Basics of Managerial Speaking Skills

An individual needs to possess certain skills for effective managerial communication.

• Body Language and overall personality of an individual play an essential role in effective communication. It is essential for managers to express their thoughts in a positive way. Remember shouting at team members and quarrelling with them lead to no solution; instead make the situation all the more worse. There are several other ways of expressing your displeasure. Make sure you do not lose your temper while communicating. Take care of your pitch and tone. Speak in a convincing way for people to understand what you intend to communicate.
• People generally like to communicate with someone who is nicely dressed and presentable. No employee would ever like to communicate with a shabbily dressed manager. Be an idol for your team members. It is really important for managers to dress well for co workers to look up to them. Clothes must be clean and ironed properly and you really need to create that much needed first impression.
• Take care of your facial expressions and gestures. A smile on your face will attract employees and they would readily come to you to discuss their problems.
• Be Honest. Pass on information to your team members in its correct form. Playing with information and data tampering lead to ineffective communication. Communicate directly with your team members rather than appointing middle men.
• Speak Relevant. The choice of words is really very important in verbal communication. Do not use slangs and abusive words in your speech. Loose talks must be avoided at the workplace.
• Be Focussed. Know what you intend to communicate. Managers must prepare their speech well in advance before addressing their team members. Do not communicate just for the sake of communicating. Deviating from the topic only confuses recipients. Managers must ensure their team members are able to understand them well.
• Be Confident. You must believe in yourself for others to believe you. Learn to stick to your words. It is really important for effective managerial communication. Never be low on self belief.
• The pitch and the tone need to be taken care of. Do not be too loud or too soft. A manager must know how to keep a control on his anger. Stay calm and composed. Do not overreact.
• As a good manager, you ought to be impartial towards all your team members. Giving special attention to one of your team members just because he is your friend is something which is not at all expected out of a good manager. As a manager you are responsible for all your team members and you need to interact with them on a regular basis. It is your duty to address their grievances and problems. Be available to them and let them express themselves.
• Know when to communicate. Avoid calling your team members at late evenings or early mornings. They would never pay attention to your communication and the message gets diluted. Prefer not to interact with them during lunch hours unless there is an emergency.

Tips for Effective Managerial Communication

It is essential for employees to communicate effectively with each other for better understanding as well as increased productivity at workplace. Employees doing everything on their own are generally overburdened and eventually fail to deliver their best.

Effective managerial communication enables the flow of information and knowledge among employees in its desired form. Managers need to interact with their team members to extract the best out of them. Problems remain unsolved if employees do not communicate with each other. Discussions go a long way in reducing confusions and also improve the relations among employees.

• Remember a manager’s task is not only to sit in closed cabins and shout at subordinates. He needs to interact with his team members on a regular basis. Speak to your colleagues more often. Find out what they are upto? Treat all your team members as one. There is absolutely no harm in taking lunch with your team members. This way you tend to discuss lot many things apart from routine work.
• Promote the concept of morning meetings at workplace. Morning meetings help you interact with your team members on an open platform where everyone has the liberty to express his/her views. Communicate with your team members and help them plan their day. Let them come out with their problems. Walk up to their workstations once or twice in a day.
• Increase your listening skills. A good listener is always a good communicator. It is really important to listen to the other person carefully before speaking. Interrupting a conversation breaks the momentum and the message loses its impact.
• Working in a team leads to effective managerial communication. Employees working in isolation hardly interact with their fellow workers and superiors. Make sure your team members discuss things amongst themselves and work together. Instruct them to keep you in the loop as well. The employees must mark a cc to their immediate reporting managers to keep them updated of the latest developments at the workplace.
• Master the art of writing emails. Also train your team members how to write an official mail. There is a huge difference between a personal and official mail. The subject line needs to be relevant for people to open the mail.
• Do not call your team embers one by one for any kind of communication. Address them together.
• Think before you speak. Make sure whatever you communicate is relevant. Avoid using complicated words and terminologies in your speech. The message has to be clear and precise for effective managerial communication. Be straightforward and communicate clearly as to what you expect out of your team members.
• No communication is complete unless the message is understood clearly by the recipients. There should be absolutely no room for confusion in effective communication. Once you are through with your speech, give some time to your team members for them to ask whatever they have not understood.
• Never communicate at a noisy place. Choose conference room, meeting rooms or any noise free zone for communication.