MGMT 3453 Exam 2 Review
Delivering Negative Feedback
-Adopt a team-centered orientation -Avoid sugarcoating the bad news -Explain the impacts of the individual's poor performance on organizational performance -Link to consequences -Probe for reasons performance is not higher -Emphasize problem solving rather than blaming -Be firm
Getting the Tone, Style, and Design Right
-Aim for tone of genuine concern in a professional manner -Inject some positive direction to the message, but don't provide false hope -Use a writing style that is simple, accurate, and jargon-free -Maintain a simple design
AIM Planning Process
-Analyzing your audience: understand their needs, values, and how they are influenced -Developing your ideas: wrestle with the complicated business issues at hand -Creating a message structure: most effectively reduces resistance and gains buy-in
Planning Stage
-Audience Analysis -Idea Development -Message Framework
Things to avoid/consider
-Avoid Sarcasm and Jokes in Most Cases -Avoid Rescheduling Meeting Times or Places -Consider Turning Off Sound Alerts for Incoming Texts/Emails -Identify Yourself -Clearly End the Texting Exchange -Avoid Personal Texts during Work Hours
Maintain Professionalism and Appropriate Formality
-Avoid indications that you view email as casual communication -Apply the same standards of spelling, punctuation, and formatting you would for other written documents -use greetings and names
Choosing the Right Mix of Channels
-Bad new is best delivered in person -This allows rich communication, where you can use verbal and nonverbal cues to show your concern and sensitivity -An advantage to control the message more carefully and ensure that you state the bad news preciesly and accurately
Delivering Bad News in Writing to Customers
-Bad-news messages to customers contain the same essential components as other bad-news messages -When writing this kind of bad-news messages you want to emphasize the options available, solutions the customer has control over
Guidelines for Bad News Message
-Deliver the bad news in a timely manner -choose the right mix of channels -Sympathize with the bad news recipients and soften the blow -Provide a simple, clear rationale -Explain immediate impacts -Focus on solutions and long-term benefits -Show goodwill
Understand How the Bad News Will Affect Your Audience
-Delivering bad news often creates stress, anxiety, and other strong emotions -More than with other types of messages, you may need to work hard to focus your message on serving others
Components of Setting Expectations
-Describing responsibilities -Providing deadlines -Discussing coordination
Compoents of Direct Bad-News Messages
-Ease in with a buffer -Deliver the bad news -Provide a rationale -Explain impacts -Focus on the future -Show goodwill
Components of Indirect Bad-News Messages
-Ease in with a buffer -Provide a rationale -Deliver the bad news -Explain impacts -Focus on the future -Show good will
Delivering Bad News in Writing to External Partners
-External partners can include suppliers, consultants, or joint-venture partners -You are better off breaking bad news to them in a rich communication channel, in person or by phone
Reviewing Stage
-FAIR Test -Proofreading -Feedback
Components of Persuasive Messages
-Gain Attention -Raise a need -Deliver a solution -Provide a rationale -Validate views -Give counterpoints -Call to action
Components of Mass Sales Messages
-Gain attention -Generate interest -Build desire -Call to action
Components of Announcements
-Gain attention -Give announcement -Provide details -Call to action -State goodwill
Components of Appreciation Messages
-Give thanks -Provide rationale -State goodwill
Sympathize with the Bad-News Recipient and Soften the Blow
-In person, most people make a judgment about your genuine concern for them based on many factors, including your past treatment of them and your nonverbal behavior -You may use a one- or two-sentence buffer to start the bad-news message, which softens the blow
Components of Claims
-Make Claim -Provide rationale -Call to action -State goodwill
Participating in and Leading Group Voice and Video Calls
-Practice Using the Technology before the Group Call -Use Your Webcam Effectively -Use Interactive Tools Wisely -Start the Call with Purpose and Take Charge -Follow the Guidelines of Effective Virtual Meetings
Persuade through Emotion and Reason
-Savvy business communicators understand the importance of injecting emotion into their persuasive messages -Effective communicators find ways to appeal to the core emotional benefits of products, services, and ideas
Show Respect for Other's Time
-Select message recipients carefully -Provide timelines and options -Be careful about using the priority flag -Let others know when you will take longer than anticipated to respond or take action -Avoid contributing to confusing and repetitive email chains
Building Connections with Phone Conversations
-Share Conversation Time Equally -Apply the Rules of Active Listening and Avoid Multitasking -Take Notes on Important Points and Summarize Next Steps at the End of the Call -Close with Appreciation -Follow Up on Agreements -Schedule and Plan for Your Phone Calls -Ensure Quality Audio -Open with a Warm Greeting and Use Your Caller's Name -After Brief Small Chat, Direct the Conversation to the Issues at Hand -Speak with a Pleasant, Enthusiastic Voice
Components of Directions
-State goal -Give step-by-step directions -State goodwill
Drafting Stage
-Tone -Style -Design
Principles of Effective Emails
-Use for the right purposes -Ensure ease of reading -Show respect for time -Protect privacy and confidentiality -Respond promptly -Maintain professionalism and appropriate formality -Manage emotion effectively -Avoid distractions
Reviewing Bad-News Messages
-When writing bad-news messages, always reread them several times -Place yourself in the position of the recipients so you can try to imagine how they feel and react -Consider asking trusted colleagues to review your message and give feedback -They may be able to give you a neutral and objective view of the stimulation.
Receiving Negative Feedback
-You will have many opportunities to get feedback about your performance and potential -Seeking and receiving feedback, even when it's negative, will help you develop the skills you need to make an impact in the workplace and move into new positions
Reciprocation
-a principle of influence based on returning favors
Liking
-a principle of influence whereby people are more likely to be persuaded by people who they like
Social Proof
-a principle of influence whereby people determine what is right, correct, or desirable by seeing what others do
authority
-a principle of influence whereby people follow authority figures
Scarcity
-a principle of influence whereby people think there is limited availability of something they want or need, so they need to act quickly
Buffer
-a statement to establish common ground, show appreciation, state your empathy, or otherwise express goodwill
Elements of an apology
-acknowledgement of mistake or an offense -an expression of regret for the harm caused -acceptance of responsibility -commitment that the offense will not be repeated -effective apologies should be timely and sincere
Tone
-aim for helpful, professional, reader-centered tone. Show respect for your readers' time
Making Claims
-as you write claims, keep in mind that your goal is to have your claim honored -focus on facts first and emotions second -lay out logical, reasonable, and professional explanation for your claim
Consistency
-based on the idea that once people make an explicit commitment, they trend to follow through or honor that commitment
Proofreading
-check for typos and any signals that you are not attentive to the needs of others
Audience Analysis
-consider exactly what information your audience needs and how they want to receive it
Message Framework
-create a front-loaded, direct, complete, and detail-oriented message
Coordination
-deals with the effort and timing needed to allow all relevant people to participate in a communication
Setting Expectations
-directly ties to your credibility and ability to foster interpersonal trust in the workplace -failure to do it can lead to lasting professional disappointments and breakdowns in working relationships
asynchronous communication
-does not occur in real time -individuals involved in such communication can pay attention to and respond to communications at a time of their choosing
Use Email for the Right Purposes
-email com. has a few constraints (low cost, little coordination) and high control (the writer can think them out carefully, and they provide a permanent record) -rarely appropriate for sensitive or emotional communication tasks
flames
-emails or other digital communications with "hostile intentions characterized by words of profanity, obsenity, and insults that inflict harm to a person or an organization
FAIR Test
-ensure that the message contains all needed information, and that it is entirely correct
Making Requests
-essence of people coordinating work efforts, buying and selling products and services, and maintaining work relationships
Composing Mass Sales Messages
-even when consumers do not respond with immediate purchases, these messages can raise a company's brand awareness -effective sales messages contain central sales theme -messages are strongest when they contain a coherent, unified theme that consumers can recognize quickly
Permanence
-extent to which the message can be stored, retrieved, and distributed
Expressing Sympathy
-foremost requirement of any expression of sympathy is that it be sincere -your genuine concern will compensate for any deficiencies in the words you use -handwrite your expression of sympathy on a nice card
Importance of Credibility in an Era of Mistrust and Skepticism
-heightened for persuasive messages -if audience members question your credibility, they are unlikely to carefully consider your ideas, requests, or recommendations
Maintaining Credibility when Delivering Bad News
-honesty and openness are keys -although people do not like to get bad news, they expect the truth -may assume that communicating bad news to customers shakes relationships and breeds mistrust -delivering bad news the right way actually strengthen customer relationships and increase trust when conditions improve
severity
-how serious or detrimental the bad news is
Idea Development
-identify and gather relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information
Planning
-implies that the communication can be tightly drafted, edited and revised, rehearsed, and otherwise strategically developed before delivery
Delivering Bad News in Writing to Colleagues
-in all management positions, you will need to give bad news to your boss, your peers, or those you supervise from time to time -your ability to deliver bad-news messages constructively will foster a transparent and open culture
Develop Routine Messages
-in any given day you need to produce credible messages quickly -excellent communicators can develop routine written messages in a matter of minutes -require proportionately less time for planning and reviewing
Providing Directions
-include specific, often step-by-step, guidelines for accomplishing particular tasks -in messages with procedures and directions, make the steps stand out clearly by enumerating each one
Resources
-included the financial, space, time, and other investments necessary to employ particular channels of communication
Reinterpretation
-involves adjusting your initial perceptions by making more objective, more fact-based, and less personal judgements and evaluations
manipulation
-involves attempting to influence other by some level of deception so you can achieve your own interests -by applying the FAIR test, you can avoid sending persuasive messages that manipulate others
defusing
-involves avoiding escalation and removing tension to focus on work objectives
Relaxation
-involves releasing and overcoming anger and frustration so that you can make a more rational and less emotional response
richness
-involves two considerations: >level of immediacy >number of cues available
Components of Requests
-make request -provide rationale -call to action -state goodwill
Style
-make your message easy to read. -use short sentences and paragraphs and action-oriented language
Mass sales messages
-messages sent to a large group of consumers and intended to market a particular product or service
cyber silence
-nonresponse to emails and other communications
Explicit
-nothing is implied -statements contain full and unambiguous meaning
synchronous communication
-occurs in real time -individuals involved give immediate responses to one another and engage in turn-taking
Mum effect
-occurs when the chain of messages within an organization is filtered at each level to leave out or inaccurately state the bad news -the message that top executives often hear ends up being unrealistically rosy
Email communication
-primary form of written business communication -most analysts expect it to be the primary tool for at least the next five to ten years in most companies
Persuasive Messages
-provide you with more professional opportunities and enhanced credibility, or they can close off future opportunities and diminish your credibility
negativity effect
-recipients are more likely to perceive messages that are intended as neutral as negative
neutrality effect
-recipients are more likely to perceive messages with an intended positive emotion as neutral
Immediacy
-relates to how quickly someone is able to respond and give feedback
Likelihood
-relates to the probability of the bad event occurring
Feedback
-request feedback from trusted colleagues when speaking on behalf of a team or unit
Claims
-requestst for other companies to compensate for or correct the wrongs or mistakes they have made
Responding to Inquiries
-set off each question so your readers can quickly identify responses to particular questions -you generally can do this using bullets or numbered lists and/or special formatting
Teaser message
-signal to recipients that an upcoming conversation or other communication may involve unpleasant news -prepares recipients emotionally yet does not reveal specific information -often written
Showing appreciation
-sincere expression of thanks also helps achieve business goals and strengthens work relationships
Components of Routine Messages
-state the primary message (10 or fewer words) -provide details in paragraphs of 20 to 80 words -restate the request or key message in more specific terms -state goodwill
Texting in the workplace
-texting is a relatively new and undeveloped form of communication in the workplace, and attitudes toward it vary significantly -many professionals consider texting in the workplace as impersonal, uninteresting, rude, intrusive, or inadequate
Control
-the degree to which communications can be planned and recorded, thus allowing strategic message development
Controllability
-the degree to which the bad-news message receiver can alter the outcome
Constraints
-the practical limitatons of coordination and resources
Implicit
-the request or some of the rationale for the request may be implied -the reader needs to read between the lines to grasp the entire meaning
Indirect
-they provide the rationale for a request before making the specific request
Creating Announcements
-to prevent employees and customers from ignoring announcements, the subject line must be specific and must create interest
Announcement
-updates to policies and procedures, notice of events, and other correspondences that apply to a group of employees and/or customers
Design
-use for subject lines and formatting to let your readers process and find information immediately
cyber incivilty
-violation of respect and consideration in an online environment based on workplace norms -active, passive
Direct
-you being with a main idea or argument and then provide the supporting reasons
Ensure Ease of Reading
1. Provide a short, descriptive subject line 2. Keep your message brief yet complete 3. Clearly identify expected actions 4. Provide a descriptive signature block 5. Use attachments wisely
Most effective communication channels for coordinating work
1. Scheduled meetings 2. Email 3. Landline phone