Business Communication 1 Class Notes 2024 PDF

CLASS NOTES BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1 IMT-G ; DR RAJITA A brief overview of things discussed in class which everyone must familiarise themselves with. BUSINESS COMMUNICATION A BRIEEF SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE WEEKS @IMT 1. Public speaking - the most feared a...

CLASS NOTES BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1 IMT-G ; DR RAJITA A brief overview of things discussed in class which everyone must familiarise themselves with. BUSINESS COMMUNICATION A BRIEEF SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE WEEKS @IMT 1. Public speaking - the most feared activity 2. How to build con dence ? Understand yourself and accept yourself. 3. The ‘Sel e Test” to demonstrate the role of ‘you’ in your life. 4. You are a brand. Learn to market yourself. 5. The only way to market yourself is to speak 6. Suggested activity : Individual speeches recorded on mobile cameras to remove the hesitation and fear of speaking in front o a group of people and to understand your individual style and make improvements where required 7. Detailed individual feedback shared of individual speeches GAMES Answer these three questions The person I admire the most ? And why ? The person I love ? Why ? The most important person in my life ? Now what if the answers to all these questions was ‘You” Can you answer ‘Why you admire you ? Why you love you ? The purpose is to give yourself most importance and priority. This is the only way to build con dence You need to learn to stop giving undue importance to others and their opinions.Very often you ignore yourself to please others. It's time you stopped being a people pleaser. You need to rst build yourself up. You need to focus on your health - physical and mental , you need to focus on your likes and dislikes. You need to genuinely respect yourself and your journey so far. No one knows or understands your struggles and fears that you have battled in private. You know yourself the best. Take risks fearlessly. Bet on yourself when no one else is willing to bet on your or your abilities ! Answer this question - “Will I become a billionaire ?” If the answer is ‘No’ you have already set yourself up for failure. The reason you answered ‘No’ is because of the less importance you give yourself and your potential. Learn to recognise your strengths, appreciate them and believe in them. Very often it's not lack of talent but lack of self esteem that makes you fail. The world is full of talented failures. So it's time to ‘Hit Refresh’ and start looking at life , at opportunities di erently. It time to upgrade. Its time to stop playing safe Its time to explore new things Its time to restart - with con dence ———————————————————————————————————————— fi fi fi fi ff fi ff  ————————————————————————————————————————- 1. The reason we are the most unique species (even though our DNAs are not very di erent) is because of our ability to speak a language. The day the language was invented the size of the human brain increased three times. It made us so intelligent that we could create a whole new world and also create a way to destroy all that we have created. ( weapons of mass destruction ) 2. Remember our DNA and that of the chimpanzees are almost identical with barley a 2% di erence. ———————————————————————————————————————— LISTENING : Week 3 SYLLABUS PRESCRIBED Appreciating the importance of listening Types of listening (refer pg. 31) Listening Process (refer pg. 30) Overcoming barriers to listening (refer pg. 32) How can you improve your listening skills Summary of class Communication is a skill most in demand. It determines your success in the workplace. However communication is not just about learning how to speak well. Communication is to a very large extent about ‘listening’. It’s said that speaking accounts for only 33% of communication, and listening 67%. The best communicators are rst and foremost great listeners. Listening is crucial. People who fail to listen always nd it di cult to work with others Leaders who fail to listen always end up with dysfunctional teams Brands that fail to listen always fail (KODAK failed to listen to the market trends) Yet the time and e ort spent in teaching the skill of listening is almost negligible How ironical that we spend the maximum time listening and very little time in writing or reading and yet in schools and colleges the importance is still given to teaching these skills and not the skill of listening. Good listeners are good observers , they listen not just with their ears but also their eyes. It's called aggressive listening. The listening process ( refer pg. 30) We played the game ‘Rash Driver ‘ to demonstrate the listing process. It is here that we can identify the various barriers to listening that crop up and very often what is said is not what is understood and what is remembered by the listener was not what was intended to be remembered by the speaker Types of listening ( refer pg. 31) Depending on our motivation and interest there are 5 types of listening - Passive - Marginal - Projective - Sensitive - Active Barriers to listening (refer pg. 32) A quick question- whom do we listen to the most ? Ans.- Ourselves We are all time time thinking and it's our thoughts that we listen to the most. So much so that even when we are talking to others our thoughts keep on going in our brain and prevent us from fully listening to the other person. Consequently we are very rarely fully present. We seldom listen with complete attention towards the speaker , and very often we listen to respond, and not to understand. ff ff fi fi ffi ff  It is a fact that while we can speak about 125 -150 words per minute our listening rate is 500 words per minute. This is one of the barriers to listening.The brain never sits idle so when it receives less words it lls up the remaining words with random thoughts. To be fully engrossed is a skill that needs to be learnt and mastered with practise. Just the way we are taught how to speak ,we need to be taught how to listen. Listening is a skill that has to be practised. Another one of the biggest barriers to listening is ‘perception’. We discussed in class through various examples and anecdotes how the same incident can be interpreted in di erent ways by di erent people. Our perceptions are formed on the basis of various factors like our past experiences. The ‘Pike sh and minnows’ experiment is a great way to show how our past experiences in uence our perceptions and understanding of situations. What seems like a miracle - the pike sh and the minnows swimming in the same water tank without hurting each other is actually a result of ‘conditioning’. Even after the glass wall is removed they do not encroach each other’s space. Similarly in life we surround ourselves with imaginary glass walls and don’t move out of our comfort zones or attempt new things. Our past experiences stop us from trying new things because we are conditioned to believe that ‘we are not good enough’ and would de nitely fail. As a result we continue with our old behaviours and then assume things will work out for us di erently. That’s insanity. Stop listening to that inner voice reminding you how you failed at a particular thing in the past , instead take chances, take risks and try di erent things. Einstein de ned insanity as ‘Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a di erent outcome.’ Change your perceptions and that will help you to change your actions. When you do di erent things you learn and grow and evolve. Role and importance of Feedback You could be a good communicator, an attentive listener and yet fail and falter and not accomplish the task at hand. This was explained with the help of a role play where one person attempted to teach the other person how to knot a tie over the phone. The reason this experiment would invariably fail is because a vital aspect of communication was removed from this is experiment which is feedback. (The participants were not allowed to look at each other ,and the whole activity was based on verbal communication) However skilled the instructor was at tying the knot of a tie he could not communicate it e ectively because he was not getting the complete feedback. A key ingredient of listening is being able to observe the other person. A great public speaker never takes his eyes away from the audience. He never shows his back to the audience but is always facing them so that he is always looking at their faces their body language and getting constant feedback about his speech. If he sees the audience yawning, slouching or looking disinterested he /she immediately knows that he needs to change - either his tone or the subject and make it more lively and entertaining and engrossing. To listen means to observe. You listen well when you listen with your ears and your eyes. A good listener is a good observer. A good negotiator is one who is a good observer. He/she does not just listen to the words you say but also ‘listens’ to your body language, to the tone of your voice, your eye contact etc. When you observe closely you learn much more. Not just the greatest leaders but the greatest inventors, disruptors and the greatest scientists were all those who were better than others at observing people and things around them. In the book ‘what they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School’ the author says the best way to really understand the true nature of people is to observe them outside of the o ce. So he often goes outdoor dinner or lunch with them to observe how they treat the waiter, how they react when the food arrives late and their overall behaviour. He also enjoys observing them on the sports eld. A game of tennis could reveal a lot about the character of the person. This is called observing aggressively , when you use your ears and your eyes to hear the unsaid fi ff ff fi ff fi ff ff ff ffi fi fl fi ff fi Newton discovered gravity when he observed an apple fall from a tree. Many scienti c discoveries happened because the researcher saw what others did not see. Patsy Sherman a chemist at 3M was working on developing a new kind of rubber that would not spoil when exposed to jet fuel. One day she accidentally dropped the mixture won the tennis shoe of her assistance and however hard the assistant tried she could not remove it from her shoe. While the assistant saw it as a problem Patsy was fascinated. She observed that the substance was impervious to water ,oil or alcohol. She had accidentally discovered a uorochemical polymer that would resist water, oil and alcohol and that’s how ‘Scotchguard’ was invented. A spill, a fall, a mishap in the laboratory have made the world a better place , it could could make your own world a better place too if you learnt to look at each failure, each mishap as an opportunity and learnt from it. Remember the best learners are actually the best observers. Feedback is an indispensable part of interpersonal communication. Feedback is not criticism, rather it is the most important tool to help people change and improve. However change will only happen when feedback is given in the right manner. The most di cult feedback to give is one which is negative. Douglas McGregor gave the ‘Red Hot Stove’ theory to help managers give negative feedback in a manner that there would be no resentment among employees. His theory is being used in various situations nowadays. The 4 basic principles of his theory are feedback should be - unbiased / impersonal ( you get burnt because of the act of touching the red hot stove, and not because of who you are - Immediate, Are you quick enough to give a positive feedback just the way you are quick enough to give a negative feedback ? The ability to praise someone sincerely is an art which helps in building trust and making people follow you - Consistent. Every time you touch the hot stove you will get burnt. Every time you do something incorrect you get the same feedback - With warning if there is a disciplinary action that needs to be taken. Just like the game of football where rst a yellow card is issued and then a red card. Similarly the red hot stove warns you that its red hot , don’t touch and even if you touch it you face the consequences-you get burnt. The most important purpose of feedback is to bring about improvement or a positive change in the people. It is not to pull them down or make them feel incompetent. When people understand their mistakes and are ready to improve we call it constructive feedback. Lynn Russell describes it with the help of a mnemonic ’S.A.Y. T.H.I.S’ (refer pg. 34) The ability to receive feedback is also crucial to improve relationships. The 6 points to keep in mind are 1. Listen to the feedback carefully 2. Ask questions when in doubt. (The boss or leader should have created an environment where the junior or the employee can ask for a clari cation without feeling scared.) 3. Accept the feedback once all your doubts are clear 4. Respond. Take time to go over the feedback again and again before reacting 5. Recognise. Pick out the most relevant points and understand them 6. Change your behaviour one point at a time. If a leader is a good listener he / she can understand the other person and provide good feedback. If the team member, junior or employee is a good listener he/ she understands the feedback in the right spirit and changes and improves. This eventually leads to functional teams that grow together, are positive and attain targets. Teams where the leader does not know how to listen well the feedback is unthoughtful and there is resentment among team members who may feel bias and dissatisfaction making the team dysfunctional. ffi fi fi fi fl The best leaders are the best listeners They listen to their employees and their customers and then work on their strategies. Corporate example of good listener - is the new CEO of Starbucks. Laxman Narasimhan the new CEO of Starbucks wrote a letter to his employees that every month for half a day he would work as a barista in the co ee shop so that he could stay connected with the company’s employees and customers. What better way to genuinely listen to what your customers have to say about your brand. Working alongside his employees he would also get rst hand experience about the work culture and what improvements needed to be made. He is not the rst CEO to do this. The CEO of the company ‘Best Buy’, Mr Hubert Jolly way back in 2012 spent his rst week as CEO working in two of his company stores in Minnesota. He went on to turn around the loss making company and made it pro table. When the top management is committed to listening and hence understanding its stake holders the company is bound to do well. By working at the co ee shop himself Narasimhan demonstrated all the qualities a good listener should have (refer pg. 29) 1. He is open to and willing to listen (he is talking and interacting with sta & customers) 2. He is paying attention ( he is doing the actual work & not just visiting the co ee shop). When you are out on a date or a business meeting are you fully present ? If your mobile phone is tucked away inside your bag/ purse then yes you are fully present and the other person also feels important and is ready to share his feelings, because he sees that you are ready to listen without any distractions !! Keep the phone faaarrrr away if you want to improve your listening skills. 3. He is listening to their feelings ( By being there he observes their facial expressions, tone of voice and body language to get the complete picture) The knot-a-tie-over-the-phone game we did in class had this element missing. When you listen carefully you actually hear even what is unsaid - you learn to read in-between the lines. As we conclude remember the one person you should listen to the most is yourself. Let me explain why. You must have heard of the phrase ‘trust your instincts’. What it really means is listening to your gut, listening to your inner voice. Animals have this instinct which helps them survive in the wild. We have it too, its just that we don’t listen to it with full attention. Listening is a survival skill - both in the wild jungle and in the corporate jungle. Refer to pages 27 -33 from the book to understand more about listening skills. The 6 stages of the listening process The 5 types of listening.( Active listening is the ideal. ) The 5 barriers to e ective listening. ( P.E.A.S.S.) ————————————————————————————————————————- INFORMATIVE & PERSUASIVE PRESENTATION : Week 2 SYLLABUS PRESCRIBED Preparing an e ective presentation Major elements in the presentation (refer pg. 71-77 ) Appropriate Visual Aids/handouts: Power Point & online presentations (refer pg. 89 ) Use of A.I. in presentations Summary of class Group Presentation- Cross Culture Presentation. How di erent cultures have di erent greeting styles, meeting and gift giving etiquettes. The purpose of the presentation was to help the groups understand the challenges and preparation required to make a group presentation , how to coordinate and present as a team with impact. fi ff ff fi ff ff ff fi ff ff ff fi  In the process also learn about other cultures and the challenges di erent cultural practises can bring on e ective communication. Very often the success of a meeting is not how good your product is but how well versed you are with the other person’s culture. This helps you connect with them better, make you more likeable and make it easy for you to win them over. Being aware of and sensitive to cultural di erences within countries and companies makes you a more impactful communicator. Finally it is always good to practise before the nal presentation. Understand the demographics of your audience It is absolutely imperative to know whom you will be presenting to. Think about the people whom you will be talking to.What are their interests ? The same topic with the same message can be presented in di erent ways depending on the audience. If for example the topic is ‘Importance of water conservation’ then it would require 3 di erent speeches and presentations for three di erent audience types - a group of 5 year old school children, or a group of scientists or a group of corporate leaders.In all the three scenarios the way we present will change if we want to create the right impact. Also understand the 4 di erent types of audiences (refer pg. 67) Understand the attention span of the audience. Research has proved that the attention span of the audience is the highest in the beginning of the speech and towards the end. Their attention dips a lot during the middle of the speech or presentation. What this translates into for an intelligent speaker is to focus on the starting and the ending of their speech. The maximum time should be spent preparing an electrifying start and an impactful ending. Find the purpose & plan your presentation very well Even before you start researching for the presentation you need to rst and foremost be very clear about the PURPOSE of your speech. What exactly do you want the audience to take away after you nish ? Once the purpose is clear then only should you start researching the contents of the presentation / speech. The purpose should not be more than 3-5 points. Trying to tell too many things will dilute the impact of the presentation. Why is the start of a presentation so critical ? Most of us start our presentations poorly. We either clear our throats or thank people or tell our names etc. The fact is that if your start is not powerful people will zone out immediately even if the rest of your speech is most inspiring or has a powerful message. That is how important a good start is. Those rst few seconds can create magic and electrify the audience who will from then on be most attentive or it can destroy a great speech. So be very mindful of what you say in the rst few seconds. Be well dressed, smile and start on time. It shows you are con dent and well prepared. Remember rst impressions matter. Make yours count How to start a speech (refer pg.69 ) How to craft your best beginning and start with a strong punch. 1. Quotation 2. Question 3. Statistics 4. Humour 5. Story 6. Location 7. About the event ff fi ff fi fi ff ff fi ff fi ff fi ff fi Quotation Start with a quotation that cites the core idea of your speech. If the speech is about the importance of raising our voices against injustice you could say “ As Edmund Burke once said that the best way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. For this kind of a start to be really impactful the quote has to spoken absolutely awlessly without any error. Question It could be a rhetorical question (one where you don’t expect the audience to answer but use it to arouse their curiosity.) like “Are we prepared for a world where machines will be smarter then humans?” , or a question where you expect them to answer. Example “How many of you have used A.I. apps ? Let me see a show of hands.” Statistics A bold statement always opens with some shocking facts that you don’t expect the audience to be aware of, so share some statistics or gures that make the audience think. You could start with “90% of all startups fail in the rst ve years. That is how low the success rate is.” Humor A humorous story or joke which is really good and does not o end anyone in the audience is a great idea to start. Story A story that is related to your topic will always grab the attention of the audience. A story always intrigues the audience as they wonder how the content of your presentation will relate to the story. A good story perks up every audience irrespective of their age or backgrounds. Location Make an interesting point about the location. You could say “I spent a summer here many years ago and I still remember the people I met that summer.” Or you could comment something unique about the city. About the event For example if it's an award show you could start with “It is an honour to be a part of this very prestigious award ceremony. For decades the winners of this award have been people whoo have created a huge impact on the world” How to end the speech or presentation Just as its important to open well it is equally important too close well so that the audience remembers you. Here are some ways to end with impact 1. Summarise your main points.If the topic is one which has a lot of information then this method of closing helps the audience recollect and remember all the important points. 2. The title close. First give a clever title to your presentation and then use that as the last line to end the presentation. 3. A call-to-action. If you want to sell something, ask people to go and buy it by clicking on a link for calling a number or contact you after the presentation etc. If you want them to download an app ask them to pull out their phones and do it then and there. You will be surprised how many people don’t do it ! 4. Quotation. Use a quotation to end 5. Story. You could end with one nal story which summarises your presentation. Another way is to tell the beginning of the story when you start the presentation and then conclude the story in the end The attention span of the audience is the highest at the beginning and towards the end. Consequently the lines the audiences remember the most are the lines spoken in the beginning and the end. An intelligent speaker or presenter will always save their most powerful points for the beginning and the ending. fi fi fi fl fi ff  How to handle questions - Listen very carefully to the question - Repeat the question. This helps you understand it better and most importantly it gives you time to think. - Don’t enter into a debate. If the person is not satis ed you could o er to meet them after the talks over - After the last question don’t forget to summarise your talk one again , taking inputs from the questions asked and concluding your talk. How to have great group coordination. -Preparation should start with some great brainstorming -Listen to everybody’s point of view. (Not just the one who is loudest or most aggressive) -Once the overall structure of the presentation is done divide and delegate tasks. -One person in the team should be responsible for collecting and compiling everyones parts into one consistent format -Rehearse individually but more importantly as a group. VISUAL AIDS A visual aid as the name says should just be used as an aid, a help. There are 5 types of visual aids - - white/black boards - Handouts - Flip charts - Props - Audio/ video les Quick guidelines to make your slides ( ppt.). - choose one font ( do not have too many fonts.It makes the text confusing.) - Font size should ideally be 24 ( or more) - Use the 4X4 rule. Each slide should have not more than 4 lines and each line should have nnot more than 4 words in it. - A visual without a caption is ine ective ( think memes to understand the power of a text below an image. It can change the whole perception of that image.) - Using transitions for slides is a good idea however keep it to a minimum. You doubt want your presentation to look like a circus. - The rst 90 seconds of your speech are crucial. - Keep these 3 things in mind a) how you look b) how you sound c)what you say. - How you look has a lot to do with your posture. Do not lean on the podium, desk or chair. - How you sound has a lot to do with your voice and the pitch and tone. Build in modulations, and variations The most important thing to keep in mind while using these visual aids is that they should never become the centre of your presentation. So if you have made ppt’s ensure that you have just written pointers and not paragraphs of text. It's extremely important to keep in mind that you DO NOT READ from the slides. This immediately takes away the focus from you to the slides and that instantly disconnects the audience. THE THREE V’s of Communication (refer pg. 10, 77, 80) Visual. Vocal. Verbal Visual ( 55%) You have a few seconds to impress the audience. Those rst few seconds and last few seconds of your presentation need to be super charged. Visual is the most impactful and hence the most important part of any presentation. Keep in mind the following things. - Be very well dressed - Your posture should be perfect. Stand on both legs [not one and a half :) ] fi fi ff fi fi ff  - Hands need to be relaxed and not inside your pockets for held behind or in the front. - Look at everybody in the audience. - Walk while speaking. Avoid standing behind the podium or table or in just one place for the whole duration of your presentation. Walking makes you appear con dent and its more interesting for the audience to watch than you just standing in one place and speaking. - Walk with purpose and never drag your feet while walking. Vocal ( 38% ) A loud and clear voice shows con dence. The rst sentence you speak should be very well rehearsed. It should be spoken loudly with no faltering. Its critical that you don’t make any mistakes here as it will set the tone for the entire presentation. While talking of tones- yours should be polite. Speak with assertiveness and not arrogance or anger. -Pause The ‘pause’ is one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of a speaker. It builds curiosity and adds to the drama. So use it before you state an important fact or after you have said something with a lot of impact. This gives the audience time to think and for the information to really sink in. -Modulation Your tone should keep varying, sometimes soft, sometimes loud, sometimes a whisper. This prevents the audience from drifting away. The ability to modulate your voice makes your presentation as interesting as theatre. -Speed The speed with which you speak is important. When you speak very slowly the audience drifts away. Speaking too fast too has its disadvantages as it may prevent the audience from comprehending and fully understanding what you are saying. So keep varying your speed too, so that it sounds more interesting To sum it up - a monotonous monologue is a complete no-no. Build drama into every sentence you speak by working on the speed, by incorporating pauses at the right places and by changing the pitch of your voice. If you speak in a lively manner full of feelings your audience feels active and lively too. A cold monotonous speech leaves the audience unmoved and cold too. Verbal ( 7% ) Use simple words Use short sentences Use the power of repetition to convince the audience. Learn to emphasise on the most important words. These help the audience remember your most important points. Avoid ller words like ‘err..err..’, ‘umm..umm’ etc. They reduce the impact of your speech drastically Preparation Lastly nothing works till you do not practise diligently. The world’s best speakers have all had one thing in common- they prepared a lot. So should you. The foundation of all great speeches is preparation. Every speech that you have enjoyed has hours of preparation behind it The best Ted Talks are those where the speakers rehearsed for months - for an 18 minute talk. The shorter the talk the longer it takes to prepare for it. Feel free to use A.I. tools to research and prepare. INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION : Week 4 SYLLABUS PRESCRIBED fi fi fi fi Scenario building Audience analysis for contextual understanding Role of interpersonal skills for today’s managerial leaders 1) Focus on the role of interpersonal communication at the workplace. 2) Providing and receiving feedback (refer pg. 33 - 37 ) Summary of class At the work place our success or failure depends a lot on our ability to work with others. So qualities like -the ability to work in a team, -to resolve con icts and -handle negotiations are some of the things that take you faster up the ladder. In addition when you master these interpersonal skills you create a happy and positive work environment which is critical for success. Game - Win as much as you can The objective of the game was to demonstrate the three main factors that can hamper interpersonal communications namely team work, con ict and negotiation and how to improve ourselves and become better at handling con icts and negotiations and becoming better team players. Just as the game demonstrated that there is only one winning option and that is when both the sides win , similarly while negotiating one needs to nd out that one win-win option. It is the only option where both the parties , both the sides are happy and consequently the chances of collaborating again become higher. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur you need to understand that real winners are those who don’t just win themselves but make others win too. They don’t believe in pulling the other person down but in lifting them up. Everyone wants to work with or be a part of a team with a leader who makes them win. Wouldn’t you ? Leaders who can identify that one win-win option are experts in interpersonal relations and build the most high performing teams. Ways of handling con ict People respond to con ict in di erent ways. It depends a lot on their own communication style. There are primarily 3 styles of communication aggressive, assertive and submissive. The aggressive one chooses - I win you lose option The submissive one chooses - I lose you win option The assertive one chooses - I win you win option. As demonstrated in the game ‘Win as much as you can’ there is only one right option and that is the one where both the parties win. Ways of negotiating e ectively (refer pg. 44 ) The way you negotiate is also largely dependent on your communication style both verbal and non-verbal. There are 5 approaches to negotiate. The style they chose is once again in uenced by their communication style. Let’s discuss the ve styles and link them to the communication styles and the game and understand the winning style of negotiating. 1. The Avoiding approach - It’s an option where no one wins.Its lose-lose. 2. The Forcing approach - It’s an option where I win and you lose because I use my power, or my position to force you to accept my post o view. People with an aggressive style of communication tend to use this approach. It’s win-lose. 3. The Accommodating approach - It’s an option where I sacri ce my voice, my rights etc and make the other person win. People with a submissive style of communication use this approach. Its again lose-win. fl fl fl ff ff fi ff fl fi fl fi fl  4. The Compromise approach - I agree to your point of view but with a condition that you agree to mine later.Both of us sacri ce a bit. Its a partial win-win because no single clear outcome is decided. 5. The Collaborative approach - I use my knowledge, expertise and logic to convince you to my point of view and you also agree after a healthy discussion. People with an assertive style of communication go for the compromise and the collaborative approach. These in e ect are the points that summarise the essence o a great team As individuals we can only do so much but as a team we can achieve much more. The term ‘team synergy’ is what every leader aims for. It can be explained by the equation 2+2=5 When 4 people work independently and to the best o their abilities then the total outcome in 4.However when the same 4 people are put in a team that is functional then each member contributes more than his best and the total output is more than 4. That is team work ! So then do we conclude that we need to be good friends to be great team players and hence attain group synergy ? Synergy means when the whole is greater than the sum of parts which happens when you are so motivated that you perform much better in the company of certain people as compared to if you had to do the work alone. So if you felt that you could have constructed thee paper tower better if you had to do it alone then your group actually failed as a team. What’s interesting is that sometimes we get inspired by not just our team members but our rivals. Our biggest competitors sometimes bring out the best in us.One such example is of biggest rivals of NBA - Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. They both have admitted that when they were pitted against each other they played their best game , because each inspired the other and each learnt from the other too. So when they came together as a team to represent USA at the Olympics they came back with a Gold. That’s the magic of a great team and if you can be a great team player your success in the workplace is guaranteed As the saying goes ‘Talent wins you games but teams win you championships.’ NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION : SYLLABUS PRESCRIBED The connection between verbal and non-verbal communication. Non-verbal codes explained (refer pg. ) ——————————————————————————————- Communication Fundamentals Communication Principles Communication Contexts E ective and ethical communication Key pointers for a successful communication ——— Summary of class We discussed the L.A.W. of communication the 3V’s ( vocal visual verbal ) and the 7C’s. These three bring out the importance of non-verbal and verbal aspects of communication. The LAW highlights the fact that communication starts even before we utter the rst word. Our Looks and our Actions speak louder than our Words We went on to discuss the importance of rst impressions. First impressions are the last impressions, and the most di cult to change. The crazy part is that takes barely a few seconds to create a rst impression. ff ff fi fi fi ff ffi ff fi  We discussed the experiment where three groups of students were shown muted video recordings of teachers for 10 seconds, 5 seconds and then 2 seconds and they were asked to evaluate the professors. Then the same three groups were asked to rank these same teachers after attending one whole semester of classes. In all the 4 cases the rankings remained the same. Thee shocking nding proved that 2 seconds was all it took for us to decide whether we liked a professor or we did not. The clips were muted - highlighting the importance of non-verbal communication and the impact has on our minds. First impressions were formed on the basis of three factors 1. Our hands 2. Our posture 3. Our eye contact Hands Hands are crucial. As cave men and hunters we decided if someone was a friend or a foe based on their hands. If the hands were held at the back you did not trust the person as compared to someone whose hands were visible Remember hands show intention So while speaking be very conscious of your hand movements Avoid the following wrong hand movements - the priest ( hands clasped in the front, eyes towards the ceiling) - The jeweller ( ddling with jewellery or clothes or hair ) - The police man ( hands held at the back - The athlete ( too aggressive and too fast hand movements) - Adam’s g leaf posture Hands should be kept on the side and should move with the tone and pitch of the voice. Posture Look like a winner if you want to create a great rst impression - just like a person who has just won the Olympic Gold Medal. Slouching shoulders, eyes cast down, chin down chest in are all looks of a loser. Avoid them. Stand straight , back straight and a con dent smile are all the looks of a winner. Eye Contact When we look at people straight into their eyes with con dence while speaking , they begin to trust us more. The world’s largest eye contact experiment proved just that. Look at the audience while speaking to them. You could use various techniques of maintaining eye contact with the audience ( follow the Z rule of looking at the audience, or the Four-corners rule.) The 7C’s of Communication ( refer pg.14 ) - Clarity - Concise - Correct / Coherent - Courtesy - Consideration - Creative /Concrete - Complete. Clarity - Choose short , familiar conversational words - Include examples , illustrations and other visual aids when desirable - Your text should be readable - Your words / speech should be listenable Consideration - Focus on the ‘you’ and not on the ‘I’ - Ego is the enemy - Show the reader / listener the bene ts ( like advertisements do) - Emphasise on the pleasant and positive facts. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi Creativity - choose vivid image building word - Think out of the box - Dramatize Completeness - Answer all questions - Give something extra - Choose the 5W1H method of covering all aspects of the argument. - Use the 5WHY technique to gather all facts Concise - Avoid unnecessary repetition - Include only relevant statements - Avoid long wordy expressions ( shorten them , or avoid them) Courtesy - be sincerely thoughtful, tactful and appreciative - Omit expressions that hurt, irritate or belittle - Grant and apologise good-naturedly Correctness - check the accuracy of your facts and gure - Use the right level of language CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION We are all global citizens. Thanks to the pandemic we now nd it e ortless to communicate online with people thousands of miles away from us. However we need to be culturally sensitive to be able to make our communications more e ective. Hence we need to be aware of certain basic protocols like - Greeting etiquettes ( do we kiss, bow or shake hands ) - Meeting etiquettes ( do we scheduled business lunches or breakfast meetings or dinner ? Do we discuss business during these meetings ?) - Dining etiquettes - Gift giving etiquettes fi ff fi ff