Communication

Module 2: BUILD & MANAGE RELATIONSHIPS

www.cmsitservices.com
© 2017 Copyright CMS IT Services Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
This training session is not a typical

“lets play Chinese whispers”

to learn communication!
Communication

In today’s time vs. few years back, we now have smart gadgets,
fastest internet connectivity and hence our ability to
communicate must have gone up drastically.

TRUE or FALSE?
 Communication

• Meaning: simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or
group to another
– This is considered a “soft skill”

• Frankly I don’t agree. Nothing soft about it. Communication skill has potential to
give hardest of impact/results

• 3 ingredients to every communication

– A, B, C? What are these?
 A : Sender B : Message C : Receiver

• Types - Verbal, nonverbal, written and visual

Types of communication

• Every one of these 3 is vital

– Sender
– Message
– Receiver

Imagine scenarios …work or personal:

32 = 9
• If sender is polite or rude possible
• If message is clear or confusing
• If receiver is willing or unwilling outcomes
Next level of imp ingredients

• “Demeanor” of sender and receiver

• https://youtu.be/_iYu9ZtgaAE
• Method or process of communication
– Verbal
– Written
– Visual only (no verbal, no writing)
 Types of communication
• Verbal: Use of language to transfer information through speaking or sign language. ORAL!

• Nonverbal: Use of body language, gestures and facial expressions to convey information to

others. DEMEANOR!

• Written: Act of writing, typing or printing symbols like letters and numbers to convey

information. EMAIL/PHONE MESSAGE!

• Visual: photos, drawings, art and charts to convey information. GRAPHICS!

VERBAL
 Verbal
• The objective of verbal communications is to ensure that people understand whatever
you want to convey.

• Verbal communication is more quick and precise than written or visual communication.
o Typical written formats used at CMS – send an Email, SMS, WhatsApp

• WA/FB/Twitter are slowly eroding this form. But in reality verbal is the most powerful,
effective, quickest* form in conveying message to greatest accuracy
* unless message has to be circulated across wide population spread over large geography
Watch this video – example of poor communication

• https://youtu.be/AAhIFD9czks

Post video , open the forum for discussions

– What was wrong?
– What should be avoided?
– How?
Verbal : Key takeaways from videos
• Be specific
• Your message should be based on 5 tenets what – why – who – how – when
– Especially for communication used at work
• If deadline exists, mention it clearly
• Do not mix too many topics into one message
• If your communication has to be passed on please mention the message in 5
tenets - what – why – who – how – when

Ensure receiver has understood message

Do not assume anything!
 Filler words in verbal communication

What are filler words? Why are they used?

Used unknowingly As a pause
Hesitation
Lack of confidence
As a validation
Attention grab
As a full-stop

Try and remove this habit

Filler words in verbal communication
• Fillers are meaningless words or sounds that marks a pause or hesitation in speech
– Basically, Actually, Correct, Right, OK, you know, like, I mean, so, umm, uhh

• To avoid filler words key is in the pace of speaking

• NO ONE REALISES YOUR PAUSE EXCEPT YOU!!!

• > 50% Indians use “actually” and “basically” to begin any sentence.

• > 50% Americans use “you know”; “right”; “ok”

• Europeans tend to use “yeah” at end of every sentence

Filler exercise
• Picture this scenario for a moment ..
• You are conducting an interview for a critical position at CMSIT
• You ask Ms. Deepali …”how did you manage to complete those actions for this
project that too exactly per customer’s feedback. Seems like an impressive feat.
Please tell me more about it”
– Deepali speaks: Basically, I started on uhh three out of the five
feedbacks given, umm, uhh and then actually found there is a
problem with solution 5, ok? I mean, this solution basically
needed to be revisited, umm, uhh so I called the customer and
basically told him to give me his feedback again, correct? …

Everyone now read this in your mind omitting all the highlighted words
Filler words display a sense of under-confidence, under-preparedness,
dishonest information, lack of completeness…even though you may be
100% on-time, 100% at par with expected outcome and 100% in control
of situation. Has this happened with you?

Without any filler words didn’t the answer sound more convincing?
There was absolutely no need of any filler words

Speaker never realizes use of filler words; only listener has to face these darts
 How to get rid of filler words
• Whenever you need one take a pause

• This ½ sec pause no one will notice. Only you feel it’s a pause. Listener will welcome it. Allows

listener more time to process all information.

• Your message will now be heard more clearly! It will be more impactful.

• Practice this from now. Try it with your work friends, spouse, children …

• See how much impact it will leave on your listener! They will notice a “new you”

More importantly … You will feel good about Yourself

Confident, Fearless!
NON-VERBAL
 Non-verbal
• Behavior and elements of speech aside from words that transmit meaning.
• Non-verbal communication includes:
– pitch, speed, tone and volume of voice,
– gestures and facial expressions,
– body posture, stance, and proximity to the listener,
– eye movements and contact, and
– dress / appearance

Vertically present or Vertically dead? How many remember this line?

Non-verbal
Voice modulation

1. Pitch – high or low

2. Speed – fast or slow
3. Tone – polite or rude
4. Volume – high or low

Importance of any message or conversation can be controlled or lost with these 4

parameters.

Speaker can come across as motivating, caring, help oriented or overpowering,

argumentative….jerk!
Gestures and facial expressions

• Eyes

• Lips

• Eyebrows
• Whether you give a slight head nod or blink your eyelids or
facial expressions in agreement or present information to a
large group or just participate in a group setting, “non-verbal
communication” is absolutely necessary when building
relationships, sharing ideas, delegating responsibilities,
managing a team and much more.
Body posture

• Upright or slouching

• Leaning forward or laid back

• Still feet/hands or constantly tapping/twiddling

• Straight neck or tilted on one side?

• Dozing off or attentive?

Appearance

• Matters immensely!
• Imagine this…

– Sender dressed in flip flops, torn jeans, crumpled

unwashed shirt …for his first date!

– Receiver sulking, grumpy, no smile!

• At work we need to be presentable in front of customer,

colleagues, vendors. It creates a +ve impact on receiver
of your message
WRITTEN
Written

• Silent form
• Leaves an impact on reader
– Positive or negative
• Must be well compiled
• Can lose seriousness with silly mistakes
• Most commonly used form of communication
 Tenets of written form
• Spelling mistakes (typo)
– I receive only < 10% emails which do not have typos.
– Typos typically gives reader an impression of “lazy, careless, not serious” about sender.
– Typical typo is with mis-placed use of vowels – a,e,i,o,u

• Grammatical errors
– Their vs There (Ex: They forgot to pack there lunch)
– Lose vs Loose (Ex: we are about to loose this deal)
– Say vs tell (Ex: please say to them I will be available)
– Your vs You’re
– Grammatical error can convert your message into a very different meaning
Some principles of written communication
• @ Work we use emails as most common mode of communicating
– Slides, Excels, Word documents
– Online portals

• How to compose emails:

– Crisp ; short ; highlight key numbers or words
– Make it easy to read quickly
– Send it to right audience. Don’t copy your entire town residents on it!
– Why do we tend to include names in “cc” for each email?
• Is it to ensure “to” receiver knows its importance. Is it needed?
– This is biggest reason why information gets missed is because of unnecessary emails that
clog an inbox.
• If your boss receives 200 emails every day because s/he is “cc’ed” on every email wont it get lost after few
days of pile up?
• Subject Line to be changed accordingly

EMAIL = relevant information; correct recipient/s; no typos; no grammatical errors

Slides, Excels, Word documents

• Slides
– What is going to be reviewed?
– Less words on slides
– More pictures, graphs
– Engage with audience through thoughts
– Close slides with conclusion
Slides, Excels, Word documents

• Excels
– Have a summary tab
– Detailed tab
– Highlight critical cells / numbers
– Do not browse left /right/left/right in a spreadsheet when presenting
– Good charts/pivots/trendlines helps
Slides, Excels, Word documents

• Word doc
– Good font size
– Pass reading test on laptop and smart phone
– Highlight key words or sentences
– Spread into distinct categories if needed
VISUAL
Visual
• Transmission of information and ideas using symbols and imagery.
• It is believed to be the type that people rely on most and includes signs, graphic
designs, films, typography, and countless other examples.
• We see this type of communication most commonly.
• Think how many visual modes we use daily…
– Phone/Laptop/Gadgets
– Transportation – train, plane, bus, taxi
– Packaging – labels
– Entertainment - TV
– Medicines
– Religion
 Visual at work
• In context of us and our work …Visual is similar to written communication
• Think one step ahead too and see its impact
• Some of these will speak a lot about you
– Display a clean, undamaged CMS badge
– Clean laptop screen and keyboard…
– Tidy and uncluttered desk/office

• Visual communication is the most effective way of passing information because the
human mind processes things in images.
• Images leave lasting impact!
Summary

4 Types of communication

1. Verbal : oral skills

2. Non-verbal : demeanor, body language, facial expression
3. Written : emails, messages, slides, spreadsheets
4. Visual : signs, images, surrounding
“Situational” Handling
How will you communicate in these instances?

Discussion / Role-Play / Best practice sharing

When handling customers
Sample situations that you may face:

1. Client has a critical issue and expects immediate resolution.

2. Client has called you for a long pending problem in the laptop of VIP User.

3. Client has called you for a security breach.

4. Client is asking you to replace a team member.

5. Client asks you to carry out work which is not in scope free of cost.

6. You are escalating delay in payment of your invoices.

 In case of hierarchy

Sample situation you may face:

1. You are escalating customer issue (spare not available for 2 weeks) to the RDH.

2. RDH has called you as one of your customer has escalated an issues to the RDH.

3. SDM wants you to release 2 engineers from your team for other assignments.

4. Project committed by RDH to customer has not seen any progress or is pending
completion.
While dealing with Peers (cross functional)

Sample situation you may face:

1. You have to speak to RMG team for delay in recruitment of one ☺ of your
critical resource.
2. Talking to PM of other account for giving one resource for 10 days.
3. Speaking to Stores in charge for providing approval to buy a spare worth Rs.
25000/-
4. Talking to HR for performance issue of your team member.
 Reportees/team members/Juniors

1. Giving feedback when your team member has made a mistake?

2. Appreciating your team member when he/she has done a good job?

3. Assigning responsibilities/tasks during a holiday without causing employee dissatisfaction?

4. Encouraging them to speak about improvement areas and concerns without fear?

5. Retain your team members when he/she has resigned?

6. Advising your team members on career growth ?

7. Coaching your team member to handle a particular situation (e.g. for VIP users?)
 In BAU mode

1. How to communicate your action plan during critical period support for your customer? (e.g. during
festival season when sales is going to be very high)

2. How to communicate your preparedness for a critical event in your client’s organization? (for
example – Important conference of top management)

3. How do you communicate status/action plan for P1 incident?

4. How do you communicate successful completion of critical activity/P1 issue to the customer?

5. How to communicate an important observation which can lead to a big issue if not attended urgently
by the client’s organization? (e.g. sparks in the electric point of server/UPS which can cause damage)
• Remember to use combination of all or
appropriate communication types for
Verbal
corresponding situation.
Non-verbal
Written
• Each type of communication has a role and Visual

importance to play in almost every situation.

Use the skills.
They are simple.
Powerful.