The Art Of Poor Communication

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When you are in a commanding position – from a Lead to a CEO or Stakeholder, much is expected in terms of communication. Someone said ‘giving is the best form of communication’. What do you give? Information.

And what exactly is communication? Transmitting thoughts that can be read and understood. It’s not the mastery of the language or the command of the vocabulary that makes your communication good. These are of course required, if not good to possess, but the essence of communications gets down to the basics. The simpler the content, easier the read, and greater the understanding – it applies to both verbal and written form. We tend to assume speakers who can speak for hours are good communicators. Some of the greatest communicators, like Former President Ronald Reagan, who was known pen his own drafts, is hailed one amongst the best in connecting with the audience. That is the ultimate objective. Exchange of thoughts in manner there is no misunderstanding.

So what are the pitfalls in communication that makes it poor? There are many, and we have selected some of the most recurring and repeated mistakes.

Occupation Hazard: It could be an occupation hazard or the work backdrop, that communication suffers – though unintentionally. A Marketing professional uses some jargon frequently used at the work place which subconsciously influences the fluency. “So, what is the bottom line?” can have many interpretations and mostly misunderstood. It can mean as the ‘most fundamental aspect’ or ‘the balance sheet’. So how does a kid understand? ‘What is that you want to say finally?’ that’s why the disclaimer ‘occupational hazards’. It happens. Take for instance, the acronyms. MSP can stand for “Managing Successful Programmes” to “Medicare Secondary Payer “and several more expansions. So the context is essential. Set the context, and even the jargons will fall in place. Else Mandarin and Cantonese become Chinese languages but totally different. 

Follow the 5-minute rule: this happens with mind boggling frequency at the senior level when they have to go through hundreds of mail in a day that some get missed out of oversight but the sender feels slighted and, at times, insulted. It is a good practice to post a return mail within 5 minutes, even if it’s just a line. “I am busy right now. Can I get back by the end of the day?” and let’s say you miss by the end of the day, the sender will give you the benefit of doubt that something caught up and put the response on hold.

Avoid condescension; another bane when mail or phone calls are deliberately given a pass because of any reasons, mostly personal. Or even the gap in the ladder? “Oh, that person is just a junior”. To shake your head sideways to proclaim ‘I never did that’ is sanctimonious, at least, you would have delayed and assigned lower priority. To say the least, the very act is unprofessional. So avoid. Effective Leaders are known to make others feel exceptional, especially at the grassroots and above. Treat everyone alike actually commands respect that they salute your spirit.

Beating the bush: Time is money, and when time gets wasted, the loss is colossal. This happens mostly in meetings when the speaker meanders, wandering around the world or circling around the centerpiece without ever approaching the subject. Agile standup meeting is cited as an example for its effectiveness in communication as there is an agenda and a time limit. Carry an agenda and stick to it without deviating much. There is a difference between brainstorming and team meetings. Let’s not confuse and get carried away. Sometimes, even after hours of deliberation, attendees have stepped out of the room scratching their head “what really went inside?” this is the reason ‘Minutes of Meeting’ helps.

Listen and let the other talk. There is no need for dominate but carry the conversation. Don’t pretend listening or don’t listen with intent to ‘give it back’. There is a streak of self-righteousness in all of us and hence we feel right in our sight and assessment and most unwilling to entertain an alternate or opposing perspective. You learn a lot by listening f only there is patience and willing to hear out till the end without interrupting. Preempting or try to prove ‘I am always right’ only weaken your stance. Rather let the other speak and hear.  ‘The less he spoke the more he heard.’ Business conversations ought to be professional.

No Communication. This is the worst form of communication. A meeting scheduled for a face to face interaction gets postponed or deferred or doesn’t happen at all.  A response to a mail is delayed, deferred or plainly ignored. This can be both discouraging and demoralizing. It is poor in etiquette, and pathetic to note that willful negligence can only resulted in wasted hours.

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Bring Work-Life Balance with Disciplined Project Management

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There seems to be early burn-out in IT professionals. Doctors are appalled at the heart-risks and related ailments; whenever a  young person wheeled into the emergency ward, the first question invariably is “are you working in IT?” why is it so? Job pressure, peer pressure, management pressure – the stress is too much. A number of factors collide and contribute to this havoc wreaked on youngsters. Heart attack in the forties or fifties doesn’t shock or surprise but in late twenties and early thirties psyches the physicians, who are perplexed dealing with the predicament. Such is the severity, and cut-throat the companies, employees either by choice or force end up staying late at their desk ‘burning the midnight oil’.

Does the number of hours clocked or the contributions  count? The misconception in the market is that one who spends long hours in the office is deemed ‘hard working’. Anything less and your talent is questionable or the workload is not just enough to justify your paycheck. So some just pretend to stretch or ‘kill’ time by indulging in other activity instead of freeing up bandwidth to take up additional tasks. “If I do this task or accommodate more chores in addition, will the amount in the salary credited change?” this reflects not just the individual lack of commitment, but reflects poorly on the leadership as well.

Devotion to work should be wilful, lest it leaves one dissatisfied and disgruntled. Once resourceful, now turned rebels are primarily due to poor people management. Long and late nights are part of the daily rigor of an IT Professional. Time consumed at office leaves with less for family. Everything ought to be balanced – including work.

A project manager, whom I used to report, will sit beside me and plan the ‘tasks for the week’ taking my inputs for the ‘hours allocated’ and sometime let me estimate the ‘number of hours’. Effort estimation is both critical and crucial. Bagging the project by heck or crook, and later slogging the days, night and weekend are typical signs of burnout. It’s like cutting the foot to match the boot. That’s not project management. Weekends usually act as buffer and my manager managed on the maxim of “if you can’t get the work done in eight hour, either you are inefficient or incompetent."  People also tend to procrastinate – another malaise with no medicine in sight. Hence there is no blaming the managers alone. Both sides suffer from their own shortcoming and apparently there has to be a middle ground.

The 40 hour week

Any project manager with appreciable knowledge and experience will not estimate more than 8-hours as man day in the project plan. How many hours does the team work is another question but for the record its 8 hours, and usually the weekends are not factored – and mostly serve as buffers. Remember time is money and hence any inflation in your estimation will have an adverse implication on your cost estimation. If the budget balloons, the project will slip out of your hands. It’s a typical trapeze act or skating on thin ice. So balancing the 40-hour and keeping the project within cost calls for a skilled and smart time management.

Performance and productivity

No matter how many hours you clock, you are most productive for the first 4 hours.  The body might be willing but the mind simply is not up to it. Exhaustion,and fatigue hampers performance. Your ability to concentrate ebbs with passage of time. There should be a reason why Henry For came out with the brilliant strategy of ‘weekend’ so as to boost morale, improve productivity and increase time spent with family.  Sources from public domain cite that working fewer hours increase productivity and thereafter tend to wane.

Work-life balance

“I am too busy at work” is the usual refrain. You start before the kids awake and return after the fast asleep. Many professionals itinerary falls in to this pattern. Genuine cases of work chewing and even gobbling time is a possibility but that can’t become the norm. Its not family first or work at any cost. One has to strike a balance to do justice to both – stakeholder management.  Your internal and external client included, family too is part of stakeholders. And its important to attend on everyone, and if possible satisfy.

A gallup study revealed that we work 47 hours – which is 7 hours more. What will all the dollars, incentive, promotions and perks amount when you compromise your health for career. Think about it.

Conflict Management – How to Resolve Conflict at Work Place | Project Management

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Conflict amongst co-workers is a common occurrence in the work place. If there isn’t none, call that a monastery, even where doubt persists about domestic disturbance. We aren’t programmed metallic boxes but people with a myriad of emotions that at times, distracts from some difficult and disturbing disagreements which stem mostly from difference of opinions, when taken personally proves toxic and dismembers from the team. Too often distancing away, avoiding eye-contact, building blocks of hate, digging wells of anger and raising wall of resentment are too many symptoms of this malaise.

This further deteriorates to forming allies who would have endured something similar and hence a common thread that connects the complaint. So a tussle between two extrapolates in numbers, and before the situation could be brought into control, its blown away out of proportion as finding a way to settle personal scores can’t find a better timing than the present confrontation. 

So one versus another turns out to be they vs. them - factions of dissent. And of course, those defectors within the dissenters and add to the woes, the fence sitters. So two embittered employees embroiled in an encounter escalate to the point of livelihood endangerment? Better to sack than put up with the strife?  Ridiculous. The best is to resolve. 

Interpersonal conflicts is a given in our daily walk of life from haggling with a vendor – and hence the disgruntled customer, to the ticket collector in the bus short of change fuming at you for the lack of, and so will it be in an organization. Conflicts can be due any reasons from skirmishes or stress or pressure or plainly put, ego.  An argument is usually an assault of words, and accusations hurled  out of which  conflicts arise in your work and outside work as well.

why should you resolve conflict?

Strained relationships do more harm to the organization and employee engagement calls for a dedicated role. Negotiation is the primary means of arbitration in ironing out the differences in bring out agreement and harmony. Usually the differences are tabled and handled professionally without preference or prejudice thus reaching for a fair settlement. Some are straightened out in the first attempt but some case might have deep roots and hence calls for more time to bring the person/group in the same page. Some really take time to work out a peaceful solution.

when should you resolve conflict?

There is a no stress barometer and neither is an ideal situation. The moment the ugly head of conflict raises, neutralize. Conflict is like gangrene which left unattended can start spreading making other parts dysfunctional. So resolve at the earliest the possible.

how should you resolve conflict?

There are no hard and fast rules. Some seek the formal route and others informal channel. Diplomacy pays. Chemistry works. It all boils down to the skills of the handler in dealing with the opposition through dialogue and diplomacy. The arbiter can earn the confidence of the affected parties through trust and transparency in effectively resolving the crisis.

There are other methods as well.

Have you come across such a situation and successfully resolved the conflict?  Please share your experience.