Learning Objectives Chapter 2 Communicating in Teams and ...

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Chapter 2 Communicating in Teams and Mastering Listening and Nonverbal Communication Skills Learning Objectives AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO 1 Highlight the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams 2 Identify eight guidelines for successful collaborative writing 3 Explain how wiki technology can help teams collaborate 4 Explain how group dynamics can affect team effectiveness 5 Describe how meeting technologies can help participants communicate more successfully 6 Describe the listening process, and explain how good listeners overcome barriers at each stage of the process 7 Clarify the importance of nonverbal communication, and briefly describe six categories of nonverbal expression 8 Discuss the role of business etiquette, both in the workplace and in social settings

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

38 Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.


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On the Job COMMUNICATING AT THE CONTAINER STORE

SOLID TEAMWORK + EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION = A GREAT SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

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Let’s face it: Frontline jobs in Store, a great employee is selfretail don’t have the greatest motivated, team oriented, and reputation. For employees, these passionate about customer serpositions often combine low pay vice. Most new hires are former with high stress, leading to rapid customers, in fact, so they’re burnout and frequent turnover. already fans of the company From a customer’s perspective, before they join. retail employees seem to fall That emphasis on teaminto two categories: unmotivated work is reinforced twice a day, rookies or aggressive sellers who before opening and after closseem more intent on getting ing, through a meeting called their commissions than helping “the huddle.” Similar to a hudcustomers. dle in football, it helps to give When they founded The everyone a common purpose: Container Store, Garrett Boone set goals, share information, and Kip Tindell set out to shatter boost morale, and bond as a these expectations by creating a team. Team-building efforts are pleasant, welcome working and further encouraged by particishopping experience. As millions pation in community outreach of frustrated consumers know activities, such as school supply all too well, though, delivering drives, and through purely great customer service isn’t easy. recreational activities dreamed Daily “huddles” at The Container Store, informal The Container Store manages meetings among team members, reinforce com- up by the employees on the to do so through respect for pany values and let people exchange important Fun Committee. employees, open communica- information. Through a commitment to tion, and a structure that proteamwork and effective commotes teamwork over individual competition. munication, The Container Store paves the way for its When selecting new employees, for instance, the employees to deliver great customer service. Tindell company engages in a comprehensive interviewing believes that full, open communication with employand selection process to find the perfect person for ees takes courage but says, “The only way that peoeach position, driven by the belief that one great ple feel really, really a part of something is if they employee equals three good ones. At The Container know everything.”1 www. containerstore. com

39 Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.


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Understanding the Foundations of Business Communication

IMPROVING YOUR PERFORMANCE IN TEAMS Team members have a shared mission and are collectively responsible for their work.

Two popular types of informal teams are problem-solving teams and task forces.

Effective communication is essential to every aspect of team performance.

You may never work in a retail operation such as The Container Store (profiled in the chapter opener), but chances are quite good that your career will involve working in teams and other group situations that will test your communication skills. A team is a unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for working to achieve a common goal.2 Companies can create formal teams that become part of the organization’s structure, or they can establish informal teams that aren’t part of the formal organization but are created to solve particular problems, work on specific activities, or encourage employee participation. Problem-solving teams and task forces are informal teams that assemble to resolve specific issues and then disband when their goal has been accomplished. Such teams are often cross-functional, pulling together people from a variety of departments with different areas of expertise and responsibility. The resulting diversity of opinions and interests can lead to tensions that highlight the need for effective communication. For instance, consider a cross-functional team charged with making a product more competitive in the marketplace. A representative from the sales department might complain that the product’s price is too high because manufacturing has not done enough to lower production costs. Someone from manufacturing might counter that costs are already as low as possible but perhaps the sales department doesn’t know how to sell the product effectively. Balancing these competing interests and opinions without letting them boil over into personal animosity requires skill at listening, speaking, and writing. Committees are formal teams that usually have a long life span and can become a permanent part of the organizational structure. Committees typically deal with regularly recurring tasks, such as an executive committee that meets monthly to plan strategy and review results. Whatever the purpose and function of your team, you and your fellow team members must be able to communicate effectively with each other and with people outside your team. As Chapter 1 points out, this ability often requires taking on additional responsibility for communication: sharing information with team members, listening carefully to their inputs, and crafting messages that reflect the team’s collective ideas and opinions. Increasingly, this communication takes place long distance, with virtual teams connecting from remote locations using a variety of meeting technologies (see “Using Meeting Technologies” on page 51).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams When teams are successful, they improve productivity, creativity, employee involvement, and even job security.3 Teams are frequently at the core of participative management, the effort to involve employees in the company’s decision making. Getting employees involved in the daily operation of their own stores is one of the central principles of participative management at The Container Store, as managers and employees share vital business information every day. A successful team can provide a number of advantages:4

• Increased diversity of views. Team members can bring a variety of perspectives to the decision-making process.

Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Companies in fast-moving industries rely on teams to work closely and quickly to solve problems and capitalize on market opportunities.

• Increased information and knowledge. By pooling the resources of several individuals, teams have access to more information in the decision-making process.


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Communicating in Teams and Mastering Listening and Nonverbal Communication Skills

Keep in mind, however, that unless these diverse viewpoints are guided by a shared goal, the multiple perspectives can actually hamper a team’s efforts.5 • Increased acceptance of a solution. Those who participate in making a decision are more likely to support the decision enthusiastically and encourage others to accept it.

Effective teams can pool knowledge, take advantage of diverse viewpoints, and increase acceptance of solutions the team proposes.

• Higher performance levels. Working in teams can unleash new levels of creativity and energy in workers who share a sense of purpose and mutual accountability. Effective teams can be better than top-performing individuals at solving complex problems.6 Furthermore, teams fill an individual worker’s need to belong to a group, reduce employee boredom, increase feelings of dignity and self-worth, and reduce stress and tension between workers. Although teamwork has many advantages, it also has a number of potential disadvantages. At their worst, teams are unproductive and frustrating, and they waste everyone’s time. Teams need to be aware of and work to counter the following disadvantages: • Groupthink. Groupthink occurs when pressures to conform with accepted norms of behavior cause individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions. The result can be decisions that are worse than ones the team members might have made individually.

Teams need to avoid the negative impact of groupthink, hidden agendas, free riders, and excessive costs.

• Hidden agendas. Some team members may have a hidden agenda—private, counterproductive motives, such as a desire to take control of the group or to undermine someone else on the team. • Free riders. Some team members may be free riders—individuals who don’t contribute their fair share to the group’s activities. • Cost. Another important drawback to teamwork is the high cost of coordinating group activities. Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project can eat up a lot of time and money.

Characteristics of Effective Teams

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To be effective collaborators in a team setting, you and your colleagues should recognize that each individual brings valuable assets, knowledge, and skills to the team. Strong collaborators are willing to exchange information, examine issues, and work through conflicts that arise. They trust each other, working toward the greater good of the team and organization rather than focusing on personal agendas.7 The most effective teams have a clear objective and a shared sense of purpose, communicate openly and honestly, reach decisions by consensus, think creatively, and know how to resolve conflict.8 Learning these team skills takes time and practice, so U.S. companies now teach teamwork more frequently than any other aspect of business.9 In contrast, unsuccessful teamwork can waste time and money, generate lowerquality work, and frustrate both managers and employees. A lack of trust is cited as the most common reason for the failure of teams. This lack of trust can result from team members who are suspicious of one another’s motives or ability to contribute.10 Another common reason for failure is poor communication, particularly when teams operate across cultures, countries, and time zones.11 Poor communication can also result from basic differences in conversational styles. Some people expect conversation to follow an orderly pattern in which team members wait their turns to speak. Others view conversation as more spontaneous and are comfortable with an overlapping, interactive style.12



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Team Communication Collaborating on reports, websites, presentations, and other communication projects gives teams the opportunity to capitalize on each person’s unique presentation and communication skills. In other words, the collective energy and expertise of the team can be used to create something that transcends what each individual could do otherwise.13 However, collaborating on team messages requires special effort; the following section offers a number of guidelines to help you write well as a team.

Collaborative Writing Guidelines In any collaborative effort, it’s important to recognize that team members coming from different backgrounds may have different work habits or concerns: A technical expert may focus on accuracy and scientific standards, whereas an editor may be more concerned about organization and coherence. In addition, team members differ in writing styles and personality traits—two factors that can complicate the creative nature of communication. To collaborate effectively, everyone involved must be flexible and open to other opinions, focusing on team objectives rather than on individual priorities.14 Successful writers know that most ideas can be expressed in many ways, so they avoid the “my way is best” attitude. The following guidelines will help you collaborate more successfully:15 Successful collaboration requires a number of steps, from selecting the right partners and agreeing on project goals to establishing clear processes and avoiding writing as a group.

• Select collaborators carefully. Choose a combination of people who have the experience, information, and talent needed for each project. • Agree on project goals before you start. Starting without a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish inevitably leads to frustration and wasted time. • Give your team time to bond before diving in. If people haven’t had the opportunity to work together before, make sure they can get to know each other before being asked to collaborate. • Clarify individual responsibilities. Because team members will be depending on each other, make sure individual responsibilities are clear, including who is supposed to do what and by when. • Establish clear processes. Make sure everyone knows how the work will be done, including checkpoints and decisions to be made along the way. • Avoid writing as a group. The actual composition is the only part of developing team messages that does not usually benefit from group participation. Group writing is often a slow, painful process that delivers bland results. Plan, research, and outline together but try to assign the actual writing to one person or divide larger projects among multiple writers. And if you divide the writing, try to have one person do a final revision pass to ensure a consistent style. • Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team. If you plan to use technology for sharing or presenting materials, test the system before work begins. (See the following section for more on collaboration technologies.) • Check to see how things are going along the way. Don’t assume that everything is working just because you don’t hear anything negative.

Collaborative Writing Technologies A variety of collaboration tools exist to help teams write, including group review and commenting features in word processors, multiauthor blogs, and content management systems that organize and control the content for websites. Each of these tools addresses specific needs, but none offers quite the level of direct collaboration as the wiki. A wiki, from the Hawaiian word for


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Collaboration tools include multiauthor blogs, content management systems, and wikis.


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FIGURE 2.1 Using a Wiki for Collaborative Communication

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

The “[EDIT]” links on this webpage are telltale signs of a wiki—in this case, the online user’s manual for the WordPress blogging system. Anyone who wants to contribute can expand and improve the instructions and advice that benefit the entire community of WordPress users.

quick, is a website that allows anyone with access to add new material and edit existing material (see Figure 2.1). Public wikis allow anyone to edit pages; private wikis are accessible only by permission. For instance, Yahoo! uses private wikis to facilitate communication among hundreds of team members around the world involved in creating and documenting new services.16 Key benefits of wikis include simple operation—writers don’t need to know any of the techniques normally required to create web content—and the freedom to post new or revised material without prior approval. This approach is quite different from a content management system, in which both the organization of the website and the workflow (the rules for creating, editing, reviewing, and approving content) are tightly controlled.17 But with a wiki, if you see a way to improve a particular page or want to add a new page, you simply edit or write using your web browser, and it’s done. A content management system is a great way to maintain consistent presentation on a company’s primary public website, whereas wikis allow teams to collaborate with speed and flexibility. Enterprise wiki systems extend the wiki concept with additional features for business use that ensure information quality and confidentiality without losing the speed

Benefits of wikis include simple operation and the ability to post new or revised material instantly, without a formal review process.



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and flexibility of a wiki. For instance, access control lets a team leader identify who is allowed to read and modify the wiki. Change monitoring alerts team members when significant changes or additions are made. And rollback allows a team to “travel back in time” to see all previous versions of pages.18 To use a wiki productively, keep these points in mind:19 • Contributors need to let go of traditional expectations of authorship, including individual recognition. • Team members sometimes need to be encouraged to edit and improve each other’s work. • The focus of wikis is on text content; formatting and design options are usually quite limited. • Many wikis provide both editing and commenting capabilities, and participants should use the appropriate tool for each. • New users should take advantage of the sandbox, if available; this is a “safe,” nonpublished section of the wiki where team members can practice editing and writing. Shared workspaces give team members instant access to shared resources and information.

Of course, most teams work on a wide variety of documents and other files, from traditional word processing files to spreadsheets and so on. To facilitate collaboration on a broad scale, many teams now take advantage of groupware, computer-based systems that let people communicate, share files, present materials, and work on documents simultaneously. Shared workspaces are online “virtual offices” that give everyone on a team access to the same set of resources and information: databases, calendars, project plans, pertinent instant messaging and e-mail exchanges, shared reference materials, and team-created documents (see Figure 2.2). Workspaces such as Documentum eRoom, Microsoft SharePoint, and IBM Lotus Team Workspace create a seamless environment for collaboration.

FIGURE 2.2 Shared Workspaces Shared workspaces, such as this example from Microsoft’s SharePoint system, give virtual teams instant access to the documents, calendars, and other files and information needed for successful collaboration.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.


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Most groupware systems also have built-in intelligence to control which team members can read, edit, and save specific files. Revision control goes one step further: It allows only one person at a time to check out a given file or document and records all the changes that person makes. This feature prevents two people from independently editing the same report at the same time and creating two versions of the same document.20

Group Dynamics The interactions and processes that take place among the members of a team are called group dynamics. Productive teams tend to develop rules of interaction that are conducive to business. Often unstated, these rules become group norms—informal standards of conduct that members share and that guide member behavior. For example, some teams develop a casual approach to schedules, with members routinely showing up 10 or 15 minutes late for meetings, while other teams expect strict adherence to time commitments. Teams with a strong sense of identity and cohesiveness can develop overly strong expectations for group behavior, with little tolerance for deviations from those norms. Such strong identity can lead to higher levels of commitment and performance. Unfortunately, it can also lead to groupthink or make it difficult for new members to fit in. Group dynamics are affected by several factors: the roles that team members assume, the current phase of team development, the team’s success in resolving conflict, and its success in overcoming resistance.

Group dynamics are the interactions and processes that take place in a team.

Assuming Team Roles Members of a team can play various roles, which fall into

Each member of a group plays a role that affects the outcome of the group’s activities.

three categories (see Table 2.1). Members who assume self-oriented roles are motivated mainly to fulfill personal needs, so they tend to be less productive than other members. Surprisingly, “dream teams” composed of multiple superstars often don’t perform as well as one might expect because high-performing individuals can have trouble putting the team’s needs ahead of their own.21 In addition, highly skilled and experienced people with difficult personalities might not contribute as they could for the simple reason that other team members may avoid interacting with them.22 Far more likely to contribute to team goals are members who assume team-maintenance roles to help everyone work well together and those who assume task-oriented roles to help the team reach its goals.23 Roles can also change over time. For instance, in a self-directed team with no formal leader, someone may assume a task-oriented leadership role early in the team’s evolution. If this person doesn’t prove to be a capable leader, someone else may emerge as a leader as the group searches for more effective direction.24

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Allowing for Team Evolution Teams typically evolve through a number of phases on their way to becoming productive (see Figure 2.3). One common model identifies five phases:25 1. Orientation. Team members socialize, establish their roles, and begin to define their task or purpose. Many companies use a variety of team-building exercises and activities to help teams break down barriers and develop a sense of shared purpose.26 Note that team building can be a particular challenge with geographically dispersed virtual teams because the members may never meet in person. Establishing a “team operating agreement” that sets expectations for online meetings, communication processes, and decision making can help teams overcome the disadvantages of distance.27

Teams typically evolve through phases; a common model of this growth includes orientation, conflict, brainstorming, emergence, and reinforcement.

2. Conflict. Team members begin to discuss their positions and become more assertive in establishing their roles. Disagreements and uncertainties are natural in this phase. Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.


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Table 2.1

TEAM ROLES PEOPLE PLAY

Dysfunctional

Functional

Self-Oriented Roles

Team-Maintenance Roles

Task-Facilitating Roles

Controlling: Dominating others by exhibiting superiority or authority

Encouraging: Drawing out other members by showing verbal and nonverbal support, praise, or agreement

Initiating: Getting the team started on a line of inquiry

Withdrawing: Retiring from the team either by becoming silent or by refusing to deal with a particular aspect of the team’s work Attention seeking: Calling attention to oneself and demanding recognition from others

Harmonizing: Reconciling differences among team members through mediation or by using humor to relieve tension Compromising: Offering to yield on a point in the interest of reaching a mutually acceptable decision

Diverting: Focusing the team’s discussion on topics of interest to the individual rather than on those relevant to the task

Information giving or seeking: Offering (or seeking) information relevant to questions facing the team Coordinating: Showing relationships among ideas, clarifying issues, summarizing what the team has done Procedure setting: Suggesting decision-making procedures that will move the team toward a goal

3. Brainstorming. Team members air all the options and discuss the pros and cons fully. At the end of this phase, members begin to settle on a single solution to the problem. Note that while group brainstorming remains a highly popular activity in today’s companies, it may not always be the most productive way to generate new ideas. Some research indicates that having people brainstorm individually and then bring their ideas to a group meeting is more successful.28 4. Emergence. Consensus is reached when the team finds a solution that is acceptable enough for all members to support (even if they have reservations). 5. Reinforcement. The team clarifies and summarizes the agreed-upon solution. Members receive their assignments for carrying out the group’s decision, and they make arrangements for following up on those assignments.

FIGURE 2.3 Phases of Group Development Groups generally progress through several stages on their way to becoming productive and reaching their objectives. 2. Conflict

3. Brainstorming

4. Emergence

5. Reinforcement

Team members get to know each other and establish roles.

Different opinions and perspectives begin to emerge.

Team members explore their options and evaluate alternatives.

The team reaches a consensus on the chosen decision.

Team harmony is re-established and plans are made to put the decision into action.


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1. Orientation


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You may also hear the process defined as forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, the phases identified by researcher Bruce Tuckman when he proposed one of the earliest models of group development.29 Note that stages are a general framework for team development. Some teams may move forward and backward through several stages before they become productive, and other teams may be productive right away, even while some or all members are in a state of conflict.30

Resolving Conflict Conflict can arise for a number of reasons. Team members may believe that they need to compete for money, information, or other resources. Or members may disagree about who is responsible for specific tasks. Various members can also bring ideas that are equally good but incompatible. Poor communication can lead to misunderstanding, and intentionally withholding information can undermine trust. Basic differences in values, attitudes, and personalities may lead to arguments. Power struggles may result when one member questions the authority of another or when people with limited authority attempt to increase their power or exert more influence. Conflict can also arise because individuals or teams are pursuing different goals.31 Conflict can be either constructive or destructive. Conflict is constructive if it Conflict in teams can be either forces important issues into the open, increases the involvement of team members, constructive or destructive. and generates creative ideas for the solution to a problem. Constructive conflict can prod teams to higher performance, in fact. Teamwork isn’t necessarily about happiness and harmony; even teams that have some interpersonal friction can excel with effective leadership and team players committed to strong results. As teamwork experts Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer put it, “Virtuoso teams are not about getting polite results.”32 In contrast, conflict is destructive if it diverts energy from more important issues, destroys morale, or divides the team.33 Destructive conflict can lead to win-lose or lose-lose outcomes, in which one or both sides lose, to the detriment of the entire team. If you approach conflict with the idea that both sides can satisfy their goals to at least some extent (a win-win strategy), you can often minimize losses for everyone. For the win-win strategy to work, though, everybody must believe that (1) it’s possible to find a solution that both parties can accept, (2) cooperation is better for the organization than competition, (3) the other party can be trusted, and is an inevitable part of working in teams, but an (4) greater power or status doesn’t entitle one party to Conflict effective team knows how to keep destructive conflict from impose a solution. distracting the team from its objectives. To craft a win-win solution, start by considering the other party’s needs. Find out what the other party considers acceptable. Search for mutually satisfactory solutions or compromises, the results of which are better for the team overall.34 In many cases, the resolution process is chiefly an exchange of opinions and information that gradually leads to a mutually acceptable solution.35 Here are seven measures that can help team members successfully resolve conflict:

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• Proaction. Deal with minor conflict before it becomes major conflict. • Communication. Get those directly involved in the conflict to participate in resolving it. • Openness. Get feelings out in the open before dealing with the main issues. • Research. Seek factual reasons for the problem before seeking solutions. • Flexibility. Don’t let anyone lock into a position before considering other solutions. Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.

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• Fair play. Don’t let anyone avoid a fair solution by hiding behind the rules. • Alliance. Get opponents to fight together against an “outside force” instead of against each other. When you encounter resistance or hostility, try to maintain your composure and address the other person’s emotional needs.

Overcoming Resistance Resistance to change is a particular type of conflict that can affect work in teams. Some resistance is clearly irrational, such as when people resist any kind of change, whether it makes sense or not. Sometimes, however, the resistance is perfectly logical. A change may require someone to relinquish authority or give up comfortable ways of doing things. In any event, you can help overcome resistance with calm, reasonable communication: • Express understanding. You might say, “I can understand that this change might be difficult, and if I were in your position, I might be reluctant myself.” Help the other person relax and talk about his or her anxiety so that you have a chance to offer reassurance.36 • Bring resistance out into the open. When people are noncommittal and silent, they may be tuning you out without even knowing why. Continuing with your argument is futile. Deal directly with the resistance, without accusing. You might say, “You seem cool to this idea. Have I made some faulty assumptions?” Such questions force people to face and define their resistance.37 • Evaluate others’ objections fairly. Don’t simply repeat yourself. Focus on what the other person is expressing, both the words and the feelings. Get the person to open up so that you can understand the basis for the resistance. Others’ objections may raise legitimate points that you’ll need to discuss, or they may reveal problems that you’ll need to minimize.38 • Hold your arguments until the other person is ready for them. Getting your point across depends as much on the other person’s frame of mind as it does on your arguments. You can’t assume that a strong argument will speak for itself. By becoming more audience centered, you will learn to address the other person’s emotional needs first.

Much of the communication you’ll participate in will take place in meetings.

MAKING YOUR MEETINGS MORE PRODUCTIVE

Meetings are a primary communication venue for today’s businesses, whether held in formal conference rooms, in informal settings such as The Container Store’s daily huddles, or on the Internet as virtual meetings. Well-run meetings can help solve Many business meetings waste time problems, develop ideas, and identify opportunities. Much of your workplace comand money as a result of poor munication will occur in small-group meetings; therefore, your ability to contribute planning. to the company and to be recognized for those contributions will depend on your meeting skills. Unfortunately, many meetings are unproIMPROVE THIS E-MAIL MESSAGE ductive. In one study, senior and middle manTo practice correcting drafts of actual documents, visit your online agers reported that only 56 percent of their course or the access-code-protected portion of the Companion meetings were actually productive and that 25 Website. Click on “Document Makeovers,” then click on Chapter percent of them could have been replaced by a 2. You will find an e-mail message that contains problems and phone call or a memo.39 The three most freerrors related to what you’ve learned in this chapter about com- quently reported problems with meetings are municating in teams. Use the Final Draft decision tool to create getting off the subject, not having an agenda, an improved version of the e-mail. Check the message for clarity, and running too long.40 You can help ensure relevance of topics to meeting participants, proper approach to productive meetings by preparing carefully, group collaboration, and communication of meeting etiquette. conducting meetings efficiently, and using meeting technologies wisely.

Document Makeover

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Preparing for Meetings Careful preparation helps you avoid the two biggest meeting mistakes: (1) holding a meeting when a blog posting or another message would do the job and (2) holding a meeting without a specific goal in mind. Before you even begin preparing for a meeting, make sure it’s truly necessary. Once you’re sure, proceed with four preparation tasks: • Identify your purpose. Although many meetings have multiple purposes, most are one of two types: Informational meetings involve sharing information and perhaps coordinating action. Decision-making meetings involve persuasion, analysis, and problem solving. Whatever your purpose, make sure it is clear and clearly communicated to all participants.

To ensure a successful meeting, decide on your purpose ahead of time, select the right participants, choose the time and facility carefully, and set a clear agenda.

• Select participants for the meeting. If the session is purely informational and one person will do most of the talking, you can invite a large group. For problemsolving and decision-making meetings, invite only those people who are in a direct position to help the meeting reach its objective. The more participants, the more comments and confusion you’re likely to get and the longer the meeting will take. However, make sure you invite all the key decision makers, or your meeting will fail to satisfy its purpose. • Choose the time and the facility. For working sessions, morning meetings are usually more productive than afternoon sessions. Also, consider the seating arrangements: Are rows of chairs suitable, or do you need a conference table or some other setting? Plus, give some attention to details such as room temperature, lighting, ventilation, acoustics, and refreshments; any of these seemingly minor details can make or break a meeting. • Set the agenda. The success of any meeting depends on the preparation of the participants. Distribute a carefully written agenda to participants, giving them enough time to prepare as needed (see Figure 2.4). A productive agenda answers three key questions: (1) What do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals? (2) What issues will be of greatest importance to all participants? (3) What information must be available in order to discuss these issues?41 FIGURE 2.4 Typical Meeting Agenda

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Agenda formats vary widely, depending on the complexity of the meeting and the presentation technologies used.



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Leading and Participating in Meetings Everyone shares the responsibility for successful meetings.

Everyone in a meeting shares the responsibility for keeping the meeting productive and making it successful. If you’re the designated leader of a meeting, however, you have an extra degree of responsibility and accountability. To ensure productive meetings, be sure to do the following: • Keep the discussion on track. A good meeting draws out the best ideas and information the group has to offer. Good leaders guide, mediate, probe, stimulate, and summarize as the situation demands. • Follow agreed-upon rules. Business meetings run the gamut from informal to extremely formal, complete with detailed rules for speaking, proposing new items to discuss, voting on proposals, and so on. The larger the meeting, the more formal you’ll need to be to maintain order. Formal meetings use parliamentary procedure, a time-tested method for planning and running effective meetings. The best-known guide to this procedure is Robert’s Rules of Order. • Encourage participation. On occasion, some participants will be too quiet and others too talkative. The quiet participants may be shy, they may be expressing disagreement or resistance, or they may be working on unrelated tasks. Draw them out by asking for their input on issues that pertain to them. For the overly talkative, simply say that time is limited and others need to be heard from. • Participate actively. If you’re a meeting participant, try to contribute to both the subject of the meeting and the smooth interaction of the participants. Use your listening skills and powers of observation to size up the interpersonal dynamics of the people, then adapt your behavior to help the group achieve its goals. Speak up if you have something useful to say, but don’t monopolize the discussion or talk simply to bring attention to yourself. • Close effectively. At the conclusion of the meeting, verify that the objectives have been met; if they have not, arrange for follow-up work as needed. Make sure all participants agree on the outcome and give people a chance to clear up any misunderstandings. To review the tasks that contribute to productive meetings, refer to “Checklist: Improving Meeting Productivity.” For formal meetings, it’s good practice to appoint one person to record the minutes, a summary of the important information presented and the decisions made during a meeting. If your company doesn’t have a specific format for minutes, follow the generic format shown in Figure 2.5. Key elements include a list of those present and a list of those who were invited but didn’t attend, followed by the times the meeting started and ended, all major decisions reached at the meeting, all assignments of tasks to meeting participants, and all subjects that were deferred to a later meeting. In

✓ CHECKLIST:

Improving Meeting Productivity B. Lead effectively and participate fully.

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Make sure the meeting is necessary. Decide on your purpose. Select participants carefully. Choose the time and facility. Set the agenda.

Keep the meeting on track. Follow agreed-upon rules. Encourage participation. Participate actively. Close effectively.


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

A. Prepare carefully.


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Clearly indicates which meeting these minutes represent Lists who did and did not attend the meeting

Summarizes outcomes, not entire discussions: • Reminds everyone of what took place • Shows who is responsible for which follow-up tasks • Summarizes all decisions and suggestions made

FIGURE 2.5 Typical Minutes of a Meeting The use of intranet and blog postings is a common way to distribute meeting minutes. The specific format of the minutes is less important than making sure you record all the key information, particularly regarding responsibilities that were assigned during the meeting.

addition, the minutes objectively summarize important discussions, noting the names of those who contributed major points. Outlines, subheadings, and lists help organize the minutes; additional documentation (such as tables or charts submitted by meeting participants) is noted in the minutes and attached. Many companies now post meeting minutes on intranet sites or blogs for easy reference.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Using Meeting Technologies You can expect to use a variety of meeting-related technologies throughout your career. Learn how to use these tools effectively, and you’ll become a more effective contributor and leader in all your meetings. Some meeting technologies assist with local, or on-site, meetings, in which everyone is in the same room at the same time. For example, electronic whiteboards capture meeting notes and create files that can be printed, e-mailed, and archived. Electronic presentations are used extensively in business; you’ll learn more about them in Chapter 14. Most of the recent innovations in meeting technology are in support of virtual meetings, in which participants interact remotely. Virtual meeting technologies

Virtual meeting technologies range from instant messaging to videoconferencing to web-based systems.


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Companies continue to look for innovative ways to promote communication and collaboration while reducing the cost and hassle of meetings.

encompass a wide range of tools that let team members in different locations interact without the disruption, risk, and cost of travel.42 Instant messaging and teleconferencing, in which three or more people are connected by phone simultaneously, are the simplest forms of virtual meetings. When you are invited to participate in a teleconference, you are typically given a special phone number and a meeting access code, which ensures the privacy of the session. Videoconferencing combines audio communication with live video, letting team members see each other, demonstrate products, and transmit other visual information. Videoconferencing can take place either over the Internet or through dedicated networks with specially built rooms in the involved locations. The most sophisticated web-based meeting systems combine the best of instant messaging, shared workspaces, and videoconferencing with other tools such as virtual whiteboards that let teams collaborate in real time (see Figure 2.6). Using such systems, attendees can log on from a desktop or laptop PC, a PDA, or even a webenabled mobile phone from almost anywhere in the world. Technology continues to create intriguing opportunities for online interaction. For instance, one of the newest virtual tools is online brainstorming, in which companies conduct “idea campaigns” to generate new ideas from people across the organization. These range from small team meetings to huge events such as IBM’s giant InnovationJam, in which 100,000 IBM employees, family members, and customers from 160 countries were invited to brainstorm online for three days.43 Companies are also beginning to experiment with virtual meetings and other communication activities in virtual worlds such as Second Life (www.secondlife.com). In much the same way that gamers can create and control characters (often known as avatars) in a multiplayer video game, professionals can create online versions of themselves to participate in meetings, training sessions, sales presentations, and other activities (see Figure 2.7). For example, the computer company Sun Microsystems created the Sun Pavilion in Second Life. This virtual arena provides a place for Sun executives and invited guests to present information and share ideas.44

FIGURE 2.6 Web-Based Meetings Online meetings offer powerful tools for communication, but you need to be proficient at using these tools if you are to be effective during online meetings.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.


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FIGURE 2.7 Virtual Meetings in a Virtual World Virtual reality environments such as Second Life let presenters transcend the limits of physical reality. Here at Sun Microsystem’s pavilion in Second Life, a presenter floats in front of a giant version of a computer chip. In real life, such a chip would be smaller than a postage stamp, making it impossible for the audience to see important details.

IMPROVING YOUR LISTENING SKILLS The importance of listening, whether in meetings and other business contexts or in your personal life, is self-evident: If a receiver won’t or can’t listen, the speaker’s message simply won’t get through. Some 80 percent of top executives say that listening is the most important skill needed to get things done in the workplace.45 Effective listening strengthens organizational relationships, enhances product delivery, alerts the organization to opportunities for innovation, and allows the organization to manage growing diversity in the workforce and in the customers it serves.46 Companies whose employees and managers listen effectively stay informed, up to date, and out of trouble. Conversely, poor listening skills can cost companies millions of dollars a year as a result of lost opportunities, legal mistakes, and other errors. Effective listening is vital to the process of building trust not only between organizations but also between individuals.47 Throughout your career, effective listening will give you a competitive edge, enhancing your performance and thus the influence you have within your company.

Listening is one of the most important skills in the workplace.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Recognizing Various Types of Listening Understanding the nature of listening is the first step toward improving your listening skills. People listen in a variety of ways, which influences what they hear and the meaning they extract. In fact, relying on a single approach to listening limits your effectiveness. A people-oriented listener might miss important information about an upcoming deadline, whereas an action-oriented listener might miss an important clue that there’s a personal problem brewing between two team members.48 As you read about the major types of listening, reflect on your own inclination as a listener and consider how learning to use several methods could make your listening more effective. The primary goal of content listening is to understand and retain the speaker’s message. For example, Henry Nordhoff, CEO of the San Diego–based pharmaceutical company Gen-Probe, has a business background and relies on content listening to gather technical information from the scientists whose work he oversees.49 When you’re listening for content, the emphasis is on information and understanding. Ask questions to clarify the material and probe for details. Because you’re not evaluating

To be a good listener, adapt the way you listen to suit the situation.



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at this point, it doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree, approve or disapprove—only that you understand. Try to overlook the speaker’s style and any limitations in the presentation; just focus on the information.50 The goal of critical listening is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message on several levels: the logic of the argument, the strength of the evidence, the validity of the conclusions, the implications of the message for you and your organization, the speaker’s intentions and motives, and the omission of any important or relevant points. If you’re skeptical, ask questions to explore the speaker’s point of view and credibility. Be on the lookout for bias that could color the way the information is presented and be careful to separate opinions from facts.51 The goal of empathic listening is to understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants so that you can appreciate his or her point of view, regardless of whether you share that perspective. By listening in an empathic way, you help When you engage in empathic listening, you pay attention to the individual vent the emotions that prevent a calm, clearfeelings, needs, and wants—not just the spoken words. headed approach to the subject. Sometimes the only thing an upset colleague is looking for is somebody to listen, so avoid the temptation to jump in with advice unless the person specifically asks for it. Also, don’t judge the speaker’s feelings and don’t try to tell the person he or she shouldn’t feel this or that emotion. Instead, let the speaker know that you appreciate his or her feelings and understand the situation. After you establish that connection, you can then help the speaker move on to search for a solution.52 No matter what mode they are using at any given time, effective listeners try to engage in active listening, making a conscious effort to turn off their own filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other party is saying. They ask questions or summarize the speaker’s message to verify key points and encourage the speaker through positive body language and supportive feedback.53

Understanding the Listening Process

Listening involves five steps: receiving, decoding, remembering, evaluating, and responding.

Listening is a far more complex process than most people think. As a consequence, most of us aren’t very good at it. Given such complexity, it’s no wonder most of us listen at or below a 25 percent efficiency rate, remember only about half of what’s said during a 10-minute conversation, and forget half of that within 48 hours.54 Furthermore, when questioned about material we’ve just heard, we are likely to get the facts mixed up.55 Why is such a seemingly simple activity so difficult? The answer lies in the complexity of the process. Listening follows the same sequence as the general communication process model you explored in Chapter 1 (page 12), with the added burden that it happens in real time. To listen effectively, you need to successfully complete five separate steps:56

2. Decoding. Your next step is to assign meaning to sounds, which you do according to your own values, beliefs, ideas, expectations, roles, needs, and personal history. 3. Remembering. Before you can act on the information, you need to store it for future processing. As you learned in Chapter 1, incoming messages must first be Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

1. Receiving. You start by physically hearing the message and acknowledging it. Physical reception can be blocked by noise, impaired hearing, or inattention. Some experts also include nonverbal messages as part of this stage because these factors influence the listening process as well.


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captured in short-term memory, and then they are transferred to long-term memory for more permanent storage. 4. Evaluating. With the speaker’s message captured, your next step is to evaluate it by applying critical thinking skills. You separate fact from opinion and evaluate the quality of the evidence. 5. Responding. After you’ve evaluated the speaker’s message, you react. If you’re communicating one-on-one or in a small group, the initial response generally takes the form of verbal feedback. If you’re one of many in an audience, your initial response may take the form of applause, laughter, or silence. Later on, you may act on what you have heard. If any one of these steps breaks down, the listening process becomes less effective or even fails entirely. As both a sender and a receiver, you can reduce the failure rate by recognizing and overcoming a variety of physical and mental barriers to effective listening.

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening Good listeners look for ways to overcome potential barriers throughout the listening process (see Table 2.2). For instance, simply working to avoid interrupting the speaker removes many potential barriers. If you have questions, wait until the speaker has finished speaking. And rustling papers, tapping on your PDA, or checking your watch—these are just a few of the many nonverbal behaviors that can interrupt a speaker and hamper listening for everyone. Selective listening is one of the most common barriers to effective listening. If your mind wanders, you may stay tuned out until you hear a word or phrase that gets your attention once more. But by that time, you’re unable to recall what the speaker actually said; instead, you remember what you think the speaker probably said.57

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

DISTINGUISHING EFFECTIVE LISTENERS FROM INEFFECTIVE LISTENERS

Effective Listeners

Ineffective Listeners

• Listen • Take careful and complete notes • Make frequent eye contact with the speaker (depends on culture to some extent) • Stay focused on the speaker and the content • Mentally paraphrase key points to maintain attention level and ensure comprehension • Adjust listening style to the situation • Give the speaker nonverbal cues (such as nodding to show agreement or raising eyebrows to show surprise or skepticism) • Save questions or points of disagreement until an appropriate time • Overlook stylistic differences and focus on the speaker’s message • Make distinctions between main points and supporting details • Look for opportunities to learn.

• Listen passively • Take no notes or take ineffective notes • Make little or no eye contact • Allow their minds to wander; are easily distracted • Fail to paraphrase • Listen with the same style, regardless of the situation • Fail to give the speaker nonverbal feedback • Interrupt whenever they disagree or don’t understand • Are distracted by or unduly influenced by stylistic differences; are judgmental • Are unable to distinguish main points from details • Assume they already know everything that’s important to know.

Good listeners actively try to overcome the barriers to successful listening.

Table 2.2



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Your mind can process information much faster than most speakers talk.

When information is crucial and you can’t record it in some way, use memory techniques to make sure you don’t forget it.

One reason listeners’ minds tend to wander is that people think faster than they speak. Most people speak at about 120 to 150 words per minute, but listeners can process audio information at up to 500 words per minute.58 In other words, your brain has a lot of free time whenever you’re listening and, if left unsupervised, it will find a thousand other things to think about. Make a conscious effort to focus on the speaker and use the extra time to analyze what you hear or prepare questions you want to ask. Overcoming such interpretation barriers can be difficult because you may not even be aware of them. As Chapter 1 notes, selective perception leads listeners to mold messages to fit their own conceptual frameworks. Listeners sometimes make up their minds before fully hearing the speaker’s message, or they engage in defensive listening—protecting their self-esteem by tuning out anything that doesn’t confirm their view of themselves. Even when your intentions are the best, you can still misinterpret incoming messages if you and the speaker don’t share enough language or experience. Lack of common ground is why misinterpretation is so frequent between speakers of different native languages, even when they’re trying to speak the same language. When listening to a speaker whose native language or life experience is different from yours, try to paraphrase that person’s ideas. Give the speaker a chance to confirm what you think you heard or to correct any misinterpretation. Overcoming memory barriers is a slightly easier problem to solve, but it takes some work. If the information is crucial, try to record it in some fashion. If you do need to memorize something, you can hold information in short-term memory by repeating it silently or organizing a long list of items into several shorter lists. To store information in long-term memory, four techniques can help: (1) associate new information with something closely related (such as the restaurant in which you met a new client), (2) categorize the new information (for example, alphabetize the names of products you’re trying to remember), (3) visualize words and ideas as pictures, and (4) create mnemonics such as acronyms or rhymes. Note that all four techniques have an important factor in common: You have to do something to make the information stick. For a reminder of the steps you can take to overcome listening barriers, see “Checklist: Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening.”

IMPROVING YOUR NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS Nonverbal communication supplements spoken language.

✓ CHECKLIST:

Nonverbal communication is the interpersonal process of sending and receiving information, both intentionally and unintentionally, without using written or spoken language. Nonverbal signals play three important roles in communication. The first is complementing verbal language: Nonverbal signals can strengthen a verbal message

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening ✓ Try to paraphrase the speaker’s ideas, giving that person a chance to confirm or correct your interpretation. ✓ Don’t count on your memory; write down or record important information. ✓ Improve your short-term memory by repeating information or breaking it into shorter lists. ✓ Improve your long-term memory through association, categorization, visualization, and mnemonics.


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

✓ Control whatever barriers to physical reception you can (such as avoiding interrupting speakers by asking questions or by exhibiting disruptive nonverbal behaviors). ✓ Avoid selective listening by trying to focus on the speaker and analyzing what you hear. ✓ Keep an open mind by avoiding any prejudgment and by not listening defensively.


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(when nonverbal signals match words), weaken a verbal message (when nonverbal signals don’t match words), or replace words entirely. The second role for nonverbal signals is revealing truth. In fact, nonverbal communication often conveys more to listeners than the words you speak—particularly when they’re trying to decide how you really feel about a situation or when they’re trying to judge your credibility and aptitude for leadership.59 However, even the power of nonverbal cues is not infallible when it comes to detecting truth. In one recent study, most people failed to detect dishonest speech roughly half the time; only a tiny fraction of the population are able to consistently detect when people are lying to them.60 The third role for nonverbal signals is conveying information efficiently. Nonverbal signals can convey both nuance and rich amounts of information in a single instant. For instance, in a tough situation, a colleague who rolls her eyes and cracks a wry smile could be saying, “Yes, we’re in a bind again, but we’ve worked our way through problems before. Let’s skip the cheerleading and motivational speaking and just get down to work.”

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Nonverbal cues help you ascertain the truth of spoken information.

Recognizing Nonverbal Communication Paying special attention to nonverbal signals in the workplace will enhance your ability to communicate successfully. Moreover, as you interact with business associates from other backgrounds, you’ll discover that some nonverbal signals don’t necessarily translate across cultures. You’ll learn more about cultural influences on nonverbal communication in Chapter 3. The range and variety of nonverbal signals are almost endless, but you can grasp the basics by studying six general categories: • Facial expression. Your face is the primary site for expressing your emotions; it reveals the type and the intensity of your feelings.61 Your eyes are especially effective for indicating attention and interest, influencing others, regulating interaction, and establishing dominance.62

Nonverbal signals include facial expression, gesture and posture, vocal characteristics, personal appearance, touch, and time and space.

• Gesture and posture. By moving or not moving your body, you express both specific and general messages, some voluntary and some involuntary. Many gestures— a wave of the hand, for example—have a specific and intentional meaning. Other types of body movement are unintentional and express a more general message. Slouching, leaning forward, fidgeting, and walking briskly are all unconscious signals that reveal whether you feel confident or nervous, friendly or hostile, assertive or passive, powerful or powerless.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

• Vocal characteristics. Your voice carries both intentional and unintentional messages. Consider the sentence “What have you been up to?” If you repeat that question, changing your tone of voice and stressing various words, you can consciously convey quite different messages. However, your voice can also reveal things of which you are unaware. Your tone and volume, your accent and speaking pace, and all the little ums and ahs that creep into your speech say a lot about who you are, your relationship with the audience, and the emotions underlying your words. • Personal appearance. People respond to others on the basis of their physical appearance—sometimes fairly and other times unfairly. Although an individual’s body type and facial features impose limitations, most people are able to control their appearance to some degree. Grooming, clothing, accessories, style—you can control all of these. Adopt the style of the people you want to impress. • Touch. Touch is an important way to convey warmth, comfort, reassurance—or control. Touch is so powerful, in fact, that it is governed by cultural customs that establish who can touch whom and how in various circumstances. In the United States and Great Britain, for instance, people usually touch less frequently than people in France or Costa Rica. Even within each culture’s norms, however, individual Excellence in Business Communication, Eighth Edition, by John V. Thill and Courtland L. Bovée. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Dressing too casually or too formally for a given business setting can send a signal that you don’t understand or don’t respect the situation.


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attitudes toward touch can vary widely. A manager might be comfortable using hugs to express support or congratulations, but his or her subordinates could interpret those hugs as either a show of dominance or sexual interest.63 Touch is a complex subject. The best advice: When in doubt, don’t touch. • Time and space. Like touch, time and space can be used to assert authority, imply intimacy, and send other nonverbal messages. For instance, some people try to demonstrate their own importance or disregard for others by making other people wait; others show respect by being on time. The manipulation of space works in a similar way. When top executives gather for lunch in a private dining room, they send a strong signal to all the employees crowding into the cafeteria downstairs. The decision to respect or violate someone’s “private space” is another powerful nonverbal signal. Again, attitudes toward time and space vary from person to person and culture to culture (see Chapter 3).

Using Nonverbal Communication Effectively Work to make sure your nonverbal signals match the tone and content of your spoken communication.

Paying attention to nonverbal cues will make you a better speaker and a better listener. When you’re talking, be more conscious of the nonverbal cues you could be sending (see “Sharpening Your Career Skills: Sending the Right Signals”). Are they effective without being manipulative? Consider a situation in which an employee has come to you to talk about a raise. This situation is a stressful one for the employee, so don’t say you’re interested in what she has to tell you and then spend your time glancing at your computer or checking your watch. Conversely, if you already know you won’t be able to give her the raise, be honest in expressing your emotions. Don’t overcompensate for your own stress by smiling too broadly or shaking her hand too vigorously. Both nonverbal signals would raise her hopes without justification. In either case, match your nonverbal cues to the tone of the situation.

SHARPENING YOUR CAREER SKILLS Sending the Right Signals The nonverbal signals you send can enhance—or undermine— your verbal message, so make sure to use nonverbal cues to your advantage. In U.S. business culture, the following signals are key to building and maintaining professional credibility: • Eye behavior. Maintain direct, but not continuous, eye contact. Don’t look down before responding to a question, and be careful not to shift your eyes around. Don’t look away from the other person for extended periods, and try not to blink excessively.

• Posture. Assume an open and relaxed posture. Walk confidently, with grace and ease. Stand straight, with both feet on the floor, and sit straight in your chair without slouching. Hold

• Voice. Strive for a conversational style, while speaking at a moderately fast rate. Use appropriate variation in pitch, rate, and volume. Avoid speaking in a monotone. Avoid sounding flat, tense, or nasal. Do your best to avoid ahs or ums, repeating words, interrupting or pausing mid-sentence, omitting parts of words, and stuttering.

CAREER APPLICATIONS 1. What message might you get if your boss smiles but looks away when you ask if you’ll be getting a raise this year? Explain your interpretation of these nonverbal signals. 2. Would you be reluctant to hire a job candidate who stares intently at you through an entire job interview? Why or why not?


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

• Gestures. When using gestures to emphasize points or convey the intensity of your feelings, keep them spontaneous, unrehearsed, and relaxed. Keep your hands and elbows away from your body, and avoid hand-to-face gestures, throat clearing, fidgeting, and tugging at clothing. Don’t lick your lips, wring your hands, tap your fingers, or smile out of context.

your head level, and keep your chin up. Shift your posture while communicating, leaning forward and smiling as you begin to answer a question. Avoid keeping your body rigid or otherwise conveying a sense of tension.


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✓ CHECKLIST:

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Improving Nonverbal Communication Skills

A. Understand the roles that nonverbal signals play in communication. ✓ Nonverbal signals complement verbal language by strengthening, weakening, or replacing words. ✓ Nonverbal signals often reveal the truth, sometimes conveying more to listeners than spoken words. B. Recognize nonverbal communication signals. ✓ Note that facial expressions (especially eye contact) reveal the type and intensity of a speaker’s feelings. ✓ Watch for cues from gesture and posture.

✓ Listen for vocal characteristics that signal who the speaker is, the speaker’s relationship with the audience, and the emotions underlying the speaker’s words. ✓ Recognize that listeners are influenced by physical appearance. ✓ Be careful with physical contact; touch can convey positive attributes but can also be interpreted as dominance or sexual interest. ✓ Pay attention to the use of time and space.

Also consider the nonverbal signals you send when you’re not talking—the clothes you wear, the way you sit, the way you walk. Are you talking like a serious business professional but dressing like you belong in a dance club or a frat house? Avoiding eye contact, keeping your hands in your pockets, and failing to sit or stand up straight can tell people that you lack confidence in yourself or interest in others.64 When you listen, be sure to pay attention to the speaker’s nonverbal cues. Do they amplify the spoken words or contradict them? Is the speaker intentionally using nonverbal signals to send you a message that he or she can’t put into words? Be observant but don’t assume that you can “read someone like a book.” Nonverbal signals are powerful, but they aren’t infallible. Contrary to popular belief, just because someone doesn’t look you squarely in the eye doesn’t mean he or she is lying.65 If something doesn’t feel right, ask the speaker an honest and respectful question; doing so may clear everything up, or it may uncover issues you need to explore further. See “Checklist: Improving Nonverbal Communication Skills” for a summary of key ideas regarding nonverbal skills.

What signals does your personal appearance send?

DEVELOPING YOUR BUSINESS ETIQUETTE

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

By now you may have noticed a common thread running through the topics of successful team efforts, productive meetings, effective listening, and nonverbal communication: All these activities depend on mutual respect and consideration among all participants. As Chapter 1 notes, etiquette is now considered an essential business skill. Nobody wants to work with someone who is rude to colleagues or an embarrassment to the company. Moreover, shabby treatment of others in the workplace can be a huge drain on morale and productivity.66 Poor etiquette can drive away customers, investors, and other critical audiences—and it can limit your career potential. Here are some key etiquette points to remember when you’re in the workplace and out in public.

Business Etiquette in the Workplace Knowing how to behave and how to interact with people in business will help you appear polished, professional, and confident.67 Understanding business etiquette also helps you put others at ease so that they are comfortable enough to do business with you.68 Both of these factors will be major contributors to your career success.

Attention to basic business etiquette will help your career at every stage.



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Personal appearance can have considerable impact on your success in business.

Plan phone calls as carefully as you plan meetings.

Table 2.3

For instance, rightly or wrongly, your personal appearance often has considerable impact on your career success. Pay attention to the style of dress where you work and adjust your style to match. Expectations for specific jobs, companies, and industries can vary widely. The financial industries tend to be more formal than high technology, for instance, and sales and executive positions usually come with more formal expectations than positions in engineering or manufacturing. Observe others carefully and don’t be afraid to ask for advice. If you’re not sure, dress moderately and simply—earn a reputation for what you can do, not for what you can wear. Table 2.3 offers some general guidelines on assembling a business wardrobe that’s cost-effective and flexible. In addition to your clothing, grooming affects the impression you give others in the workplace. Pay close attention to cleanliness and avoid using products with powerful scents, such as perfumed soaps, colognes, shampoos, and after-shave lotions (many people are bothered by these products, and some are allergic to them). Shampoo frequently, keep hands and nails neatly manicured, use mouthwash and deodorant, and make regular trips to a hair stylist.69 Some companies have specific policies regarding hairstyles, which you may be expected to follow.70 Something as simple as your smile also affects the way people do business with you. When you smile, do so genuinely. A fake smile is obvious because the timing is frequently off, and the expression fails to involve all the facial muscles that a genuine smile would.71 However, certain occasions require smiling, such as when you’re introduced to someone, when you give or receive a compliment, and when you applaud someone’s efforts.72 Phone skills have a definite impact on your success. Phone calls lack the visual richness of face-to-face conversations, so you have to rely on your attitude and tone of voice to convey confidence and professionalism. Table 2.4 summarizes helpful tips for placing and receiving phone calls in a confident, professional manner. If you’re accustomed to using your mobile phone anywhere and everywhere, get ready to change your habits. Mobile phones are causing so much disruption in the workplace that some senior executives now ban their use in meetings.73 Even if

ASSEMBLING A BUSINESS WARDROBE

1 Smooth and Finished (Start with this)

2 Elegant and Refined (To column 1, add this)

3 Crisp and Starchy (To column 2, add this)

4 Up-to-the-Minute Trendy (To column 3, add this)

1. Wear well-tailored clothing that fits well.

1. Choose form-fitting (but not skin-tight) clothing— not swinging or flowing fabrics, frills, or fussy trimmings.

1. Wear blouses or shirts that are or appear starched.

1. Add trendy clothing items to your wardrobe often.

2. Choose closed top-button shirts or button-down shirt collars, higher-neckline blouses, long sleeves with French cuffs and cuff links.

2. Choose bold colors (but sparingly so that you won’t appear garish).

2. Keep buttons, zippers, and hemlines in good repair. 3. Keep shoes shined and in good condition. 4. Make sure the fabrics you wear are clean, are carefully pressed, and do not wrinkle easily.

3. If possible, select a few classic pieces of jewelry (such as a string of pearls or diamond cuff links) for formal occasions.

3. Wear creased trousers or longer skirt hemline.

3. Embellish your look with trendy jewelry and hairstyles.

4. Wear jackets that complement an outfit and lend an air of formality to your appearance. Avoid jackets with more than two tones—one color should dominate.


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

5. Choose colors that flatter your height, weight, skin tone, and style.

2. Choose muted tones and soft colors or classics, such as the dark blue suit or the basic black dress.


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QUICK TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR PHONE SKILLS

General Tips

Placing Calls

Receiving Calls

Using Voice Mail

Use frequent verbal responses that show you’re listening (“Oh yes,” “I see,” “That’s right”).

Be ready before you call so that you don’t waste the other person’s time.

Answer promptly and with a smile so that you sound friendly and positive.

When recording your own outgoing message, make it brief and professional.

Minimize distractions and avoid making noise that could annoy the other party.

Identify yourself and your company (some companies have specific instructions for what to say when you answer).

If you can, record temporary greetings on days when you are unavailable all day so that callers will know you’re gone for the day.

Establish the needs of your caller by asking, “How may I help you?” If you know the caller’s name, use it.

Check your voice-mail messages regularly and return all necessary calls within 24 hours.

If you can, answer questions promptly and efficiently; if you can’t help, tell them what you can do for them.

Leave simple, clear messages with your name, number, purpose for calling, and times when you can be reached.

If you must forward a call or put someone on hold, explain what you are doing first.

State your name and telephone number slowly so that the other person can easily write them down; repeat both if the other person doesn’t know you.

Increase your volume just slightly to convey your confidence. Don’t speak in a monotone; vary your pitch and inflections so people know you’re interested. Slow down when conversing with people whose native language isn’t the same as yours. Stay focused on the call throughout; others can easily tell when you’re not paying attention.

Identify yourself and your organization, briefly describe why you’re calling, and verify that you’ve called at a good time. Don’t take up too much time. Speak quickly and clearly, and get right to the point of the call. Close in a friendly, positive manner and double-check all vital information such as meeting times and dates.

If you forward a call to someone else, try to speak with that person first to verify that he or she is available and to introduce the caller.

Be careful what you say; most voice-mail systems allow users to forward messages to anyone else in the system.

If you take a message for someone else, be complete and accurate, including the caller’s name, number, and organization.

Replay your message before leaving the system to make sure it is clear and complete.

mobile phones aren’t banned in your office, don’t let yours become a source of annoyance to your colleagues.

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Business Etiquette in Social Settings From business lunches to industry conferences, you represent your company when you’re out in public, so make sure your appearance and actions are appropriate to the situation. Get to know the customs of the culture when you meet new people. In North America, a firm handshake is expected when two people meet, whereas a respectful bow of the head is more appropriate in Japan. If you are expected to shake hands, be aware that the passive “dead fish” handshake creates an extremely negative impression. Also, women and men should shake hands on equal terms; the days of a woman offering just her fingertips are long gone in the business world. If you are physically able, always stand when shaking someone’s hand. When introducing yourself, include a brief description of your role in the company. When introducing two other people, speak their first and last names clearly, then try to offer some information (perhaps a shared professional interest) to help

You represent your company when you’re out in public, so etiquette continues to be important.



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these two people ease into a conversation.74 Generally speaking, the lower-ranking person is introduced to the senior-ranking person, without regard to gender.75 When you’re introduced to someone, repeat the person’s name as soon as possible. Doing so is both a compliment and a good way to remember it.76 Business is often conducted over meals, and knowing the basics of dining etiquette will make you more effective in these situations.77 Choose foods that are easy to eat; you don’t want to wrestle with a lobster while trying to carry on a conversation. If a drink is appropriate, save it for the end of the meal. Leave business papers under your chair until entrée plates have been removed; the business aspect of the meal doesn’t usually begin until then. Just as in the office, when you use your mobile phone in public, you send the message that people around you aren’t as important as your call and that you don’t respect your caller’s privacy.78 If it’s not a matter of life and death—literally—wait until you’re back in the office. Finally, always remember that business meals are a forum for business, period. Don’t get on your soapbox about politics, religion, or any other topic likely to stir up emotions. Don’t complain about work, don’t ask deeply personal questions, avoid profanity, and be careful with humor—a joke that entertains some people could easily offend others.

On the Job SOLVING COMMUNICATION DILEMMAS AT THE CONTAINER STORE past, but now that you’re in charge, the team will return to positive behavior under your enlightened guidance. d. Your professional reputation and the store’s sales are on the line, so you don’t have time for the niceties of team building. Sit down with the group and demand that the negative, unprofessional behavior stop immediately. 2. While you’re trying to figure out how to handle the overall team situation, you notice that the morning and evening huddles often degenerate into little more than complaint sessions. Workers seem to gripe about everything from difficult customers to the temperature in the store. Some of these sound like valid business issues that might require additional training or other employee support efforts; others are superficial issues that you suspect are simply by-products of the negative atmosphere. How should you handle complaints during the huddles? a. Try to defuse each complaint with humor; after a while, employees will begin to lighten up and stop complaining so much. b. Ask employees to refrain from complaining during the huddles; after all, these are important business meetings, not random social gatherings. c. Set up a whiteboard and write down each issue that is raised. After you’ve compiled a list over the course of a week or so, add a problem-solving segment to each huddle, in which you and the team tackle one issue per meeting to determine


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

After joining The Container Store, you quickly demonstrated your skills on the sales floor and soon earned an invitation to enter the company’s management training program. With that training completed, you couldn’t be more excited to take over your first store and begin the managerial phase of your career. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the store you’ve been assigned to developed some morale problems under the previous manager, and you have some challenges ahead to restore a sense of teamwork and positive communication. Apply the concepts you learned in this chapter to the following challenges. 1. The eight employees who now report to you once had a reputation for being a tight-knit, supportive team, but you quickly figure out this that team is in danger of becoming dysfunctional. For example, minor issues that functional teams routinely handle, from cleaning up the lunch area to helping each other on the sales floor, frequently generate conflict within this group. What steps should you take to help your crew return to positive behavior? a. Give the team the task of healing itself, without getting directly involved. Explain the steps necessary in forming an effective team and then let them figure out how to make it happen. b. Lead the “team restoration” project yourself so that you can mediate whatever conflicts arise, at least until the team is able to function on its own in a more positive manner. c. Don’t try to interfere; the negative behaviors were probably caused by an ineffective manager in the


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ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

the scope of each problem and identify possible solutions. d. Whenever a complaint is raised, stop the huddle and confront the person who raised the issue. Challenge him or her to prove that the problem is a real business issue and not just a personal complaint. By doing this, you will not only identify the real problems that need to be fixed but also discourage people from raising petty complaints that shouldn’t be aired in the workplace. 3. After observing the staff in action for a couple weeks and interviewing several dozen shoppers, you conclude that some employees are more effective than others when it comes to listening to customers and helping them find the right solutions to their individual needs. For instance, a few customers complained that the store employees who waited on them “did not seem to hear what I was saying,” and several others said that “they expected me to know the names of every product in the store before they could help me.” You recognize these as classic listening challenges, and you want to work with the corporation’s training specialists to design a short course in effective listening. Which of the following strategies will you emphasize in the course? a. Content listening is the best strategy because it is the only way to find out exactly what customers need. Train employees to filter out small talk and listen carefully for the precise terms customers use to describe the products they need and then work to match those needs with the store’s vast inventory of products. b. Because research shows that customers who enjoy the shopping experience in a store tend to stay longer and buy more, you should encourage employees to focus on empathic listening. By creating emotional bonds with shoppers, rather than jumping right in to talk about products, the sales staff will make shoppers more comfortable, which will eventually lead to increased sales. c. One of the issues your interviews uncovered is that customers often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, either because they don’t know what some products are called or because they simply don’t know what’s available in the marketplace. Consequently, critical listening—looking beyond the words and phrases customers use to identify the true needs they are trying to express—should be the primary focus. d. No single listening strategy is appropriate for all customers in all situations, so the best approach is to train employees to quickly assess each customer encounter in order to determine the best listening style to use. Design the training to help employees identify the clues they can use to decide how to proceed with each customer. For instance, if a couple walks in arguing about whether they should even be spending money on organizational products, the best approach

63

might be empathic listening: Defuse the negative emotions and encourage the shoppers to focus on their storage needs. In contrast, straightforward content listening is best for a customer who walks in with a printout from The Container Store website and asks to see a specific product. 4. First impressions can make or break the sale in retailing, and those impressions are created by everything from the cleanliness of the parking lot to the personal appearance of the store employees. Four job candidates are waiting outside your office, and you have a few moments to observe them before inviting them in for an initial interview (you can see them through the glass wall but can’t hear them). Based on the following descriptions, which of these people seems like the best fit for The Container Store? Why? a. Candidate A: A woman who is dressed perfectly for an interview at The Container Store. Her appearance is contemporary “business casual” but a notch or two more formal than the store employees, which suggests that she appreciates and shows respect for the business situation she finds herself in. However, you are slightly troubled by the fact that she’s listening to her iPod and has kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet under her while she waits in the chair. b. Candidate B: A man who has also dressed the part, although this candidate’s behavior is nothing like the relaxed, carefree attitude that Candidate A is showing. He seems to be juggling multiple tasks at once: checking notes on a PDA, organizing a collection of papers he pulled from his briefcase, reattaching several sticky notes that keep falling loose, and fiddling with a mobile phone that he has answered at least twice in the few minutes you’ve been watching. c. Candidate C: A woman who closed the notebook she was scanning in order to help Candidate B with some problem he was having with his mobile phone. (If you had to guess, he was having trouble figuring out how to silence the ringer.) After their interaction, they shake hands and appear to be introducing themselves with cordial smiles. Unfortunately, although the city is suffering through record high temperatures, her sundress and sandals strike you as a bit too casual for a job interview. d. Candidate D: A man wearing what appears to be a finely tailored, conservative suit. His appearance is more dignified and businesslike than the other three, and he knows how to dress for success— carefully knotted tie, starched shirt, perfect posture, the works. He keeps to himself and avoids bothering the other candidates, although his facial expressions make it clear that he disapproves of the noise Candidate B is making with his mobile phone.



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Learning Objectives Checkup Assess your understanding of the principles in this chapter by reading each learning objective and studying the accompanying exercises. For fill-in-the-blank items, write the missing text in the blank provided; for multiple-choice items, circle the letter of the correct answer. You can check your responses against the answer key on page AK-1. Objective 2.1: Highlight the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams. 1. Teams can achieve a higher level of performance than individuals alone because a. They combine the intelligence and energy of multiple individuals b. Motivation and creativity flourish in team settings c. They involve more input and a greater diversity of views, which tends to result in better decisions d. They do all of the above 2. Which of the following is a potential disadvantage of working in teams? a. Teams always stamp out creativity by forcing people to conform to existing ideas and practices. b. Teams increase a company’s clerical workload because of the additional government paperwork required for administering workplace insurance. c. Team members are never held accountable for their individual performance. d. Social pressure within the group can lead to groupthink, in which people go along with a bad idea or poor decision even though they may not really believe in it.

Objective 2.3: Explain how wiki technology can help teams collaborate. 5. Which of the following are key benefits of using wikis for collaborative communication? a. The ability to post web content without needing to learn the conventional tools and techniques for creating webpages b. The ability for managers to ensure that messages posted on webpages consistently follow the strategic messaging plan c. The freedom for anyone with access to post new or revised material quickly, without waiting for approval d. The ability to impose strict workflow rules on team communication e. Both a and c f. Both b and d Objective 2.4: Explain how group dynamics can affect team effectiveness. 6. Self-oriented roles are a type of ______________ behavior in group settings. 7. Which of the following is the most accurate description of groupthink? a. The ability of teams to generate more new ideas than a single employee can b. A situation in which team members value harmony more than effective decision making c. The ability of teams to uncover hidden agendas and ensure open, constructive communication d. The existence of peer pressure in group settings 8. Conflict in team settings can be beneficial when it is _____________ but harmful when it is _____________. Objective 2.5: Describe how meeting technologies can help participants communicate more successfully. 9. Online meeting technologies allow geographically dispersed teams to conduct ______________ meetings over the Internet. Objective 2.6: Describe the listening process, and explain how good listeners overcome barriers at each stage of the process. 10. After receiving messages, listeners ______________ what they’ve heard by assigning meaning to the sounds. 11. If you’re giving an important presentation and notice that many of the audience members look away when you try to make momentary eye contact, which of the following is most likely going on? a. These audience members don’t want to challenge your authority by making direct eye contact. b. You work with a lot of shy people. c. The information you’re presenting is making your audience uncomfortable in some way.


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Objective 2.2: Identify eight guidelines for successful collaborative writing. 3. Which of the following is the best way for a team of people to write a report? a. Each member should plan, research, and write his or her individual version and then the group can select the strongest report. b. The team should divide and conquer—one person doing the planning, one doing the research, one doing the writing, and so on. c. To ensure a true group effort, every task from planning through final production should be done as a team, preferably with everyone in the same room at the same time. d. Research and plan as a group but assign the actual writing to one person, or at least assign separate sections to individual writers and have one person edit them all to achieve a consistent style. 4. Which of the following steps should be completed before anyone from the team does any planning, researching, or writing? a. The team should agree on the project’s goals. b. The team should agree on the report’s title. c. To avoid compatibility problems, the team should agree on which word processor or other software will be used.

d. The team should always step away from the work environment and enjoy some social time in order to bond effectively before starting work.


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d. The audience is taking time to carefully think about the information you’re presenting. 12. If you don’t agree with something the speaker says in a large, formal meeting, the best response is to a. Signal your disagreement by folding your arms across your chest and staring defiantly back at the speaker b. Use your mobile phone or PDA to begin sending text messages to other people in the room, explaining why the speaker is wrong c. Immediately challenge the speaker so that the misinformation is caught and corrected d. Quietly make a note of your objections and wait until a question-and-answer period to raise your hand Objective 2.7: Clarify the importance of nonverbal communication, and briefly describe six categories of nonverbal expression. 13. Nonverbal signals can be more influential than spoken language because a. Body language is difficult to control and therefore difficult to fake, so listeners often put more trust in such cues than in the words a speaker uses b. Nonverbal signals communicate faster than spoken language, and most people are impatient c. Body language saves listeners from the trouble of paying attention to what a speaker is saying 14. Which of the following is true about nonverbal signals? a. They can strengthen a spoken message. b. They can weaken a spoken message. c. They can replace spoken messages. d. All of the above. Objective 2.8: Discuss the role of business etiquette, both in the workplace and in social settings. 15. Which of the following is the best characterization of etiquette in today’s business environment? a. Business etiquette is impossible to generalize because every company has its own culture; you have to make it up as you go along. b. With ferocious international competition and constant financial pressure, etiquette is an old-fashioned luxury that businesses simply can’t afford today. c. Ethical businesspeople don’t need to worry directly about etiquette because ethical behavior automatically leads to good etiquette. d. Etiquette plays an important part in the process of forming and maintaining successful business relationships.

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16. If you forgot to shut off your mobile phone before stepping into a business meeting and you receive a call during the meeting, the most appropriate thing to do is to a. Lower your voice to protect the privacy of your phone conversation b. Answer the phone then quickly hang it up to minimize the disruption to the meeting c. Excuse yourself from the meeting and find a quiet place to talk d.Continue to participate in the meeting while taking the call; this shows everyone that you’re an effective multitasker 17. Your company has established a designated “quiet time” from 1:00 to 3:00 every afternoon, during which office phones, instant messaging, and e-mail are disabled so that people can concentrate on planning, researching, writing, and other intensive tasks without being interrupted. However, a number of people continue to flout the guidelines by leaving their mobile phones on, saying their families and friends need to be able to reach them. With all the various ring tones going off at random, the office is just as noisy as it was before. What is the best response? a. Agree to reactivate the office phone system if everyone will shut off their mobile phones but have all incoming calls routed through a receptionist who will take messages for all routine calls and deliver a note if an employee truly is needed in an emergency. b. Give up on quiet time; with so many electronic gadgets in the workplace today, you’ll never achieve peace and quiet. c. Get tough on the offenders by confiscating mobile phones whenever they ring during quiet time. d. Without telling anyone, simply install one of the available mobile phone jamming products that block incoming and outgoing mobile phone calls. 18. Constantly testing the limits of your company’s dress and grooming standards sends a strong signal that you a. Don’t understand or don’t respect your company’s culture b. Are a strong advocate for worker’s rights c. Are a creative and independent thinker who is likely to generate lots of successful business ideas d. Represent the leading edge of a new generation of enlightened workers who will redefine the workplace according to contemporary standards

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Apply Your Knowledge 1. How can nonverbal communication help you run a meeting? How can it help you call a meeting to order, emphasize important topics, show approval, express reservations, regulate the flow of conversation, and invite a colleague to continue with a comment? 2. Whenever your boss asks for feedback during department meetings, she blasts anyone offering criticism,

which causes people to agree with everything she says. You want to talk to her about it, but what should you say? List some of the points you want to make when you discuss this issue with your boss. 3. Is conflict in a team good or bad? Explain your answer. 4. At your last department meeting, three people monopolized the entire discussion. What can you do at the next



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meeting to encourage other department members to voluntarily participate? 5. Ethical Choices Strange instant messages occasionally pop up on your computer screen during your team’s virtual meetings, followed quickly by embarrassed apologies from one of your colleagues in another city. You eventu-

ally figure out that this person is working from home, even though he says he’s in the office; moreover, the messages suggest that he’s running a sideline business from his home. You’re concerned about the frequent disruptions, not to mention your colleague’s potential ethical violations. What should you do? Explain your choice.

Practice Your Knowledge MESSAGE FOR ANALYSIS A project leader has made notes about covering the following items at the quarterly budget meeting. Prepare a formal agenda by putting these items into a logical order and rewriting, where necessary, to give phrases a more consistent sound. • Budget Committee Meeting to be held on December 12, 2008, at 9:30 A.M. • I will call the meeting to order. • Real estate director’s report: A closer look at cost overruns on Greentree site. • The group will review and approve the minutes from last quarter’s meeting. • I will ask the finance director to report on actual versus projected quarterly revenues and expenses. • I will distribute copies of the overall divisional budget and announce the date of the next budget meeting. • Discussion: How can we do a better job of anticipating and preventing cost overruns? • Meeting will take place in Conference Room 3, with WebEx active for remote employees. • What additional budget issues must be considered during this quarter?

2.3

2.4

2.5


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

EXERCISES For active links to all websites discussed in this chapter, visit this text’s website at www.prenhall.com/thill. Locate your book and click on its “Companion Website” link. Then select Chapter 2 and click on “Featured Websites.” Locate the name of the page or the URL related to the material in the text. Please note that links to sites that become inactive after publication of the book will be removed from the “Featured Websites” section. 2.1 Teamwork With a classmate, attend a local community or campus meeting where you can observe a group discussion, vote, or other group action. During the meeting, take notes individually and, afterward, work together to answer the following questions. a. What is your evaluation of this meeting? In your answer, consider (1) the leader’s ability to articulate the meeting’s goals clearly, (2) the leader’s ability to engage members in a meaningful discussion, (3) the group’s dynamics, and (4) the group’s listening skills.

2.2

b. How did group members make decisions? Did they vote? Did they reach decisions by consensus? Did those with dissenting opinions get an opportunity to voice their objections? c. How well did the individual participants listen? How could you tell? d. Did any participants change their expressed views or their votes during the meeting? Why might that have happened? e. Did you observe any of the communication barriers discussed in Chapter 1? If so, identify them. f. Compare the notes you took during the meeting with those of your classmate. What differences do you notice? How do you account for these differences? Team Communication: Overcoming Barriers Every month, each employee in your department is expected to give a brief oral presentation on the status of his or her project. However, your department has recently hired an employee with a severe speech impediment that prevents people from understanding most of what he has to say. As department manager, how will you resolve this dilemma? Please explain. Team Development: Resolving Conflict Describe a recent conflict you had with a team member at work or at school and explain how you resolved it. Did you find a solution that was acceptable to both of you and to the team? Ethical Choices During team meetings, one member constantly calls for votes before all the other members have voiced their views. As the leader, you asked this member privately about his behavior. He replied that he was trying to move the team toward its goals, but you are concerned that he is really trying to take control. How can you deal with this situation without removing the member from the group? Online Communication: Staying on Track with Blog Replies As the leader of a product development team, you write a daily blog to inform team members of questions, concerns, and other developments related to your project. Team members are always encouraged to reply to your online posts, but lately a number of people have been wandering off track with their replies, raising new issues in the middle of a dis-


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cussion thread or posting on matters unrelated to the item to which they’re replying. As a result, the blog is becoming less useful for everyone because individual message threads no longer stick to a single topic. Write a brief blog posting, three or four sentences at most, courteously reminding everyone why it’s important to stick to the subject at hand when replying to blog items. 2.6 Internet Visit the PolyVision website, at www. websterboards.com, and read about electronic whiteboards. What advantages do you see in using this kind of whiteboard during a meeting? Draft a short e-mail to your boss outlining the product’s advantages. 2.7 Telephones and Voice Mail Late on a Friday afternoon, you learn that the facilities department is going to move you—and your computer, your desk, and all your files—to another office first thing Monday morning. However, you have an important client meeting scheduled in your office for Monday afternoon, and you need to finalize some contract details on Monday morning. You simply can’t lose access to your office at this point, and you’re more than a little annoyed that your boss didn’t ask you before approving the move. He has already left for the day, but you know he usually checks his voice mail over the weekend so you decide to leave a message asking him to cancel the move or at least call you at home as soon as possible. Using the voice mail guidelines listed in Table 2.4, plan your

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

Element of Listening

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message. (Use an imaginary phone number as your contact number and make up any other details you need for the call.) As directed by your instructor, submit either a written script of the message or a podcast recording of the actual message. 2.8 Nonverbal Communication: Analyzing Written Messages Select a business letter and envelope that you have received at work or home. Analyze their appearance. What nonverbal messages do they send? Are these messages consistent with the content of the letter? If not, what could the sender have done to make the nonverbal communication consistent with the verbal communication? 2.9 Nonverbal Communication: Analyzing Body Language Describe what the following body movements suggest when someone exhibits them during a conversation. How do such movements influence your interpretation of spoken words? a. Shifting one’s body continuously while seated b. Twirling and playing with one’s hair c. Sitting in a sprawled position d. Rolling one’s eyes e. Extending a weak handshake 2.10 Listening Skills: Self-Assessment How good are your listening skills? Use the following chart to rate yourself on each element of listening. Then examine your ratings to identify where you are strongest and where you can improve, using the tips in this chapter.

Always

Frequently

Occasionally

Never

1. I look for areas of interest when people speak.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

2. I focus on content rather than delivery.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

3. I wait to respond until I understand the content.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

4. I listen for ideas and themes, not isolated facts.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

5. I take notes only when needed.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

6. I really concentrate on what speakers are saying.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

7. I stay focused even when the ideas are complex.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

8. I keep an open mind despite emotionally charged language.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________

2.11 Etiquette: Coaching New Hires As the local manager of an international accounting firm, you place a high priority on professional etiquette. Not only does it communicate respect to your clients, but it also instills confidence in your firm by showing that you and your staff are aware of and able to meet the expectations of almost any audience. Earlier today, you took four recently hired college graduates to lunch with an important client. You’ve done this for years, and it’s

usually an upbeat experience for everyone, but today’s lunch was a disaster. One of the new employees made not one, not two, but three calls on his mobile phone during lunch. Another interrupted the client several times and even got into a mild argument. The third employee kept making sarcastic jokes about politics, making everyone at the table uncomfortable. And the fourth showed up dressed like she was expecting to bale hay or work in coal mine, not have a business



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lunch in a posh restaurant. You’ve already called the client to apologize, but now you need to coach these employees on proper business etiquette. Draft a brief

memo to these employees, explaining why etiquette is so important to the company’s success—and their individual careers.

Expand Your Knowledge LEARNING MORE ON THE WEB

SURFING YOUR WAY TO CAREER SUCCESS

MAKING MEETINGS WORK WITH THE 3M MEETING NETWORK

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Headline News offers links to hundreds of online resources that can help you with this course, your other college courses, and your career. Visit www.businesscommunicationblog.com and click on “Web Directory.” The “Business Communication” section connects you to a variety of websites and articles on business English and business writing, as well as such important topics as information overload, company culture, company image, and business etiquette. Identify three websites from this section that could be useful in your business career. For each site, write a two-sentence summary of what the site offers and how it could help you launch and build your career.

www.3m.com/meetingnetwork The 3M Meeting Network contains a wide selection of articles on planning meetings, designing activities to build teamwork, and making better presentations. Click on “Articles & Advice,” find the appropriate articles, and then answer the following questions. 1. How can you know if a meeting should be held or not? 2. How can good leaders show they trust the group’s ability to perform successfully? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of “open space” meetings, which take place without formal agendas or facilitation?

Learn Interactively INTERACTIVE STUDY GUIDE Go to the Companion Website at www. prenhall.com/thill and locate your book, then click on “Companion Website.” Select Chapter 2 to take advantage of the interactive “Chapter Quiz” to test your knowledge of chapter concepts. Receive instant feedback on whether you need additional studying. Also, visit the “Study Hall,” where you’ll find an abundance of valuable resources that will help you succeed in this course. PEAK PERFORMANCE GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS If your instructor has required the use of “Peak Performance Grammar and Mechanics,” either in your online course or on

CD, you can improve your skill with pronouns by using the “Peak Performance Grammar and Mechanics” module. Click on “Grammar Basics” and then “Nouns and Pronouns.” Take the Pretest to determine whether you have any weak areas. Then review those areas in the Refresher Course. Take the Follow-Up Test to check your grasp of pronouns. For an extra challenge or advanced practice, take the Advanced Test. Finally, for additional reinforcement, go to the “Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage” section that follows and complete those exercises.

Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage 2. Few of the sales representatives turn in (their, its) reports on time. 3. The board of directors has chosen (their, its) officers. 4. Gomez and Archer have told (his, their) clients about the new program. 5. Each manager plans to expand (his, their, his or her) sphere of control next year. 6. Has everyone supplied (his, their, his or her) Social Security number?


ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

The following exercises help you improve your knowledge of and power over English grammar, mechanics, and usage. Turn to the Handbook of Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage at the end of this book and review all of Section 1.2 (Pronouns). Then look at the following 10 items. Underline the preferred choice within each set of parentheses. (Answers to these exercises appear on page AK-3.) 1. The sales staff is preparing guidelines for (their, its) clients.


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For additional exercises focusing on pronouns, go to www.prenhall.com/thill then locate your text and click on its “Companion Website” link. click on Chapter 2, click on “Additional Exercises to Improve your Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage,” then click on “3. Case of pronouns” or “4. Possessive pronouns.”

ISBN: 0-558-13856-X

7. After giving every employee (his, their, a) raise, George told (them, they, all) about the increased workload. 8. Bob and Tim have opposite ideas about how to achieve company goals. (Who, Whom) do you think will win the debate? 9. City Securities has just announced (who, whom) it will hire as CEO. 10. Either of the new products would readily find (their, its) niche in the marketplace.

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