24/06/2012

The importance of maintaining effective channels of communication:

Question:

Ø Explain the importance of having and effective communication system with the department in the organization.

Answer:

(NB)  All of this must be built in the team.

Ø Respect.

Ø Trust.

Ø Confidence.  

   So that the results can be effective and cooperative.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

A consistent and constant effort is required from all team members in order to maintain effective working relations and create an atmosphere that encourages productivity.

It is important that the staff treat each other in a polite and helpful manner at all time. If there is a positive vibe between each other, it will be recognize by the guest and give a positive image reflection to the people. Communication plays a part in almost every aspect of your business, so being able to communicate well can boost your overall performance.

If there isn’t a positive vibe between each staff member the guest will see it and they will not feel welcome or that there is a bad vibe in the atmosphere. It is also important to support each other in the performance of their work, so that they can do well and enjoy their work.

This is so important because if there is a good atmosphere there is quests and where there is a bad atmosphere there is no guests. If they can’t work with each other, there must be steps taken to find out what is the problem. Good communication is essential to building a cohesive and effective team. Good communication skills are essential to managing the performance of your team members, and if you know how to communicate well to large groups you can minimise the risk of industrial problems developing in your workplace. Good communication skills are a key part of managing individual employee performance. If you have good communication skills, you will know how to give clear feedback on performance while not denting people’s self-esteem. Good communication skills will enable you to work more closely with your team members, determine personal goals that will suit them and help them to work towards those goals. Also no miscommunication or fights will happen.

Guest like to go to a restaurant or a place where they fell welcome and that there are friendly people around them.

They don’t like to go to a place that they don’t feel welcome to.

So the importance is to let your staff members feel that they can work with each other and that they have respect, trust and confidence in each other.

“Having good communications skills is like having a good IT system - information flows faster and this saves you money.”

Good business starts with FRENDLY staff!

Question

Develop a stratage for improving communication with the department and with other departments.

Answer:

Three skills needed by all workers: teamwork, flexibility, and communication.

First there is different kind of communication skills:  

None verbal communication: Welcoming attitude, correct posture, eye contact, letters, and sms.

Verbal communication: Effective listening, taking notes, talk.

Special needs: Communication techniques.

“Effective communication isn’t about talking; it’s about exchanging information so that everyone gets something valuable out of the conversation.”

Most of the distortion, misunderstandings and breakdowns occur in vertical communication (communication which moves up and down the hierarchal network)

You need good communication skills if you want to succeed. Workplace communication is one of the most important factors to the success of the business. By having an open communication system in your work, team members will feel free to work together, and employees will be able to talk with managers when necessary. Better communication also increases trust and collaboration between teams. By getting the basics of good professional communication down, all the people in your business will feel more connected, and increase success on all business projects.

So the best option is to learn how to speak to each other, and the main thing is think before you speak.

            Here are 7 steps that you can follow:

1. Think before You Speak: Don’t speak before you think.

2. Listen Carefully: Listen to your member and tray not to interrupt him/her. Wait for you turn to speak.

3. Increase Communication Channels: Tray to work on your communication skill in different ways. On phone, people etc.

4. Don’t Get Defensive: Don’t get defensive, tray to talk the problem out.

5. Ask for Help: Ask for help if you don’t know how to talk to the person, to know what the right way is.

6. Speak Slowly: Speak slowly and not fast so that the person can hear you clearly and understand what you talking about.

7. Take Action: When engaging in a conversation, make sure it’s as productive as it can be. Take action items during a professional conversation, and conclude the conversation by stating the outcomes and when to touch base on those action items again.

This can also help you:

1.     Listen more than you talk.

2.     Ask open-ended questions to get more information and listen to the answers.

3.     Stay away from questions that lead the conversation in a certain direction or only lead to a yes or no answer.

4.     Try not to think of the next thing that you want to say.

5.     Avoid thinking about the perfect rebuttal or your next fantastic anecdote.

6.     Allow people to say what they want and give them the space to do so.

7.     Learn how to listen actively. Search online under “active listening” to learn how to do it.

8.     Did I mention listening?

Dealing with conflict situations

Question:

State company procedures for resolving conflict within the department.

Answer:

What is conflict?

Conflict occurs when there is a disagreement between one or more people with different ideas.

4 main types of conflict:

Intra personal

Inter personal

 Intra group

 Inter group

3 main types can cause conflict:

Resources

Psychological

 Values

When conflict is resolved, the situation changes:

 This allows the employees to move forward without cycling continually around the base issues. When we don’t face the conflict and work through it, we avoid and/or try to defuse it instead. If this is the case, the issues underlying the conflict do not change, they will just be compounded. So there will always be the SAME conflicts to avoid and to diffuse.

How to handle conflict:

1.      No playing dirty. Keep it role/behavior focused – don’t attack a person’s character. On top of this, make it clear that you are not attacking the person’s character.

1.      Don’t take it personally. On the flip side of not playing dirty is remembering that others are also focusing on your role/behavior. If it feels to you that there are people “playing dirty” – call them on it. And don’t forget to let them know how it makes you feel/react.

2.    Lay it all out. No conflict will be truly resolved if you do not share all the relevant issues as you see them. Don’t try to “tone down” your thoughts because you are unsure how they might be received.

3.     Don’t back pedal. If you meant something, don’t say “I didn’t mean it,” just because others responded negatively. If you tell someone that you don’t like how they did something, don’t say “It really wasn’t so bad” just because they seem upset by your feedback. When you back pedal, it sends conflicting messages, and it detracts from your message.

4.    Keep to what you know. If you suspect something, or are “making up a story” about something happening – verify it! If you act on assumptions regarding what others are thinking/feeling/doing, then not only will you be ineffective at resolving conflict, but you will look like an idiot. You can always ask – more often than not, you will get an honest answer.

5.     Empathize. When we are involved in a conflict, it is easy to forget that our “opponents” are people too. It is much easier to think of them as “the manager”, “the accountant”, etc. After that we start thinking of them as: “the thing which is blocking progress” or “the one standing in my way.” When we think this way, we lose influence with other people, because they see we are focussed only on ourselves, and that we don’t care about them. If instead, we remain aware that we are dealing with “real people” with real emotions, real goals and real desires, then we will be able to resolve conflict with them much more effectively.

Question:

Give a range of conflict situations, decide which procedure to follow and give a reason for this decision.

Answer:

Conflict management styles:

Ø Competition:

There is physical threat, the goal is more important than the relationship. 

Power play; Loss of relationships; Resentment.

Dominating, abusive, arrogant, bossy, yelling

Ø Avoidance:

There is danger to your safety.

Feeling hurt, misunderstood.

Indecisive, apologetic, submissive, timid.

Ø Accommodation:

The relationship is more important than your goal.

No solution, possible later resentment.

Submissive, agreeable, timid.

Ø Compromising:

If there is limited time.

Possible anger later, can maintain relationships.

Direct, good listening, everyone gives a little.

Ø Joint problem solving:

There is time, a long term solution is required and their relationship is important,

Satisfactory long term solution, improved relationship.

Good listening, creative, accepting, honest & open.

E.g.:

When first group has class for an hour and then the next hour the other group must go to class.

But the first group didn’t know it was just one hour, and then they faith over it. Say ugly word and fight.

It isn’t the right way because the second class that come cud have just ask nicely, do they know they just had one hour class and if they didn’t knew one person cud have asked a manager and sort the problem out.

Why: Because you can avoid the conflict between each other. Make sure of each other’s knowledge before you give accusations.