, and beyond that, reading and writing. At all levels --- from entry level to managerial --- listening is perceived as crucial for communication. Yet listening remains one of the least understood processes in language learning” (Allene Grognet and Carol Van Duzer, 2002, p. 1). The ability to listen to employees and colleagues is an essential skill for developing a productive environment. By improving listening skills, supervisors and employees can create a “listening environment” within their own organization. This study examines the relationship between University of Southern Maine (USM) personal that feel they have effective listening skills and USM personal that had training in effective listening skills. The subjects were 182 USM employees surveyed to determine effective listening in the workplace. Each USM employee surveyed identified themselves as either an “employee” or “supervisor”, the number of years employed and answered either “yes” or “no” to ten various questions on effective listening in the workplace. Results showed strong, positive relationships among the two dependent variables in effective listening in the workplace. Hypothesis USM employees who feel they have effective listening skills as determined by the survey conducted at USM have a positive relationship with USM employees...
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... 1 Listening Audience! Brandon Picone COM425 Kristine Clancy Nov 8, 2014 FINAL PAPER 2 Listening Audience! At the root of effective listening is appreciating the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is merely a physiological process; whereas, listening is an interpretive process (Schnell, Jim 1995).We can always learn something from listening to someone. Humans are special in that way, and as listeners, we cannot have that attitude like we know everything. Someone will always have a difference of opinion, it just matters how you will use the information. Some people may think that listening is a waste of time, but in actuality, listening is never a waste of time. The more we pay attention and push ourselves to be active listeners, the better the communication will be with our peers, leaders, employees and customers. It is very important that we understand both how we listen, as well as who is speaking to us in order to become more efficient listeners. There are many different types of listening skills these days. We have to understand how listening works, in order to improve our listening skills and to be a more effective listener. We must be actively engaged when listening, so that we can understand what is being said. We have to make sure that we listen to verbal and non-verbal communication, in order to get the full spectrum of what is being communicated to us. Here are some common listening types: active...
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...The Art of Effective Listening Definition: Paying close attention to, and making sense of, what we hear (The Art of Public Speaking by Stephen E. Lucas) Listening is an active process of “Receiving”, “Understanding”, “Remembering, “Evaluating”, and “Responding”. Listening is cyclic, responses of one person serves as the stimuli for the other. (The Interpersonal Book by Joseph A. Devito) Difference between hearing and listening: Class Demonstration Importance of Listening: • Nearly all Top notch business executives, successful politicians and brilliant teachers are excellent listener. • Effective listeners hold higher positions and are promoted more often than others. • When business managers rank-order the communication skills most crucial to their jobs, they usually rank listening number one. • In one survey of Fortune 500 companies of America, almost 60 percent of the respondents said that they provide some kind of listening training for their employees. • Close to 90% of class time in colleges and universities is spent listening to discussions and lectures. • A number of studies have shown a strong correlation between listening and academic success. • Students with higher grades are usually those with strongest listening skills. • Listening is also important as speaker, it is probably the way you get most of your ideas and information—from talk shows, lectures, seminars etc. • If you do not listen well...
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...personal or professional, you cannot do without a healthy and effective communication. When it comes to business, communication becomes even more important. This is the pillar on which professional relationships are built. If you want the maximum profits out of your venture, it is essential that you have a healthy rapport with your clients, partners and employees (if any). And how do you build a good rapport? Through effective communication of course! It is said that one of the most important qualities that a businessman must have is communication skills. If you cannot put your message across to the intended audience, you cannot become a successful entrepreneur. Even if you have an independent business where you are not answerable to your boss, you need to have good communication skills in order to churn out the maximum profits from your venture. However, it is not just about talking or writing. True that these are the two biggest means of communication, but an effective one will spill over to wider areas than that. It will include gestures, body language, confidence and most importantly, the ability to pass on relevant information. Good communication also consists of listening skills. A good businessman will have to be a good listener. For instance in a conference or a business meeting, if you don’t listen to what the others have to say, it is unlikely that you will understand the proceedings. If you falter here it will have a direct impact on your speech. You won’t be able to deliver...
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...when they are trying to tell us something. Then when we are asked with a question, we respond with, “I am so sorry but what did you say again?” We tend not to listen completely because we are occupied on coming up with a response. Also even when listening to a music. Our mind tend to wonder and not really paying attention to the words of the song we are listening to. One of my experience in the past in regards to having a hard time listening was when we had a staff meeting at work and I was not able to properly decode information that did not make sense to me. It is because my own attitude of “already know the topic” that I brought to the staff meeting had an effect to my ability to listen to the manager. Since I already knew the topic, I was not that focus to the what the manager was saying and when the time came and the manager asked a question, I was not ready to respond. I was more preoccupied with my own thoughts that I did not focus on the message. Also, since the topic has been discussed many times before I was not paying attention to the speaker because I found him boring already. I thought I knew it all therefore, I was so anxious to jump in to say something instead of concentrating whose turn it was to ask questions. Another listening barrier I have experienced on that same staff meeting was the excessive talking of my peers while the manager was talking. Since they were talking...
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