Business Communication Tips

There are many business communication tips one could share, but I am focusing on two that come to mind because of experiences I had this week.

In one experience, I was at an event with an auditorium full of people. The event host announced twice that flash photography was prohibited during the event. You can guess what happened. Within the next 10 minutes, approximately 20 flashes went off from different locations in the auditorium. There’s almost always a rogue in every crowd that won’t obey the rules, but the number of flashes indicated a real breakdown in communication.

One of my favorite business communication tips is: tell them 7 times to make sure everyone has heard it at least once. That tip doesn’t work so well in a crowd because you can really annoy the people that have actually heard it 7 times. The better approach is to mix up the way you tell them using different media. For example, while standing in line to enter the auditorium, a sign could convey the message. An event program could also display the message. It might have also been more effective if a blinding flash of light had gone off just before the person announced the message. The point is, if we want to get our message across, we have to get creative. Apply this tip when you conduct your next company-wide business meeting.

In another experience, someone apologized for not listening four times during a short one-to-one business conversation, even while maintaining eye contact. If he hadn’t apologized, I would have assumed he heard every word I said.

We are all distracted by so many things today. In a one-on-one setting, when the message is important, ask the person you are communicating with to tell you what they heard you say.

Apply these two business communication tips and I promise you’ll get more of your message across to your people.