As I mentioned in part one of this blog, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) is one of a small handful of business schools that requires students to learn about and improve their own communication skills. They are expecting their students to build these skills because their alumni have made it clear that communications ability is what builds opportunity for entry in the C suite.
I ask JD Schramm, who teaches the theoretical and practical aspects of effective communication as a lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB), to share some of the insights on communication that his students learn.
We started talking about the challenges of writing emails that will be read -- check out some initial thoughts in part one of this blog. Here are some more insights on the power your emails, as well as great advice for improving your presentation skills.
Think everyone who reads one of your emails will come away with the same understanding?
JD encourages his students to see all business writing as a form of a dialogue with the reader. As you raise each point, a good reader has questions or real-life experience to apply to the point you are making. That means that, even when you are writing an email, you are in the midst of a dialogue with your employees. Your subsequent, supporting points should reflect and respond to their thoughts.
Many business communicators do not write with the reader in mind. As a result, you are not really talking with your readers. To have a good dialogue with them, you need to identify who they are. For example, believers and skeptics, long service and newbies, and so on, to address their point of view.
GSB students spend time learning how to make their work audience-centered. They analyze their audience's information needs, the context in which they are working and their predicted attitude towards the information being passed on. For example, if you are writing in a work environment where change has been the norm, your readers may be thinking they'll get another email from you in a month, saying the plans that you are announcing have changed.
The advice given to students? Think strategically about what you want your readers to 1. think, 2. do, and 3. say, after you've made your case. Review your drafts to make sure you have influenced them in that way.
Whether it's a department meeting or a conference, many professionals worry about their speaking abilities. What are some tips?
JD -- whose talent as a communicator is immediately apparent to every listener -- emphasizes that effective speakers focus on their audience and how they are connecting with the people in the room. But for the best speakers, this is just the beginning.
GSB students are taught to recognize that when you are speaking to a group of any size, you have two audiences. It's easy to remember the audience whose eyes are on you. But, never forget the one(s) outside of the room. Those individuals whom your listeners are going to tell about the speech, and who are part of the solution that you have proposed via your speech. Your influence should extend to them as well. Fashion your key points to be portable, so your listeners can take them along and use them when you leave the room.
JD encourages his students to find the speakers on TED that they admire and then watch the same speech repeatedly to notice why the speaker has had an impact on them. They use their observations to improve their own speaking styles. It's a practice that JD follows, too.
Are you new to TED? JD has a number of TED presentations on topics that demonstrate specific communication principles. You'll get a sense of the level of achievement that inspires the GSB students as well inspiration for your next presentation.
Ready to talk about communication nitty gritty? How about your toughest communication challenge?
Some communications topics aren't covered in the GSB curriculum. Managers Talking Comp! If you're reading Compensation Cafe, this is probably a priority issue for you. There's no getting around it. Managers are in the hot seat -- and few of them have developed their communication skills at Stanford Graduate School of Business. HR has good intentions, but are we really helping them?
With our discussion on communications, I think this is a good time to second a recent announcement from Compensation Cafe.
On Tuesday August 23, 11:00 to 11:45 Pacific Time, you can join me and my Compensation Cafe colleagues to tackle the topic of compensation communications. It's a free podcast. You can send us your questions or mention your frustrations. We're always ready for a caffeinated discussion with you!
For more information and to register, please go to the event page, hosted by Focus.com.
Margaret O'Hanlon is founder and principal of re:Think Consulting. She has decades of experience teaming up with clients to ensure great Human Resource ideas deliver valuable business results. Margaret brings deep expertise in total rewards communications and change management to the dialog at the Café. Before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal in Total Rewards Communications and Change Management with Towers Perrin. Margaret is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Pacific Plains Region. She earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University. Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.
Comments