June 17, 2013 [ ]

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Acknowledgement

We are thankful to Allah who has given us power of getting the knowledge and guide us in every

step of life. We also feel proud on our parent’s prayers and their efforts. We are getting

admission for education in Pakistan’s reputed institute, i.e.UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL

PUNJAB. So we are very much thankful to this institute and our coordinator program.

A special thanks to parents who guide us with full devotion in getting extraordinary knowledge

of our subject.

At last we are thankful to OUR CLASS FELLOWS, who give us supporting and learning

environment.

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Dedication

We dedicate our project too

ALLAH

Who has created us as the crown of creation and enable us to learn.

OUR PARENTS

Who always appreciate us at every step, to our teachers at all stages of study specially;

Ma’am Sammia Jamshed

Who always guided us in the right direction and developed our personality as a useful citizen in

the society and beyond them, to all of our friends from whom we learned much and complete of

our tasks.

And finally, our class fellows we are really thankful to our class fellows who always give us

their favors and motivate us in the right direction. It was a great fortune for us to study with so

competent students. What we learn in this whole program they contribute as much as our

teachers.

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Table of content

1) Introduction 052) Communications Planning 06

Getting the right messages across in the right way 06 Understand Your Objectives 07 Understand Your Audiences 07 Plan Communications Messages and Channels 07

3) The Communication Cycle 09 Clarify Your Aim 10 Compose/Encode 10 Transmit/Deliver 10 Receive Feedback 11 Analyze/Decode/Learn 11 Change/Improve 12

4) The 7 Cs of Communication 125) Making a Great First Impress ion! 14

Be on Time 14 Be Yourself, Be at Ease 15 Be Open and Confident 16 Sma ll Talk Goes A Long Wa y 16 Be Positive 16 Be Courteous And Attentive 17 Key Points 17

6) Giving Feedback 19

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Communication Skills and Training

Introduction

Everyone uses interpersonal communication skills. we use them at home with our families, in the workplace with our bosses and coworkers, on our computers when we answer email, and on the telephone when we order pizza. This report is intended to help you improve your interpersonal communication skills and develop new skills to become a more effective communicator.

Interpersonal communication applies to all of our relationships, personal and business. Others respect or reject us based on our interpersonal communication skills. People send us messages in every interpersonal communication encounter.

Those messages can be explicit (verbal comments) or implicit (nonverbal facial expressions, other body language, and physical space).

The first step in communication is using the appropriate method. In the work place there is likelyto be a variety of tools available and you will need to decide whether a situation calls for an email, a phone call or a face to face conversation.

In particular, when you are in a new job role, you can gain benefits from making first approaches with new colleagues by going to see them, or by telephoning customers or clients introducing yourself rather than using email. Both face to

face conversations and telephone calls allow you to have two-way conversation and give you an opportunity to get your personality across, which is far harder via email. Conversely email is great if you are trying to organise a meeting or to summarise the action points from a meeting as it is more time effective than telephoning everyone individually.

Ascertaining the appropriate tone to use in any given situation is the second step to success. This applies when either written or verbal communication is called upon. To be able to do this, you need to understand who your audience is. A formal tone is more appropriate when addressing a new or recently acquired customer than if you were to address your colleagues in a team meeting.

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Communication should never be a one-way process. When we talk about ‘actively listening’, it means ensuring you are engaged with others in order to understand what they are saying. Asking questions and summarising the main points of the conversation is a good way of checking your understanding of what has been discussed and demonstrates that you have been listening to what the other person has been saying. Visibly showing your interest in what others are saying helps to build rapport and can also be achieved through positive body language like appropriately maintaining eye contact, smiling and nodding.

Communications Planning

Getting the right messages across in the right way

Whether you need to communicate general day-today information or “big news” about major changes in your organization, the best communications start with some good planning.

The first step is to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. What do they need to know, and want to hear? What’s their preferred way of receiving information? What will stop them listening to what you have to say? And how will you know that they have got the message?

So there’s quite a bit more to good communications than preparing a good memo or presentation! This tool will help you through the preparation steps and so help you create an audience-focused communication plan that’s sure to get your message heard.

Use the following steps to create a good communication plan for your company or project.

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Understand Your Objectives

1. Be clear about your overall communication objectives. What do you want to achieve, when and why? Record your overall objectives in your plan.

Understand Your Audiences

2. Now identify and list your different audiences. Try to identify who to communicate with and why.

3. Now drill down into your communication objectives and clarify specific objectives for each audience. A good way to do this is to think about the audience’s needs – what do they need and want to know from you? List all the objectives (there may be several) for each audience in your plan.

Plan Communications Messages and Channels

Once you have clarified your objectives and got a full understanding of the different audiences you need to communicate with, it’s time to plan the communications – that means working out the messages needed to meet your objectives and when and how these will be delivered.

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4. Before starting on the detail of your plan, first jot down all the possible communications channels you could use. Think broadly and creatively! You probably already use lots of great ways to communicate in your company, and some new ones may help get your message across. Here is a list to get you started:

Email Newsletter Teleconference Notice boards CEO briefing Posters Lunchtime meeting Intranet article Launch event Team meeting Podcast on intranet

5. To plan out the message for each audience, start by thinking about the broadest audience groups first. In our example, the broadest audience might be “All people working in New Jersey Office” and “All people working in Sydney Office”.

As you consider each audience in turn, ask the following questions:

What does the audience need and want to know? When do we need to communicate? What is the regular or preferred channel for reaching this audience? For this specific audience and message, what is the most effective way to get

your message across?

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6. It’s good to get feedback on the communications you have planned and implemented. Ask people from different audiences how you are doing. Check they understand the messages you need them to hear. By getting timely feedback, you can tune any future communications that you have planned to better meet people’s needs or fill any gaps so far.

The Communication Cycle

Do you ever get lost while organizing your message, or struggle to identify what your audience truly needs to know? There are so many factors to consider during preparation and presentation that it’s easy to forget an important point.

The Communication Cycle is a six-step processthat helps you develop and refine your message. It helps you ensure that you don’t forget anything essential the first time you present it, and it helps you maximize its impact in the times that follow.

By putting the process into the form of a cycle, this approach encourages you to use the feedback you receive to improve your communications in the future.

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1: Clarify Your Aim

Organize your thoughts about the message that you want to communicate by answering these questions:

To whom am I communicating? What message am I trying to send, and what am I trying to achieve with it? Why do I want to send this message? Do I need to send it at all? What do I want my audience to feel? What does my audience need or desire from this message? What do I want my audience to do with this information?

2: Compose/Encode

Now that you’ve organized your thoughts with the questions in Step 1, start crafting your message.

Think about:

What is the best way to communicate thismessage? What level/type of language should I use? Does the audience have any background information on my topic? Will my audience need any additional resources to understand my message? Am I expressing emotions in my message? If so, which emotions? Will the audience assume anything about me or my motives that will hurt

communication?

3: Transmit/Deliver

The way that you communicate your message is vital to ensuring that your audience receives it effectively. Ask yourself:

Is this the right time to send this message? What is my audience’s state of mind likely to be, and what workload will

they be experiencing when they receive this message? How should I present my message to take account of this?

Will there be any distractions that may hurt communication? (This is especially

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important to consider when giving a speech or presentation.) Should I include anyone else in the audience?

4: Receive Feedback

This is a key step in the Communication Cycle. Without feedback from your audience, you’ll never know how you can improve the way that you communicate your message.

Make sure that you include some type of feedback process as part of your communication.

Do you know how to read body language, and use it to steer your presentation?

If you’re giving a speech or presentation, will you allow time for a question-and-answer session?

Will you have a process for getting feedback from your audience? When you receive feedback, is it generally what you want and expect?

Remember to use indirect feedback here too. Did you get the response that you wanted from your communication? Is there anything more that you can interpret from the response that you received?

5: Analyze/Decode/Learn

Use the feedback you received in Step 4 to learn and grow. Depending on your situation, you might need to rewrite your message and try again. (One of the benefits of testing your message on a small scale is that you can do this before the big day.)

Why did you receive this feedback? What does this tell you about your message?

What could you have done differently to get the response you wanted? Did the audience feel the way you expected them to feel? If not, why not? How should you act or behave differently to move forward?

6: Change/Improve

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This step completes the cycle. All of the feedback in the world won’t help you unless you commit to learning and changing.

Honor and respect the feedback you’ve received. If you believe it’s valid, change your message or behavior.

Identify resources to help you improve (asking colleagues; doing more testing; or using surveys, classes, books, seminars, and so on).

The 7 Cs of Communication

This is why the 7 Cs of Communication are helpful.

The 7 Cs provide a checklist for making sure that your meetings, emails, conference calls, reports, and presentations are well constructed and clear so your audience gets your message.

According to the 7Cs, communication needs to be:

Clear Concise Concrete Correct Coherent Complete Courteous1. Clear

When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about your goal or message. What is your purpose in communicating with this person? If you’re not sure, then your audience won’t be sure either.

To be clear, try to minimize the number of ideas in each sentence. Make sure that it’s easy for your reader to understand your meaning. People shouldn’t have to “read between the lines” and make assumptions on their own to understand what you’re trying to say.

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2. Concise

When you’re concise in your communication, you stick to the point and keep it brief. Your audience doesn’t want to read six sentences when you could communicate your message in three.

Are there any adjectives or “filler words” that you can delete? You can often eliminate words like “for instance,” “you see,” “definitely,” “kind of,” “literally,” “basically,” or “I mean.”

Are there any unnecessary sentences? Have you repeated the point several times, in different ways?3. Concrete

When your message is concrete, then your audience has a clear picture of what you’re telling them. There are details (but not too many!) and vivid facts, and there’s laserlike focus. Your message is solid.

4. Correct

When your communication is correct, it fits your audience. And correct communication is also error free communication.

Do the technical terms you use fit your audience’s level of education or knowledge?

Have you checked your writing for grammatical errors? Remember, spell checkers won’t catch everything.

Are all names and titles spelled correctly?

5. Coherent

When your communication is coherent, it’s logical.

All points are connected and relevant to the main topic, and the tone and flow of the text is consistent.

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6. Complete

In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed and, if applicable, take action.

Does your message include a “call to action”, so that your audience clearly knows what you want them to do?

Have you included all relevant information- contact names, dates, times, locations, and so on?

7. Courteous

Courteous communication is friendly, open, and honest. There are no hidden insults or passiveaggressive tones. You keep your reader’s viewpoint in mind, and you’re empathetic to their needs.

Making a Great First Impress ion!

It takes just a quick glance, maybe three seconds, for someone to evaluate you when you meet for the first time. In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed.

With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person’s impression of you is formed. These first impression can be nearly impossible to reverse or undo, making those first encounters extremely important, for they set the tone for all the relationships that follows.

So, whether they are in your career or social life, it’s important to know how to create a good first impression. This article provides some useful tips to help you do this.

Be on Time

Someone you are meeting for the first time is not interested in your “good excuse” for running late. Plan to arrive a few minutes early. And allow flexibility for possible delays in traffic or taking a wrong turn. Arriving early is much better that arriving late, hands down, and is the first step in creating a great first impression.

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Be Yourself, Be at Ease

If you are feeling uncomfortable and on edge, this can make the other person ill at ease and that’s a sure way to create the wrong impression. If you are calm and confident, so the other person will feel more at ease, and so have a solid foundation for making that first impression a good one.

Present Yourself Appropriately

Of course physical appearance matters. The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you and your appearance is usually the first clue he or she has to go on.

But it certainly does not mean you need to look like a model to create a strong and positive first impression. (Unless you are interviewing with your local model agency, of course!)

No. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so the “picture” you first present says much about you to the person you are meeting. Is your appearance saying the right things to help create the right first impression?

Start with the way you dress. What is the appropriate dress for the meeting or occasion? In a business setting, what is the appropriate business attire? Suit, blazer, casual? And ask yourself what the person you’ll be meeting is likely to wear – if your contact is in advertising or the music industry, a pinstripe business suit may not strike the right note!

For business and social meetings, appropriate dress also varies between countries and cultures, so it’s something that you should pay particular attention to when in an unfamiliar setting or country. Make sure you know the traditions and norms.

And what about your grooming? Clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for most business and social occasions. A good haircut or shave. Clean and tidy clothes. Neat and tidy make up. Make sure your grooming is appropriate and helps make you feel “the part”.

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Appropriate dressing and grooming help make a good first impression and also help you feel “the part”, and so feel more calm and confident. Add all of this up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression.

Be Open and Confident

When it comes to making the first impression, body language as well as appearance speaks much louder than words.

Use your body language to project appropriate confidence and self-assurance. Stand tall, smile (of course), make eye contact, greet with a firm handshake. All of this will help you project confidence and encourage both you and the other person to feel better at ease.

Almost everyone gets a little nervous when meeting someone for the first time, which can lead to nervous habits or sweaty palms. By being aware of your nervous habits, you can try to keep them in check. And controlling a nervous jitter or a nervous laugh will give you confidence and help the other person feel at ease.

Sma ll Talk Goes A Long Wa y…

Conversations are based on verbal give and take. It may help you to prepare questions you have for the person you are meeting for the first time beforehand.

Or, take a few minutes to learn something about the person you meet for the first time before you get together. For instance, does he play golf? Does she work with a local charitable foundation?

Is there anything that you know of that you have in common with the person you are meeting? If so, this can be a great way to open the conversation and to keep it flowing.

Be Positive

Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile.

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Be Courteous And Attentive

It goes without saying that good manners and polite, attentive and courteous behavior help make a good first impression. In fact, anything less can ruin the one chance you have at making that first impression. So be on your best behavior!

One modern manner worth mentioning is “turn off your mobile phone”. What first impression will you create if you are already speaking to someone other than the person you are meeting for the first time? Your new acquaintance deserves 100% of your attention. Anything less and you’ll create a less than good first impression.

Key Points

You have just a few seconds to make a good first impression and it’s almost impossible ever to change it. So it’s worth giving each new encounter your best shot. Much of what you need to do to make a good impression is common sense. But with a little extra thought and preparation, you can hone your intuitive style and make every first impression not just good but great.

Another way of thinking about finding the ‘right’ level of detail is to borrow some terminology commonly used in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP): here the terms ‘chunking up’ and ‘chunking down’ are used to describe the process of moving between levels of detail:

Chunking Up

moving from something specific and becoming more general

Chunking Downmoving from something general and becoming more specific

The idea is that any issue can be seen in larger or smaller chunks. When you move from a narrow perspective through to a broader one, and then back down again, different opportunities present themselves. Chunking, in this context, enables you to work through a discussion of issues and problems by reorganizing (rechunking) the information.

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Finding the right level of detail means moving between the levels in a structured and logical way.

In a conversation, you can do this in direct response the other person’s need, depending on what they say or ask during the conversation.

Applications of chunking to find the right level of detail include:

Negotiation and Problem Solving

chunking up to a general level to find common ground with the other person, and then chunking back down to find a solution.

Creative Thinking

chunking up helps you break out of routine thinking to identify alternatives, then you can chunk back down to find specific solutions you may not have thought about before.

Improving Motivation

if the other person seems bored or uninspired you can chunk up to find an area of common interest or a common goal. Once you identify the big picture, it is often easier for people to see how their efforts can influence events, and how they can contribute even more.

Overcoming stress

When someone is overwhelmed, it is often because the task at hand seems too large. By chunking down, you break the job into manageable bites. If people are overwhelmed by details, do the opposite and chunk up in order to help them see what they are trying to accomplish.

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Giving Feedback

Employees and managers the world over dread this ritual and therein lays the main problem: We have institutionalized the giving and receiving of feedback. We save up our comments and document all the things we note about a person’s performance.

And then, like a big cat ready to pounce, the manager brings a hapless employee into the office and springs a year’s worth of “constructive criticism” onto him or her.

No doubt the process is seen as unnerving and fear provoking. And this is exactly the wrong emotional environment in which to discuss performance, introduce suggestions for improvement, and talk about goals for the future. This is a shame, because giving and receiving feedback is some of the most important communication you can engage in with members of your team.

When done in the right way and with the right intentions, feedback communication is the avenue to performance greatness. Employees have to know what they are doing well and not so well. For them to really hear your thoughts and suggestions on ways to improve, though, that feedback has to be delivered carefully and frequently.

Giving feedback effectively is a skill. And like all skills, it takes practice to build your confidence and improve. The following is a collection of “feedback giving” tips that you can start putting into practice today.

Giving Feedback Effectively

Before giving feedback make sure you remind yourself why you are doing it. The purpose for giving feedback is to improve the situation or performance. You won’t accomplish that by being harsh, critical, or offensive.

That’s not to say you must always be positive. There is a role for negativity and even anger if someone isn’t paying sufficient attention to what you’re saying. However this should be used sparingly. You’ll most often get much more from people when your approach is positive and focused on improvement.

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Be Timely

The closer to the event you address the issue, the better. Feedback isn’t about surprising someone so the sooner you do it, the more the person will be expecting it.

Think of it this way: It’s much easier to feed back about a single one-hour job that hasn’t been done properly than it is to feed back about a whole year of failed one-hour jobs.

Feedback is a process that requires constant attention. When something needs to be said, say it. People then know where they stand all the time and there are few surprises. Also, problems don’t get out of hand. This is not a once-a-year or a once-every three-month event. While this may be the timing of formal feedback, informal, simple feedback should be given much more often than this – perhaps every week or even every day, depending on the situation.

With frequent informal feedback like this, nothing said during formal feedback sessions should be unexpected, surprising or particularly difficult.

Prepare Your Comments

You don’t want to read a script but you do need to be clear about you are going to say. This helps you stay on track and stick to the issues.

Be Specific

Tell the person exactly what they need to improve on. This ensures that you stick to facts and there is less room for ambiguity. If you tell someone they acted unprofessionally, what does that mean exactly? Were they too loud, too friendly, too casual, too flip or too poorly dressed?

Remember to stick to what you know first hand: You’ll quickly find yourself on shaky ground if you start giving feedback based on other people’s views.

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Criticize in Private

While public recognition is appreciated, public scrutiny is not.

Establish a safe place to talk where you won’t be interrupted or overheard.

Use “I” Statements Give the feedback from your perspective. This way you avoid labeling the person.

Say, “I was angry and hurt when you criticized my report in front of my boss” rather than “You were insensitive yesterday.”

Limit Your Focus

A feedback session should discuss no more than two issues. Any more than that and you risk the person feeling attacked and demoralized.

You should also stick to behaviors the person can actually change or influence.

Talk about Positives Too

A good rule is start off with something positive. This helps put the person at ease. It also lets them “see” what success looks like and this helps them to take the right steps next time.

As long as it’s not forced, it can also help to give positive feedback at the end of a feedback session too. Otherwise, people can finish feeling despondent and worthless.

Provide Specific Suggestions

Make sure you both know what needs to be done to improve the situation. The main message should be that you care and want to help the person grow and develop. Set goals and make plans to monitor and evaluate progress. Use the SMART acronym and define specific steps and milestones, or the GROW model to motivate people to deliver the change you want.

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Follow Up

The whole purpose of feedback is to improve performance. You need to measure whether or not that is happening and then make adjustments as you go. Be sure to document your conversations and discuss what is working and what needs to be modified.

Key Points

Feedback is a two way street. You need to know how to give it effectively and at the same time model how to receive it constructively.

When you make a conscious choice to give and receive feedback on a regular basis you demonstrate that feedback is a powerful means of personal development. Done properly, feedback need not be agonizing, demoralizing, or daunting and the more practice you get the better you will become at it. It may never be your favorite means of communicating with employees, co-workers, or bosses but it does have the potential to make your workplace a much more productive and harmonious place to be.

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