Essay Sample: Improving My Managerial Communication Skills

It is essential for managers to have excellent communication skills that can allow them to turn strategy into actions (Holland, 2003). Managers have a responsibility of encouraging, inspiring and listening to other workers and when they do not have excellent communication skills, it is impossible to accomplish managerial functions effectively. Although all managers are required to have excellent leadership skills, all of them cannot possess the qualities of a good leader. This is because some cannot communicate effectively with their followers (Akbar, 2018). A good manager must have excellent listening skills, must be able to express his or her thought positively, have good communication with the followers and understand when to communicate or not. These leadership skills make managers communicate well with the employees. For the managers to develop communication skills their strategies that they can use to improve their communication skills and abilities.

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For managers to develop communication skills, they are required to get honest feedback from the followers as the first step to build good communication skills. Although it is very hard, it is essential to understand what people think about your communication skills. Enquire from workers and supervisors to help you get an open assessment of your ability to write, speak and present matters to them (Green & Crook, 2012). This will help you understand your writing, speaking and presentation ability. For you to strengthen your communication skills, you must first accept criticism and work hard to improve on the weaknesses you have identified in your communication skills.

Improving communication skills also require knowing the audience that you always speak or communicate to (Holland, 2003). A good leader should understand the diverse needs of their followers and ensure thy tailor their information about what workers require. For example, when a manager wants to talk to employees in generation Z, it is essential to use a simple form of communication, and when communicating to baby boomers, it is crucial to use emails and ensure there are frequent touch base meetings in the organization.

Dedication of much more effort at crisis time is also an effective way of improving communication skills (Akbar, 2018). Because good communication is required during critical hours such as mergers, it is important to involve in the discussion by ensuring there is one on one meetings and staff updates. This allows managers with poor communication to practice and earn what other managers are doing to communicate with the followers.

Listening more and more closely is also a way of improving communication skills. It makes one be a great listener by learning to listen to what others say. Listening is one of the communication skills which is useful for managers (Green & Crook, 2012). The employees always want to know if you can take their concerns more seriously when they have something important in their minds or when they have some questions to ask. It is essential to listen to them and allow them to explain what they want to you (Holland, 2003). Listening actively means paying attention for others and absorbing nonverbal cues and paying more attention to what they are saying instead quietly formulating feedback when they are talking. It is an essential skill which workers require because it shows how dangerous the manager takes the followers.

Improvement of communication skills also requires the availability of a manager. The manager must ensure that he is available for other employees. Currently, offices are not closed and ensure that they are open to other workers on a daily basis (Green & Crook, 2012). This ensures that you communicate with many workers. This is important in ensuring that you learn how to engage with other workers. Always try to be accessible as possible either physically or digitally. This provides that the employees have the opportunity to communicate with you often either as a person, through email or phone call. The openness made the employees feel welcome and listened to even when there are no serious issues to discuss.

Communication skills can also be improved through helping workers know the relationship between their duties or responsibilities and the shared goals of the organization. This will make employees and managers have proper engagement because the employees understand that their work matters a lot that what they earn (Akbar, 2018). For you to achieve these, there are some questions that you must be ready to answer, and they include how the workers are fit in the organization and what are the key objectives that all the workers are required to achieve and what should they do to help in its achievement? These questions help managers communicate the goal of the organization to workers, and this improves their general engagement.

Embracing straight talk is also one aspect which can be used by managers to improve their communication skills. Always try as much as possible to have a high level of integrity and honesty as these are essential qualities that work best for managers (Green & Crook, 2012). This is because quality still shines more than talent; therefore, it is necessary to shine in all the interactions especially with the employees. For this, they are likely to build trust and love thus allowing them to pay attention to what you are telling them. Although it is tempting to sugarcoat your messages or add gloss over facts when you have an intention of motivating workers, they may only work occasionally. Always try to speak truths the way they are so that workers believe in what you are telling them (Holland, 2003). When workers lose trust in what you are telling them, it is likely that the communication between you and they can collapse and morale fades away (Akbar, 2018). Although it is challenging to talk straightly, it is more useful to be sincere because it is a much better strategy that overpromising, be available to other workers and listening to workers. These are the most critical aspects that managers can use to improve their communication skills.

Conclusion

Improving communication skills is more demanding to managers than to other people. Managers must motivate the workers, and therefore it is not easy for them to have straight talk. There are vital communication skills that a manager must have, and they include listening, leadership skills, interpersonal skills and others. For managers to improve all these communication skills, they must be ready to engage with other followers closely so that they demonstrate leadership but not a dictatorship. This can be achieved through the demonstration of straight talk, helping workers know the relationship between their duties or responsibilities and the shared goals of the organization. Therefore, it is appropriate for an excellent manager to have excellent listening skills, must be able to express his or her thought positively, have good communication with the followers and understand when to communicate or not. These leadership skills make managers communicate well with the employees.

References

Akbar, S. A. (2018). Improving Communication Skills and Mathematical Understanding of Students. doi:10.31219/osf.io/eak2x

Green, M., Parrott, T., & Crook, G. (2012). Improving your communication skills. BMJ, e357. doi:10.1136/bmj.e357

Holland, A. L. (2003). Improving communication skills in individuals with dementia. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36(5), 325-326. doi:10.1016/s0021-9924(03)00046-7