Biz-commPulse

Storytelling is referred to by some experts as the future of internal communication.  Telling stories is not new and has been around for thousands of years. Many psychologists can tell you that something is better remembered if it is linked to a compelling story.  This is just how our brains work. This is why storytelling can be a powerful internal communication tool to engage and inspire employees. Using stories for internal communication messages could evoke a shared sense of identity due to an emotional connection with the stories. Language The Coca-Cola Brand is renowned for its stories. can be used to the business' advantage as it can evoke such emotional connection with other employees and what the business stands for. Businesses therefore now also use stories to share or explain their business culture or goals. The business can, for example, use stories to explain difficult data, facts, and figures.  Stories can also pro...

Integrated communication (IC), if applied correctly in the business, will help you to build long term relationships with your customers. You can somewhat control how customers feel about your business through unified communication and messaging. I still consider Don Schultz as one of the pioneers of the integrated communications concept. Although theorists are still trying to work out a united definition of what integrated communication entails, the majority of literature on the topic indicates that by controlling all communication the brand of the business is enhanced through a consistent brand image, which could eventually result in better sales. Having loyal customers can only benefit the business through repeated sales. Sounds impossible?  Exactly how can integrated communication be achieved?   ·      The top management must first of all understand integrated communication. Integrated communication can only be achieved when it is implemented ...

The fear of speaking in public is very real and many people’s biggest anxiety. Some people stop breathing, start stuttering and sweat excessively when they need to speak in front of other people. A fear of speaking in public has nothing to do with incompetence. Even people in top positions had to overcome the fear to speak in front of a large crowd of people. Some well-known public speakers still feel butterflies just before they step onto the stage, which is quite normal. I know somebody who never applied for promotion because the new position entailed speaking in public. The good news is that fear of speaking in public is only in the mind and has mainly to do with how a person thinks about him or herself when being in that position. The brain is an amazing organ with unimaginable capabilities. Neuro-programming is a powerful self-improvement technique to help you climb the corporate ladder and to adjust your brain into thinking differently. Fear of public speaking can be overco...

Rumours in the business should be managed through proper communication . As a manager you have the added responsibility to look after the communication in the business, that is to make sure that communication is coordinated, early enough, frequent and clear.  Many large businesses have communications employees to deal with the communication aspects for the business, but it ultimately remains the responsibility of the manager.  It is human nature to discuss issue with you colleagues, especially if there is uncertainty about unforeseen changes in the business or problems with employees.  But it is important to stop or prevent rumours early enough before they get out of hand, damage the reputation of the business or the morale of the employees.  What role should the manager play to put an end or prevent rumours in the business? A weekly blog on the Intranet is increasingly being used by managers worldwide to inform employees about goings-on in the business or to...

Ethical communication occurs when it is honest, open, fair and mindful of all employees' rights.  It is not surprising that the management of a business could play a pivotal role to set the example to employees.  They should lead by example, reward ethical behaviour as well as create an awareness of ethics in general. The corporate values of the business are imperative in that they guide the ethical behaviour of employees.  It is important for employees to understand the difference between right and wrong behaviour in the workplace. Business' values are usually related but not limited to human rights, employee development, health and safety, discrimination and respect for others as well as working conditions. How can a manager instill ethical communication practices in the business? By, for example: creating an awareness of the values of the business through continuous communication having ethical roundtable discussions with employees blog postings ...

M any businesses now embark on a social media campaign (often also referred to as social influencing) to reach their target audiences in the thousands of different social media networks. In addition employees are also increasingly using social media for different business reasons.  In fact, a social media strategy has now become almost imperative in today’s business communication milieu. But what makes a good social media strategy? Is it enough to only decide which of the different social media networks to use or may be used by employees? As a social media strategy becomes more imperative, it is perhaps also time to consider the following four Cs when planning the strategy. The four Cs are circumstances, contribution, communication and consequences. These can be explained as follows: Circumstances A good social media strategy should always consider the  circumstances  of the target audience(s) of the business. What are their needs? Who are they? Why are ...

Have you received an invitation, especially on LinkedIn to evaluate one of your peers via the 360 evaluation process?  I recently accepted a colleague's invitation to be peer reviewed in this manner and in this post I want to give my honest impression of this evaluation process. But first how does it work?  It is a web-based peer evaluation system where the reviewer has to drag the 18 most positive attributes of the colleague to another box, then those most likely to be associated with the colleague, and then lastly those least likely to be associated with the colleague.  In addition you have to single out attributes needing attention.  You have to drag 18 attributes for each category and are then left with all attributes not dragged over and thus being forced to associate them with the least likely to be associated with the colleague.  The process seems quite fine until you reach the least likely category.  Even if you do not necessarily agree with...

Branding a company is important for distinguishing it clearly from the competitors through planned communication strategies but it also expands to other functional areas in the company, for example, a   reliable customer service   when dealing with customers’ email, written, personal and telephonic enquiries and basically all instances where customers come into contact with the company. A reliable customer service is also applicable to effective brand administration in that customers can benefit by the whole administration process.  As indicated in previous posts, the role of happy employees in this regard is of utmost important.  The happier the employees, the better the customer service will be. But how should it work?  A   brand communication strategy , as part of an internal communication strategy ,   should include strategies how to offer value to the customer in all areas of service delivery, including administration. When a company has ineffi...

It is true that resonance in leadership makes a difference between merely managing a business and true leadership.  The employees in businesses today differ vastly from before requiring new ways of leading to obtain results, especially because of technological innovations. Source:  Freedigitalphotos.net What is a resonant leader?  A resonant leader also inspires employees not only to find meaning in their own lives but also hope in the future.  It has more to do with the "how" of leadership and not merely the "what".   As communicated in an earlier posting, a good leader always displays emotional intelligence, considers all points of view and thus never react on emotions.  A resonant leader also displays emotional intelligence but is also excellent at inspiring employees to greater achievements through self-actualisation.  This kind of leader is good at communicating the mission and vision of the business to employees making them feel v...

Cultural intelligence refers to behaviour based on the knowledge and skills related to the cultures of employees with whom the manager interacts in the business.  This can range from language skills or other qualities such as tolerance for uncertainty or flexibility which could also be enhanced because of emotional intelligence (see my post on emotional intelligence ). Cultural intelligence is developed by learning about the beliefs, customs and even restrictions of specific cultures as well as showing an understanding of a different culture by blending in. Cultural intelligence consists of four aspects, namely linguistics, spatial, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Image Credit:  http://www.freedigitalphotos.net Linguistics refers to successfully interacting with employees from other cultures whose native language is different and thus overcoming any language barriers.  For example, learning some key words or even lingo of another language spoken by emplo...

A direct communication channel by the CEO could enhance  business communication. Image credit:  Photopin . Communication from the CEO of a business is essential for employees not only to receive direct messages from Top Management but also to understand the thinking process of those who are in charge.   A CEO weekly blog could improve communication in the business and simultaneously make the management more visible to employees which is essential for any business communication strategy to remain effective. The CEO could, for example, write to employees on a weekly basis about different topics that would be of interest to them at that specific point in time.  The blog posts could relate to important events in the business,  clarify unclear issues or  communicate essential new information, for example on being ethical. In addition interesting statistics about how the business is doing financially could also be of interest to employees.   ...

Infographics, or the visual representation of data, is increasingly being  used by businesses to visually represent complex data to their employees.  Especially policies with numerous legal terms  or complicated business data lend themselves to using  infographics.  Infographics can easily be designed by any employee who is creative enough to resourcefully represent data visually and not necessarily only by graphic designers. Numerous online tools are available, but they could also be designed with Powerpoint, Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. These graphics can be uploaded on the business website and also be distributed to employees via email or even embedded in the business Intranet and should preferably complement the business corporate identity. What kind of data could be visually represented to employees? Business policies could be visually displayed to explain how they affect employees in real business life. Business figures could be made more a...

Employees generally welcome feedback from managers, not only  constructive feedback  about their own work performance, but also about any undertakings in the business which directly relate to their tasks.  Managers tend to forget that well informed employees are more productive and also focused on achieving business objectives. So what kind of  feedback should a manager give to employees? Continuous feedback to employees is important.  Picture Credit: Photopin . Feedback on work performance without discouraging the employee, thus constructive remarks to help the employee grow and prosper to the benefit of business goals.   The annual performance interview is the ideal place, but feedback could also be continuous throughout the year in less formal settings. Feedback about all activities and undertakings in the business.  Large businesses have their own public relations officers dealing with internal communication according t...

Are you an emotionally intelligent leader? Photo credit: Photobin . Are you an emotionally intelligent leader who manages your emotions and also recognizes and manages the emotions of your employees?  Or do you merely act on your feelings and regret it afterwards? Do you constantly have to apologize to your employees for being insensitive? Today having the ability to effectively communicate your emotions and to perceive and manage the emotions of your employees  is a highly desired leadership skill, a skill that can very much enhance communication in your business.  Emotionally intelligent leaders have great self awareness, can manage themselves well, possess good social skills and can also manage employee relationships.  By being aware of who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are, unsettling emotions are controlled  before they can harm the business communication culture.   These leaders are also generally very optimistic...

Do you want to know what true diversity will mean for your business' performance? Diversity in a business is generally accepted as acknowledging, accepting and also understanding all the differences among employees.  Diversity is most evident in terms of employees' age, gender, religion and race. Photocredit: Photobin. Lately managing diversity is not only perceived in terms of accommodating differences in a business, but also as actual thoughts about what true diversity really means.  With other words, diversity is also about the actual thought-process of the responsible managers, especially when it comes to the advantages of having a diverse group of employees.  Just think about it for a moment:  diversity in a business could result in better problem-solving and customer service because of the diverse backgrounds of employees similar to the customers.  Similarly employees' unique creativity and innovation based on shared differences could only benefit t...

Photo credit : Photobin. Are your employees spending too much time reading emails?  Many employees are constantly being interrupted by reading emails throughout the day resulting in a loss of productivity for the business.  Once interrupted by an email, some experts suggest that  employees can on occasion waste up to 30 minutes to get back to work again.  Many of these emails are from colleagues and not really that important.  As a result some businesses now do not allow employees to send emails to their colleagues and only to clients of the organisation.  However, since emails have become essential for daily, instant communication, some businesses even introduced instant messaging for employees to communicate with each other without having to send emails while file sharing through applications such as DropBox or similar  applications are encouraged. What do managers need to do?  Depending on the nature of the business, it is ...

Source: Freedigitalphotos.net Being a leader is not the same as being a manager.  A manager can still be a poor leader or a leader cannot be a good manager.     In an ever changing business environment, known leadership principles also constantly have to adapt with new leadership styles in addition to the old styles.  But what is leadership and what will make a good leader in 2014?  A good leader inspires other people while ruling or guiding them in the right direction.  But in a world of being connected, a good leader also provides opportunities for what is known as connective leadership .  This means that while managing and leading, the leader also provides opportunities for participation and innovation by giving employees access to experiences and knowledge to grow.   The leader of 2014 knows exactly what employees' passions are and enable them to use them to the benefit of both the business and the employees. ...

Source: Freedigitalphotos.net Team work has become increasingly important in a business, especially since numerous studies confirm that not only are employees more productive when working in a group, but many excellent and innovative ideas had their origin in a group setting to the long-term benefit of the business. Why is team work good  for a business? In a group setting employees have different skills, talents and working styles which can complement each other while striving towards achieving the same business goals.   Employees have to collaborate while different ideas are shared and tested with peers.  It often happens that employees are encouraged to do their best in a group setting because they trust and respect each other.  However, the opposite is also true if the team consists of different personalities who do not agree which could  result in conflict. To really succeed with a team approach in a business, the culture of the business nee...

Source: Recruitingcycle.com A business is just as good as its employees and therefore managers aspire to employ only the most talented people.  Not only are talented employees appointed, but star performers are also handpicked for further improvement  of their talents to the benefit of the business through specialised training and skills development programmes. Why is it so important for a business to manage and develop the talent of its star employees? First of all it is an investment the business makes in its employees which will pay off in the long term.  It is considered a strategic advantage for the business by attaining all of its business objectives through highly skilled employees. It cultivates the loyalty of the best employees in the business because it makes them feel appreciated and rewarded to be handpicked for further training. It also improves the performance of these employees in the business as the training is usually directed link...

Many businesses that used to deny employees access to social media are now increasingly making access available.  It is as if there is a renewed awareness that use of social at the office is not necessarily always a bad thing.   The main reason why businesses did not in the beginning want to give employees access to social media is because of fear of loss of productivity and even misuse of social media.  Why is use of social media at the office a good thing?  I can think of at least the following reasons: Source: Twitter. A more favourable perception of the business by employees is created which in turn could result in even higher productivity. Networking opportunities for employees outside the business are possible which could benefit the business in the long term. Employees are granted the opportunity to build a personal professional brand through various social media. Employees can even assist in building the company brand thr...